Can I capture image without sysprep?

That is why we needed to use another way to get a reference WIM image of a computer without using sysprep. You can use the ImageX utility to capture a WIM image of a computer. The ImageX.exe utility is not built-in Windows or WinPE tool.

Table of Contents

How do I capture a WIM image in Windows 10?

Overview – Windows Capture Process

Run Sysprep Utility.
Boot a virtual machine in WinPE.
Run DISM Command to capture the image and store the Image either to network share/USB storage.
Once the process is completed, you will get Windows Image (.wim) file.

How do I capture a WIM file in ImageX?

Step 1: Load and customize the reference computer.
Step 2: Sysprep the reference computer.
Step 3: Use ImageX to capture the image.
Step 4 (optional): Prepare the hard drive of the target computer to receive the image.
Step 5 : Deploy the image to the target computer using ImageX.

Why do I have to sysprep before imaging?

Sysprep (System Preparation) prepares a Windows client or Windows Server installation for imaging. Sysprep can remove PC-specific information from a Windows installation (generalizing) so it can be installed on different PCs.

What happens if I don’t sysprep?

If you don’t Sysprep you will end up with machines with the same SID, which is what Windows really uses to identify a machine, not the “pretty” name, DNS name or IP address.

Is sysprep required?

Sysprep is used to clone an existing Windows installation across multiple PCs. Cloning Microsoft Windows without first running Sysprep would be problematic because Windows 10, Windows Server and other versions of Microsoft Windows include security identifiers (SIDs) that must be unique from one computer to the next.

How can I make a wim image bootable?

How to Create a Bootable USB Drive With a WIM File

Insert the USB drive into the USB port that is free on your computer.
Find the WIM file on your computer and click it twice.
Click “ok” when the prompt comes up to overwrite the files on your USB drive.

How do I capture an image from a VM?

On the page for the VM, on the upper menu, select Capture. The Create an image page appears. For Resource group, either select Create new and enter a name, or select a resource group to use from the drop-down list. If you want to use an existing gallery, select the resource group for the gallery you want to use.

How do I capture an image in Windows?

Capture your device image

Insert a USB drive into the Technician PC.
On the technician PC, open the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment as administrator.
Copy the WinPE files to a working folder:
Copy the WinPE files to your USB key.
Move the USB flash drive from the Technician PC to the reference IoT device.

How do I open a wim file in Windows 10?

Click the “Open” button on toolbar or choose “File > Open” menu to Open WIM file. If there are more than one image in the WIM file, PowerISO will show a dialog prompt you to select an image to open. Click the “Extract” button on toolbar to open “Extract WIM file” dialog. Choose the destination directory for extraction.

Can I boot from a wim file?

WIM is a multi “image” file format that supports having one of those images declared as “bootable” i.e the typical case of booting a PE environment (boot. wim) contained on MS Windows Install Distributions.

How do I capture an image in VMware?

Note: VMware requires that you select the Connected at Power On check box to enable booting from the ISO file. Connect to and start the VM while you hold down a key to trigger the boot from the ISO file rather than into Windows. When the SmartDeploy menu loads, click Capture Image.

Which software can open WIM files?

7Zip. 7Zip is a popular open-source utility program, which is primarily used to open WIM files in Windows 10.

How to get a WIM image of a computer without Sysprep?

How do I Sysprep a device with ImageX?

Because I will be deploying the image to identical devices I don’t want sysprep to strip out the drivers I’ve installed. Run sysprep from the command line. This will sysprep the reference computer and shut it down, allowing you to then boot it up from your Windows PE disk with ImageX and capture an image.

How to integrate ImageX with Windows PE image?

Therefore, you must first integrate the ImageX.exe utility to the Windows PE image (the utility is a part of the Microsoft Windows AIK utility pack) by copying it to the system32 folder of WinPE image (usually the image is in the boot.wim file).

How do I use imagex to capture an image of another computer?

Alternatively you could use an external hard drive to capture the image. We then run ImageX to capture the image of the reference computer. Dependent on your situation you may need to prep the hard drive of the target computer. This can be accomplished using DISKPART. Boot the target computer using your WindowsPE disc and follow the commands below.