3. Creating a Bootable WinPE Image
WinPE images are not intended to be a primary
operating system. Instead, WinPE provides an interface for the user
with enough access to the hardware to complete a full installation. You
can boot to a WinPE image using a bootable CD, a USB flash drive, or a
hard disk, or you can use a preboot execution environment (PXE) client
to connect to a WDS server.
When you start the Windows 7 installation, Setup will load WinPE from the boot.wim file located in the \sources\
folder of the installation DVD. While the WinPE meets the needs of most
users, you can customize it. For example, you can create your own
bootable USB drive or CD and includes extra files like the ImageX
utility to capture an image after booting to the WinRE.
4. Creating Operating System Images
Operating system images are also known as install
images. They include a full operating system. A thin image (also called
a basic image) is just the default operating system and nothing else.
Thick images (also called custom images) include the operating system
along with any customization and applications you may need.
A WIM file can hold multiple images. For example, install.wim
on the installation DVD typically holds images for multiple editions of
Windows 7. You can query the contents of an image file by issuing the
following command at the WAIK Deployment Tools command prompt:
ImageX /info targetlmageFile
The target is the location of the image file. For example, if your installation DVD is in the E: drive, the target location is e:\sources\install.wim and the command would look like this:
ImageX /info e:\sources\install.wim
Listing 1 shows a partial output from this query. We left all the details in for the first image (IMAGE INDEX="1") but included only the index number and name for the remaining four images.
Example 1. ImageX information included on the install.wim file
ImageX Tool for Windows
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
Version: 6.1.7600.16385
WIM Information:
----------------
Path: e:\sources\install.wim
GUID: {4db440bc-7222-4651-9192-1798c4b29bcb}
Image Count: 5
Compression: LZX
Part Number: 1/1
Attributes: 0xc
Integrity info
Relative path junction
Available Image Choices:
------------------------
<WIM>
<TOTALBYTES>2188572852</TOTALBYTES>
<IMAGE INDEX="1">
<DIRCOUNT>9044</DIRCOUNT>
<FILECOUNT>45608</FILECOUNT>
<TOTALBYTES>7936340784</TOTALBYTES>
<CREATIONTIME>
<HIGHPART>0x01CA0443</HIGHPART>
<LOWPART>0x6568BDF8</LOWPART>
</CREATIONTIME>
<LASTMODIFICATIONTIME>
<HIGHPART>0x01CA045F</HIGHPART>
<LOWPART>0x905A47C2</LOWPART>
</LASTMODIFICATIONTIME>
<WINDOWS>
<ARCH>0</ARCH>
<PRODUCTNAME>Microsoftr Windowsr Operating System</PRODUCTNAME>
<EDITIONID>Starter</EDITIONID>
<INSTALLATIONTYPE>Client</INSTALLATIONTYPE>
<HAL>acpiapic</HAL>
<PRODUCTTYPE>WinNT</PRODUCTTYPE>
<PRODUCTSUITE>Terminal Server</PRODUCTSUITE>
<LANGUAGES>
<LANGUAGE>en-US</LANGUAGE>
<DEFAULT>en-US</DEFAULT>
</LANGUAGES>
<VERSION>
<MAJOR>6</MAJOR>
<MINOR>1</MINOR>
<BUILD>7600</BUILD>
<SPBUILD>16385</SPBUILD>
<SPLEVEL>0</SPLEVEL>
</VERSION>
<SYSTEMROOT>WINDOWS</SYSTEMROOT>
</WINDOWS>
<NAME>Windows 7 STARTER</NAME>
<DESCRIPTION>Windows 7 STARTER</DESCRIPTION>
<FLAGS>Starter</FLAGS>
<HARDLINKBYTES>3070770507</HARDLINKBYTES>
<DISPLAYNAME>Windows 7 Starter</DISPLAYNAME>
<DISPLAYDESCRIPTION>Windows 7 Starter</DISPLAYDESCRIPTION>
</IMAGE>
<IMAGE INDEX="2">
...
<NAME>Windows 7 HOMEBASIC</NAME>
...
</IMAGE>
<IMAGE INDEX="3">
...
<NAME>Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM</NAME>
...
</IMAGE>
<IMAGE INDEX="4">
...
<NAME>Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL</NAME>
...
</IMAGE>
<IMAGE INDEX="5">
...
<NAME>Windows 7 ULTIMATE</NAME>
...
</IMAGE>
</WIM>
|
When working with images using either ImageX or
DISM, you'll frequently need to know either the index number or the
name. The index number is much easier to enter, but you may want to use
the name to ensure you're working on the correct image.
While you probably won't have a need for an image
file with multiple editions of Windows 7, you may want to create an
image file with multiple versions of Windows 7 installations. For
example, you can create one image that includes the software and
configuration needed by sales people and name it Windows 7 Sales. You can create another image needed by personnel working in IT and name it Windows 7 IT.
A benefit of storing multiple images in a
single WIM file is that the imaging format uses single file storage for
efficiency. That way, if five images in a WIM file have an identical
application named Notepad.exe, it is stored only once instead of five times.
