Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15046 for PC Insider

For the first time since the Windows IP - very late to this party, I know - I wanted to create the UUP upgrade to ISO method.

Warning

Notice please: When Windows Update has finished downloading the UUP upgrade, the files needed to make the ISO are stored in subfolders of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download.

These files will be removed when upgrade is done. If you want to make an ISO for future needs, you have to do it before starting the upgrade process itself, after downloading the upgrade files but before clicking Restart now button!

1. I haven't hit the Restart now button yet.



2. Opened the download location and entered a search for "ext:esd". Much different result & size information then presented in @Kari great tutorial for file examples etc, I have only one file.



Any suggestions what went wrong?

Edit: Shutting systems down for now, but I'll keep the update pending (hope so) alive, until I restart my VM again sometime tomorrow. Perhaps a member has responded to my Q by then.



And a very handy new (to me) power-option menu.



Cheers

M4v3r1ck said:

For the first time since the Windows IP - very late to this party, I know - I wanted to create the UUP upgrade to ISO method.

Quote from an earlier post in this thread:

Kari said:

I've just posted this in both ESD to ISO and UUP to ISO tutorial threads:

   Note

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PLEASE NOTICE:

Apparently I was wrong saying after last build upgrade (15042) that ESD to ISO method seems to be dead. It is working again, build 15046 upgrade includes a normal install.esd file if UUP has been disabled in registry settings. This time it's UUP to ISO method that does not work; build 15046 upgrade using UUP method is OK and works as it should but UUP to ISO produces an error when writing ISO image.

In case you want an ISO and upgrade is not yet downloaded on your PC, edit the registry to disable UUP as told in this post.

If the upgrade has been downloaded but you have not started the upgrade process yet (not clicked Restart now), you can remove the UUP upgrade files from your PC using Disk Clean-Up, edit registry to disable UUP, restart and let your PC download ESD upgrade instead. Instructions in this post.

In case you have upgraded already and want an ISO image, the only option is to restore previous build, edit registry, remove UUP files as told above and start from scratch letting your previous build to download ESD upgrade.

... and to further explain this, quoting a post in UUP to ISO tutorial thread:

Kari said:

Anyway, I believe this being a bug which will once again be fixed in the future builds. I mean, it can't be true that a build upgrade downloads over 10 GB as now with 15046 UUP upgrade, at least in my case it downloaded 2.5 GB in BT folder and 7.3 GB in SoftwareDistribution (EN-GB PRO x64).

Kari said:

I very strongly disagree.

In my opinion (I repeat: just my opinion) Microsoft although normally not releasing ISO images when they release a new Insider build silently accepts the fact that Insiders need an ISO to test various clean / repair install scenarios and so on.

Last time UUP upgrade files did not allow us to create ISO was build 15025, Microsoft released it as ISO only a day or two after upgrade was released. Exactly same happened this time with 15046, they cocked up releasing an upgrade which downloads closer to 10 GB (in my case 2.5 GB in BT folder, 7.3 in SoftwareDistribution, EN-GB PRO x64) instead of normal around 3 GB and did not allow making ISO because of this, hence they released a relatively new ISO.

We have got 8 builds with UUP method, it has worked 8 times to upgrade but failed two times to let us make an ISO. Both times UUP upgrade was released without possibility to make an ISO they have released a new ISO.

I am willing to bet rings remain as before and that in the future fast release of an ISO will be more an exception than a rule.

Kari

I hope you are right and it is not a policy shift. If your contention is right, then MS know that there is a problem with UUP.

They must also know that many of us create an iso from it anyway.

Persdonally, I think it would be a welcome change if they released an iso say a few days after each build - I accept part of life is to test UUP and that upgrades are smooth after upgrade.

However, not everybody wants to ALWAYS upgrade preferring to clean install occasionally.

To do that now (when slow ring iso does not match fast ring), you have to upgrade first, create iso, then clean install which is a bit of a palaver, especially if the UUP fails - I know MS released an iso as you say as this was affecting all (64bit?) users.

Problem arises when it fails for an individual user - it has failed a few times for me (to be fair it seems more robust now), as you get caught in a catch 22 i.e. you need to upgrade to create iso to enable you to install it due to a failed upgrade. Of course, I always try the install.esd method first if uup fails.

Of course, I have cheated and downloaded the iso pre-prepared from a very helpful guy who kindly gave me permission to do so (for which I am very grateful for when uup has failed me).

martyfelker said:

To tell you the truth I simply cannot explain this. I've never heard of it. I have an a Windows 8 key and a Windows 8.1 key I have used for what seems forever (since 2014) to install Windows 10. Each are linked to one of two hotmail accounts and display either Marty Felker or Martin Felker. The physical machine I use now was installed from a 14393 ISO using the Windows 8.1. After upgrading to 15031 I happened to run the program PK0setup which is one of several portable apps that can scan and print Microsoft Product Keys. It displayed the Windows 10 Pro Insider key as being different from the 8.1 key I used. I trashed that VM immediately after I installed it - I only wanted to test the key. If I had more information (other than the key(s) themselves of course!:) I share that. Many strange things have happened in my decades in this field (including a data transmission which was corrupted by a cosmic ray switching a "0" to a "1" <very long story> but this is one of the weirdest. For all I know the key won't work. I'll never know until I try. An imagae of the working is available to me naturally (as well as my other mutli boot environments Windows Server 2016 and openSUSE Tumbleweed).

This is exactly how windows 10 works!

When you install it and use an 8 key to activate it (which officially stopped working last Summer but unoffically still does), you are given a digital licence tied to the hardware id. Your 8 key is only used to check you have a valid licence. You are given a generic 10 key which has no licence functionality and this key is the same for all users of that edition.

The windows 8 keys are not tied to your MS accounts - the MS account simply has a record of them. If they were tied to the account, you could install windows 8, login with MS account, and not need to enter key. This is not the case for windows 8 - you still need to enter a key (unless key is embedded in bios).

I asked forums admin & owner @z3r010 permission to share 15046 PRO x64 ISO links, feeling somewhat responsible because UUP to ISO method as told in my tutorial is not working with this build upgrade.

I am sorry but as I have no use for Home edition and 32 bit Windows, I don't do ISO images for them. I can only offer Windows 10 PRO x64 Build 15046 ISO images in UK and US English.

Download links:

• UK English Windows 10 PRO x64 Build 15046 ISO
• US English Windows 10 PRO x64 Build 15046 ISO

Images are on my OneDrive, download requires a Microsoft email (hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com, msn.com) or a Microsoft Account with a third party email.

Kari

It is very late at night and I'm going to do some more investigating before I reply one way or the other. In particular I'm not understanding the statement "You are given a generic 10 key which has no license functionality and this key is the same for all users of that edition". I doubt that one generic key is used by several million (maybe tens of million) users who have upgraded. I know for sure that the Windows 8 and 8.1 I purchased have been used to activate many of my VMs. This issue is quite murky - even more now the addition of activation troubleshooter database.

You are welcome geeks.

Kari said:

I asked forums admin & owner @z3r010 permission to share 15046 PRO x64 ISO links, feeling somewhat responsible because UUP to ISO method as told in my tutorial is not working with this build upgrade.

I am sorry but as I have no use for Home edition and 32 bit Windows, I don't do ISO images for them. I can only offer Windows 10 PRO x64 Build 15046 ISO images in UK and US English.

Download links:

• UK English Windows 10 PRO x64 Build 15046 ISO
• US English Windows 10 PRO x64 Build 15046 ISO

Images are on my OneDrive, download requires a Microsoft email (hotmail.com, outlook.com, live.com, msn.com) or a Microsoft Account with a third party email.

Kari

Thanks Kari with an i. :)

Managed to make an ISO from the reg edit keys method and install.esd.