DISM - Add or Remove Drivers on an Offline Image

For anyone interested in the answer to the question I posed in the post just preceding this one, here are a few answers:

You can add drivers from multiple systems to the image and Windows will still do the detection of drivers as normal, it will simply have more drivers available to detect.

I've created an unattended install image that has the drivers for all my systems injected so I can now install on any one of my systems and all the drivers will already be installed after installation.

hi i want instert network drivers to windows 7 costum image with DISM GUI.exe where i should insert these drivers
only in Install.WIM index1 ? or Bootw.WIM index 2? or boot.wim index 1 and 2 ? or both install.wim index1 and boot.wim index 1 and 2 ????

T15K6 said:

hi i want instert network drivers to windows 7 costum image with DISM GUI.exe where i should insert these drivers
only in Install.WIM index1 ? or Bootw.WIM index 2? or boot.wim index 1 and 2 ? or both install.wim index1 and boot.wim index 1 and 2 ????

You would inject the drivers into the install.wim UNLESS they are drivers that are needed during setup of Windows, for example, if you need to access the network during setup. In that case, these drivers will be needed in the boot.wim file.

If you are installing into the install.wim file, you will need to determine the index number associated with the edition of Windows that you wish to update. Run the following command from an elevated command or Powershell window to get a list of Editions along with all associated indices:

Code:

DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:D:\ISO_Files\Sources\install.wim

Naturally, modify the path to where you have the install.wim.

You can run the exact same command against the boot.wim file as well. There, you will likely find two indices: Index 1 is for Windows PE, Index 2 is for Windows setup.

My suggestion for the boot.wim: Inject the drivers twice, once for index 1, and again for index 2.

Hope that helps!

hsehestedt said:

You would inject the drivers into the install.wim UNLESS they are drivers that are needed during setup of Windows, for example, if you need to access the network during setup. In that case, these drivers will be needed in the boot.wim file.

If you are installing into the install.wim file, you will need to determine the index number associated with the edition of Windows that you wish to update. Run the following command from an elevated command or Powershell window to get a list of Editions along with all associated indices:

Code:

DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:D:\ISO_Files\Sources\install.wim

Naturally, modify the path to where you have the install.wim.

You can run the exact same command against the boot.wim file as well. There, you will likely find two indices: Index 1 is for Windows PE, Index 2 is for Windows setup.

My suggestion for the boot.wim: Inject the drivers twice, once for index 1, and again for index 2.

Hope that helps!

Thank you! i have question about drivers, i download network driver pack from drp.su , i want add this pack to my windows 7 costum image, i open this pack and see folders Win7x64, Win7x86, Win10 and WinNT64, WinNT86 (NT64, NT86) i remove all folders except Win7x64, i dont understand whats mean WinNT i google it read but dont understand correct can u say i need remove or not these NT drivers ?

T15K6 said:

Thank you! i have question about drivers, i download network driver pack from drp.su , i want add this pack to my windows 7 costum image, i open this pack and see folders Win7x64, Win7x86, Win10 and WinNT64, WinNT86 (NT64, NT86) i remove all folders except Win7x64, i dont understand whats mean WinNT i google it read but dont understand correct can u say i need remove or not these NT drivers ?

You can safely remove those folders. Those references are to "Windows NT" which is a very old version of Windows. It's possible that the WinNT designation may still be used for drivers that support the Server versions of Windows but I'm not 100% certain of that. Maybe someone else can confirm whether that is the case or not. In any case, for the 64-bit version of Windows 7, you only need the Win7x64 folder.

NOTE: You could try opening the .INF file located in the WinNT64 and/or the WinNT86 folder using notepad. There may be references in there indicating exactly what versions of Windows this supports. However, I can safely say that you do NOT need this for Windows 7.

Note that if you open a .INF file for a driver intended for Windows 7, you may still see references to Windows NT within that file. That is normal and expected behavior.

hsehestedt said:

You can safely remove those folders. Those references are to "Windows NT" which is a very old version of Windows. It's possible that the WinNT designation may still be used for drivers that support the Server versions of Windows but I'm not 100% certain of that. Maybe someone else can confirm whether that is the case or not. In any case, for the 64-bit version of Windows 7, you only need the Win7x64 folder.

NOTE: You could try opening the .INF file located in the WinNT64 and/or the WinNT86 folder using notepad. There may be references in there indicating exactly what versions of Windows this supports. However, I can safely say that you do NOT need this for Windows 7.

Note that if you open a .INF file for a driver intended for Windows 7, you may still see references to Windows NT within that file. That is normal and expected behavior.

Thanks <3

I copied the OS files right back to my bootable USB drive, installed Windows but not a single driver installed with it. I exported the drivers as preferred step mentioned in OP. Is the way I copied the files back not supported or what could the issue be?

Is the folder N:\Mount already created? If not, this command will not create the folder for you. You need to create it.

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Sorry, after re-reading your post you noted that those paths came from file explorer, so clearly the folder already exists. Let me look at this closer and see if I can determine any other reason.

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techquest,

Could you do me a favor and try the same command from an elevated command prompt rather than Powershell? The syntax looks spot on to what I use, but I do it from a command prompt rather than a Powershell. I'm just curious to see if that makes any difference.

Thanks for your response and efforts hsehestedt , they are really appreciated.

Just tried same from elevated cmd, sadly the same result.

I've also tried putting files on other partitions, whilst changing the line to reflect those changes, same result.

Run checks like sfc /scan, sfc /scannow and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth to check system, no problems found.

So it's something really confusing whatever, but I don't easily give up.