How to create custom Windows 7 images

[ryanslayer]

another question, got the work done up putting it in the OOBE now when im in winPE will it image the ENTIRE hard drive because i have an additional 160GB of data that i dont want to be in the image lol

[ryanslayer]

Im guessing you can't do this with a virtual machine?

[Factrocks]

@ryanslayer I think it's possible. Just remember to generalize the image.

[schluety]

those are not all backslashes

[randleqgod]

It's best just to capture the image and use image x to push it down to whatever computer you want. The command line is better because you can always add and remove drivers on the fly with the mounting feature on WinPe. I don't want to have to keep burning discs everytime I need to make a change. fk that.

[individual09]

thanks but i found how to partition like a manufacturer (OEM, Recovery Partition) h t t p : / / w w w .postimg.com/image/58000/photo­-57008.jpg

[individual09]

cool video! hey can you tell me how do i partition like manufacturer style like dell hp does for example they have a recovery partition to restore to original/factory state and they have disabled some options like format, change drive letter and paths, open options in manage. Is there anyway to partition like a factory style

[mrkinger100]

@individual09 google search 'easeus partition manager' and download, quite simple program, and very handy, i use it all the time :)

[wbmaxon]

Excellent Video

Thanks for sharing

[WilliamdiazUK]

I saw that during the process you deleted a "user profile" and I was wondering if by entering Audit Mode straight from OOBE screen by pressing Ctrl + Shift + F3 would make any difference?

[Factrocks]

@WilliamdiazUK That would work, as long as you feel comfortable installing everything as a full admin. Thanks for mentioning the shortcut!

[WilliamdiazUK]

I've watched it and I must say it's a great tutorial. Keep up the good work and thanks for the reply.

[Founas007]

Hi, thank you for your tutorial, I tried to follow it step by step, but I have a problem with the part when I boot to the Windows (6:00) and use the ImageX. It gives me a message "The device is not ready". I found out that the Disc E: is not accessible.

Thanks for your help

[Factrocks]

@Founas007 Did you boot into a Windows PE boot disk? The disk isn't always disk E, it can change, open up notepad in WinPe and use file->open to use windows explorer to browse the hard drives. For me to fully understand your issue, please make a CLEAR video showing your issue and upload it onto youtube, and then send me a pm.

[secretRBRman]

can i just use sysprep and dump it into an windows 7 OEM cd?

[Factrocks]

@secretRBRman hmm, you can't capture a wim to a cd, you need a thumbdrive, but if you copy an oem disk to a different thumb drive and replace the wim with the custom one it might work, depending on what customizations the oem put on the dvd.

[Mrpcwizzkid]

@Factrocks If you use a 'net use' command to map a network drive you can capture there. You can also capture to the same location as you are capturing from if you don't provided a location

[ihypq]

@secretRBRman You can capture the image and then burn it to DVD. In fact, there's a really good tool called Media Wizard that comes with SmartDeploy (not sure if Media Wizard can be found separately) but this tool will capture and sysprep an image into a WIM, then it'll make an ISO of it. Really nice for certain situations.

[dogwood523]

You are an excellent teacher...

THANKS very much for your VIDS!!!

[Factrocks]

@dogwood523 Happy to help!

[coedshowers]

I dont use wim files i get it to the point where i should make one then i use acronis make a .tib image drop it on a shared folder on my server and then use acronis via thumb drive to pull the image from my shared folder to the new pc takes 2-5 minutes to image :/

[Factrocks]

@coedshowers Use whatever works for you; capturing custom wim images is the oldest traditional method and is used by oem's.

[coedshowers]

@Factrocks I know I have used them before but acronis seems to be SO much more time efficient. I own a computer store we image thousands of pcs a year so I try to find the fastest ways to get stuff done.

[gfvesta]

thumbs up for reading this

[ki22u]

E:\imagex /compress fast /check /flags "Enterprise" /capture D:

E:\install.wim "Windows 7 Enterprise" "Windows 7 Enterprise Custom"

In This syntex what is D: is it windows boot drive or the installation windows disk

Please explain

[Factrocks]

@ki22u "D:" is the hard drive, "E:" is the pe drive, note there is also a drive called "X", which really is the windows pe image

[christianedson]

if i sysprep a activated copy will everytime i install it will it be activated



[Factrocks]

@christianedson I don't think so as I have never tried it, if you want to include a serial key, I suggest you create an answer file in windows system image manager and keep those settings there

[christianedson]

can you make the wim file without sysprep

[Factrocks]

@christianedson nope, how else would you capture the wim?

[Factrocks]

@Factrocks actually I'm wrong, you can capture it with imagex, but you will have problems trying to deploy it to other machines

[celanglois2010]

after i sysprep my computer the screen went black and cant do anything, when i restart the computer asks to boot from cd and when i click on any key nothing happens and it stays black screen. any clue whe to do from here

[LoopyChew]

@celanglois2010 Out of curiosity, do you have the Windows 7 PE disk or an install CD in your drive?

[Factrocks]

@LoopyChew I don't use any cds, I use flash drives, and I have the windows install drive in first and the pe image in second (or else how could I capture the image?)

[celanglois2010]

@LoopyChew i have a windows 7 32bit that has home through ultimate cd

[Factrocks]

@celanglois2010 That is normal, like I said the process takes a while and it takes 10-20 mins to set up audit mode, I don't know what happened since you restarted it but it could have bricked your windows install

[LoopyChew]

If I've already cleaned out all extra profiles before running sysprep's audit mode, can I go straight to OOBE mode?

[Factrocks]

@LoopyChew yes u can, but how did u manage to log in as an administrator without going into audit mode? its usually disabled by default. Otherwise your going to have an extra user account bundled in your image

[LoopyChew]

@Factrocks I manually added a local admin password and enabled it, then logged into that account and removed the account generated at startup.

[macsrule94]

Why didnt you just make a capture image in the WDS server and it will do all of the capture for you.

[Factrocks]

@macsrule94 This video was aimed for a variety of people, not just IT Pros, so I decided to do a manual demonstration rather then suppose everyone has a license of Windows Server up their sleeves.

[Zooni2]

I don't often get new info I can use but I did of your video. Very good thanks.

[Factrocks]

@Zooni2 thanks!

[laterrorz]

thanks man.

[Factrocks]

@laterrorz no problem