Create installation media for Windows

You can use installation media (a USB flash drive or DVD) to install a new copy of Windows, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows 10.

To create installation media, go to the software download website, where you’ll find step-by-step instructions. On that website, you can select a version of Windows and create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD. To go directly to one of the versions, select one of these links:

Windows 10 (Then select Download tool now.)

Important: Back up your files before you install or reinstall Windows on your PC. Learn how for Windows 10 or for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

To create the installation media, here’s what you’ll need:

A PC with a reliable internet connection. The download time will vary, depending on your internet connection.

A USB flash drive or DVD. A blank USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of space, or a blank DVD (and DVD burner). We recommend using a blank USB or blank DVD because any content on it will be deleted. When burning a DVD from an ISO file, if you’re told the disc image file is too large, you’ll need to use dual layer (DL) DVD media.

A product key. Your 25-character product key (not required for digital licenses). For help finding it, go to Find your Windows product key.

After you’ve created the installation media, you can reset or reinstall Windows. To learn more, go to Recovery options in Windows 10.

Modify a Windows image using DISM

You can make changes to offline mounted or applied Windows images without booting into the operating system you’re going to modify.

Mounted images are WIM, VHD, or FFU files that have their contents mapped to a folder. Changes to mounted images are made from either a Windows 10 technician PC, or from WinPE. You run run DISM commands against a mounted image, as well as run common file operations such as copying, pasting, and renaming on a mounted image. To save changes you make to the image, use the /commit option when you use DISM to unmount the image. To make changes to a mounted image, use DISM /image: .

Applied images are WIM, VHD, or FFU image files that have been applied to a specified partition. Offline changes to an applied image are usually performed from WinPE. To make changes to an applied image, use DISM /image: .

When you apply an image that you’re going to recapture, apply the image to the root folder of a drive. If you recapture an image that wasn’t applied to the root of a drive, the image will inherit the parent folder’s security descriptors and might not be the same as what would be captured if the image was applied to the root of a drive. See Applying an image to learn how to apply an image.

You can mount and modify multiple images on a single computer. For more information, see Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) Best Practices.

Make your image ready for modification

Before you can make changes to your image, you’ll have to mount or apply the image depending on your scenario.

Mount an image

You can mount an image using the /optimize option to reduce initial mount time. However, when using the /optimize option, processes that are ordinarily performed during a mount will instead be completed the first time that you access a directory. This may increase the time that’s required to access a directory the first time after mounting an image using the /optimize option.

Open a command prompt with administrator privileges.

If you are using a version of Windows other than WindowsВ 8 or Windows 10, use the Deployment Tools Command Prompt that gets installed with the ADK.

Use DISM to mount the image

To mount a Windows image from a VHD or FFU file, you must specify /index:1 .

For more information about the options available for the /Mount-Image option in DISM, see DISM Image Management Command-Line Options.

Apply an image

See Apply an image to learn how to an apply an image.

Modify an image

You can use DISM to modify a mounted or applied image. You can add and remove drivers, packages, language packs, enumerate drivers and packages, modify configuration settings, and more.

View and modify an image

You can create, view, and edit files on a mounted image, just as you would any other file on your PC. When you modify the files in a mounted image, those file changes get saved in the image. Note that although you can add application files and folders, you can’t install applications directly into a mounted image in the same way that you would on a running PC. If you must add an application or a device, verify that you included all of the required files.

Add and remove drivers

See Add and remove drivers to an offline Windows image to learn how to work with drivers. Note that the DISM driver commands will only run against an offline image.

Add and remove packages

See Add or remove packages offline using DISM to learn how to work with packages.

Add or remove languages

Upgrade to a higher Windows edition

Any changes you make to a mounted image are also applied to each potential target edition of Windows. Each target edition is staged in the image. The changes will not be lost when you upgrade to a higher edition of Windows.

Reduce the size of an image

You can use DISM to reduce the footprint of a Windows image by cleaning up superseded components and resetting the base of the superseeded components.

At an elevated command prompt, run the following command to reduce the size of the image file:

Commit changes to an image

Mounted image

You can commit changes to an image without unmounting the image.

At the administrator command prompt, type:

Use /CheckIntegrity to detect and track .wim file corruption when you commit changes to the image. When you apply or mount the image, use /CheckIntegrity again to stop the operation if file corruption was detected. /CheckIntegrity cannot be used with virtual hard disk (VHD) files.

Applied image

Changes to applied images are saved, and you don’t need to take any steps to commit the changes you’ve made.

Unmounting an image

This only applies to mounted images. Applied images don’t need to be unmounted.

After you modify a mounted image, you must unmount it. If you mounted your image with the default read/write permissions, you can commit your changes. This makes your modifications a permanent part of the image.

If you modified an applied image, you don’t have to do anything else. You’ll see any changes you made when you boot the PC.

Open a command prompt or the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment with administrator privileges.

Unmount the image.

where C:\test\offline is the location of the mount directory. If you do not specify the parameters to unmount, this option lists all of the mounted images but does not perform the unmount action.

You must use either the /commit or /discard argument when you use the /unmount option.

Troubleshooting

If the DISM commands in this topic fail, try the following:

Make sure that you are using the WindowsВ 10 version of DISM that is installed with the WindowsВ ADK.

Don’t mount images to protected folders, such as your User\Documents folder.

If DISM processes are interrupted, consider temporarily disconnecting from the network and disabling virus protection.

If DISM processes are interrupted, consider running the commands from the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) instead.

Deploy a Custom Image

In this topic you create a reference installation, capture an image of the installation, and rerun Windows Setup with an answer file that points to your custom image. Deploying a custom image using WindowsВ Setup provides several benefits over applying an image using an image capture tool.

Setup supports the following:

Applying another answer file for additional customizations during deployment.

Reconfiguring disk configuration.

Adding additional drivers.

Replacing a product key.

Selecting a different language to install.

Selecting from a list of images to install, if your image file contains more than one image.

Installing to a different drive location.

Upgrading an existing Windows installation.

Configuring the computer to dual-boot operating systems.

Ensuring that the hardware can support Windows.

There are some limitations to installing a custom image using Windows Setup. For more information, see Windows Setup Scenarios and Best Practices.

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you need the following:

A technician computer that has the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (WindowsВ ADK) tools installed.

A WindowsВ product ISO.

A master computer on which you will install and capture your custom image.

Bootable WindowsВ PE media. There are several types of WindowsВ PE media that you can create. For more information about these options, see WinPE for Windows 10.

Access to a network share to store your custom image and Windows Setup source files.

Step 1: Copy the Windows product DVD source files to a network share

On your technician computer, copy the entire content of the Windows product DVD to a network share. For example:

where D: is the DVD-ROM drive on your local computer.

Step 2: Create a master installation

Create a master installation by using one of the following methods:

After the installation is complete, shut down the computer.

Step 3: Capture an image of the installation

In this step, you’ll capture an image of the reference installation by using DISM and then store the custom image on a network share.

Boot the reference computer by using your bootable WindowsВ PE media.

At a command prompt, capture an image of the installation. You specify a name and description as part of your image capture. All values are required by WindowsВ Setup. If a .wim file does not include these values, then the image will not install correctly. For example:

Replace the default Install.wim on the network share with your custom image. The image must be called Install.wim. For example:

If necessary, provide network credentials for appropriate network access.

Step 4: Create a custom answer file

In this step, you will create an answer file that points to your custom image. This step assumes that you have already built an answer file and have a working catalog.

On your technician computer, open Windows System Image Manager.

On the File menu, click New Answer File.

In the Windows Image pane of Windows SIM, expand the Components node to display available settings.

Add the following components to your answer file by right-clicking the component and then selecting the appropriate configuration pass.

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\CreatePartitions\ CreatePartition

windowsPE

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\ModifyPartitions\ ModifyPartition

windowsPE

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\ImageInstall\OSImage\InstallTo

windowsPE

Note
Expand the component list until you see the lowest setting listed in the previous table, and then add that setting to your answer file. This shortcut will add the setting and all parent settings to your answer file in one step.

All of the settings that you added must appear in the Answer File pane. Select and configure each setting as specified in the following table.

Component	Configuration Pass

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\CreatePartitions\CreatePartition

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\CreatePartitions\CreatePartition

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\ModifyPartitions\ModifyPartition

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\DiskConfiguration\Disk\ModifyPartitions\ModifyPartition

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\ImageInstall\OSImage

Microsoft-Windows-Setup\ImageInstall\OSImage\InstallTo

In a command prompt window copy the answer file to a network location. For example:

If necessary, provide network credentials for appropriate network access.

Step 5: Deploy the image by using Windows Setup

In this step, you will deploy your custom image from a network share onto a destination computer.

Boot the destination computer by using your bootable WindowsВ PE media.

Connect to the network share that you specified in Step 4: Create a custom answer file, and then run Setup with your answer file. For example:

If necessary, provide network credentials for appropriate network access.

Next Steps

You can further customize your answer file to include additional options. You can also build a DVD deployment media that contains the same content that you put on the network share. A single deployment DVD provides a portable installation solution that requires no network or any additional resources. The process includes building a configuration set and recapturing all source files into a single DVD.

The DVD media that you create is for internal deployment use only. You cannot redistribute this media.

Split a Windows image file (.wim) to span across multiple DVDs

Split a Windows image (.wim) file into a set of smaller (.swm) files.

Use this procedure when you’re installing Windows from media that can’t handle the Windows image file size, for example:

DVDs (A standard single-sided DVD stores 4.7GB).

USB keys formatted as FAT32. FAT32 is required to boot many modern (UEFI-based) PCs, but has a maximum file size of 4GB. (Workaround: Create a USB key with multiple partitions.)

Limitations:

• You can’t modify a set of split image (.swm) files.
• Applying split image (.swm) files is only supported when all of the .swm files are in the same folder. This means for DVD deployment, you’ll need to copy the files over to the destination PC before you can use Windows Setup or DISM /Apply-Image, as shown in this topic.

Split the file

Mount your Windows distribution ISO.

Split the Windows image:

C:\sources\install.wim is the name and the location of the image file that you want to split.

C:\sources\install.swm is the destination name and the location for the split .swm files. The first split .swm file is named install.swm file. The file names for the next files include numbers, for example, install2.swm file, install3.swm file, and so on.

4700 is the maximum size in MB for each of the split .swm files to be created.

USB deployment

Store all of the .swm files in the same folder on the USB key.

For Windows Setup instructions, see the Troubleshooting section from Install Windows from a USB flash drive.

DVD deployment

Copy the files to individual DVDs. For example, insert the first DVD and type:

Then insert the second DVD and type:

And so on until all .swm files are copied to DVDs.

From Windows PE, you can either deploy using Windows Setup or a script.

Configure and format your hard drive partitions, as shown in Capture and Apply Windows, System, and Recovery Partitions.

Copy the files to a single temporary folder. For example, insert the first DVD and type:

Then insert the second DVD and type:

And so on until all .swm files are copied.

Install using Windows Setup or a script.

Windows Setup: Insert a DVD with Windows Setup, and use it to install the split Windows image files.

Use a script

Apply your image using the DISM /Apply-Image /SWMFile option:

Set up your system and recovery partitions, as shown in Deploy Windows using a Script.

Component	Value