Using ImageX to manage Windows Image Files Page 1 of 10

Using ImageX to manage

Windows Image Files
Abstract
This lab is intended for IT professionals who are responsible for performing
management and distribution of Windows Vista installation images. In this lab
you will learn to use the Windows Advanced Installation Kit and the ImageX
command line tool to capture and WIM images. You will then learn techniques
for manipulating WIM images for modification and distribution. Finally you will
learn ways to optimize the storage of WIM files. At the end of this lab you will
be ready to incorporate ImageX into standard and BDD based deployments.

Objectives

Use Windows System Image Manager to create a distribution share

Modify a Windows Vista staged image

Create a computer master image using ImageX

Modify a WIM file in an offline scenario
Scenario
Your organization has standardized on Windows Vista as its desktop platform.
You are responsible for creating a standard image that will be distributed to all
clients. Once you have created the standard image it will be given to the
distribution team who will be responsible for it deployment via methods
including Windows Deployment Services (WDS), Image Based Setups (IBS),
network & CD/DVD based installations.

Background Information
The following virtual machines will be used to help you complete the lab”

VistaLabs_DC1: Domain Controller running Server 2003, file server

Prerequisites
You should be familiar with the following products or technologies before you
begin this lab.

Familiarity with Business Desktop Deployment

Understanding of Imaging Technologies such as Ghost or PowerQuest

Understanding of Microsoft deployment technologies including Remote
Installations
Duration
60 minutes
For More Information
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http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/deploy/default.mspx

Support Information
This lab is built and supported by HynesITe, Inc. See what’s possible at
www.hynesite.biz.

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How To:
Create an image of your Windows Vista installation using ImageX
Important The following steps have been provided for your information but they
will not be performed in the lab.

In this lesson you will learn to use ImageX to create a standard desktop image as a WIM
file. This enables you to distribute the image to teams which will use methods such as
Image Based Setup, WDS, SMS 2003 or other methods defined in Business Desktop
Deployment to deploy the image to client computers. Storing the image in a WIM file
also allows offline editing of the image to add additional startup commands, drivers, or
sysprep instructions.
 Prepare & image an existing Windows Vista Machine.
As part of the standard imaging process for Windows Vista, the source machine must
be prepared prior to capturing an image. As part of this process, values such as the
machines unique identifier (SID) and its name are removed and the machine is
configured so that it will run a mini-setup as part of its next boot process.

The High-level steps to create a standard desktop image are as follows:

• Install Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) on the workstation.
• Setup Windows Vista with all of the applications and settings you would like on
all of the desktops in your department or organization.
• Ensure WinPE CD is in your CD-ROM drive, or ensure the boot.ini file has been
modified to allow the workstation to boot into WinPE.
• Open a command prompt and enter the following command to prepare the
machine for imaging.

c:\windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe /quiet
/generalize /reboot /oobe

Note At this point SYSPREP.EXE will now prepare the machine for imaging
and then reboot it when it has completed the process. The /generalize switch is
used to remove the unique information from the machine. The /oobe switch is
used to launch the mini-setup wizard the next time the machine reboots.
• Upon rebooting into WinPE, enter the following command to change to the
C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86 folder

cd /d "c:\program files\windows aik\tools\x86

• Enter the following command to capture an image of the C: drive it and save it to
C:\

ImageX /boot /compress maximum /capture c:\

c:\vistasysprep.wim "Vista – Sysprep image"

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Note IMAGEX.EXE captures the C:\ drive and saves it as a bootable wim file
located in the root of the C: drive. In a real scenario, this WIM file would be
stored on a network share, or a different partition on the same workstation.
This process takes approximately 45 minutes. Upon completion of imaging,
the workstation reboots and the mini-setup wizard is run

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Exercise 1
Modifying WIM Images
Once a master installation has been captured to a WIM file, it may be necessary to
modify the contents of the image. Unlike traditional image based technologies, WIM &
IMAGEX.EXE provide the ability to modify an image without first dropping the image
to a physical machine, modifying the contents of the machine and then recapturing it.
In this exercise, you will mount a WIM file, inject a new file and then commit the
changes to the WIM file. For the purposes of the lab, and to reduce wait times, a
WinPE WIM file will be used and the startnet.cmd file will be modified so that
when WinPE boots it will automatically map a network drive and apply a WIM
image to the local drive. The process for injecting a file into a WIM image of
Windows Vista is the same.

 Mount an image with read/write permissions using ImageX

In this task you will use ImageX to mount an existing WIM file to an empty folder.
This will then allow you to use standard file tools such as Windows Explorer to add,
remove or modify the files contained in the image file.
Perform the following exercise on DC1
1. Log on to DC1 as administrator@contoso.com with a password of P@ssw0rd.
2. Open a Command Prompt window and then change to the “c:\Program
Files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools directory
3. In the Command Prompt window, type the following command and then press
ENTER.

COPYPE X86 c:\WinPE

4. Using Windows Explorer, navigate to the C:\WinPE folder and review the
content of the folder. Notice the C:\Winpe\Mount folder. This folder is used to
mount the WIM files for viewing or modifying.
Note: This command creates the required directory structure to enable
customization of Windows PE and adds the necessary components to allow you
to create a bootable ISO image which can be burned to a CD-ROM.
5. Still in the Command Prompt window, type the following command and then
press Enter.

ImageX /mountrw c:\winpe\winpe.wim 1 c:\winpe\mount

 Modify the contents of the WIM file

With the WinPe.WIM file successfully mounted, you will now use standard windows
tools to modify the Startnet.cmd file contained within the WIM file. You will
modify the Startnet.cmd to map a network drive and then apply a WIM file to the
local machine.

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1. Once the image has been successfully mounted, open Windows Explorer and
navigate to the C:\winpe\mount\windows\system32 folder and locate the
startnet.cmd file. Open it with Notepad.
2. Add the following commands on separate lines to the Startnet.cmd file then
save the changes
map r: \\dc1\build$
r:\ImageX /apply "r:\basebuild\core.wim" 1 c:
Note: this command is provided an example but does not reflect the lab
environment.

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Commit the changes to the WIM image

You will now save the changes that have been made to the WIM file in the previous
tasks.

1. Return to the command prompt and enter the following command to commit the
changes to the WIM file

ImageX /unmount /commit c:\winpe\mount

2. Once the changes have been successfully committed, enter the following
command. Once complete note the time stamp on the file shows that it has just
been updated.

dir c:\winpe\winpe.wim

 Confirm the changes were saved in the WIM

IMAGEX can also be used to mount a WIM file in a read only mode. In this exercise
this functionality will be used to confirm that the modifications to the Startnet.cmd
file have been saved in the WIM file.

1. At the command prompt, enter the following command to mount the

c:\winpe\winpe.wim file in read only mode. Enter the entire command
on a single line.

ImageX /mount c:\winpe\winpe.wim 1 c:\winpe\mount

Note: In the preceding command, the number 1 is used to signify the

index number of the image to be mounted. A single WIM file may contain
multiple images, each one being index 1, 2, etc. Only one image may be
mounted to a single folder at a time.

2. Open the c:\winpe\mount\windows\system32\startnet.cmd file using

Notepad and confirm that the map network drive and ImageX commands
are now present.

3. Return to the command and enter the following command to unmount

the winpe.wim file

ImageX /unmount mount

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Exercise 2
Using Other ImageX Command-Line Switches
A legacy server is currently being re-provisioned at a remote site to be used as a network
build server for a Windows Vista pilot deployment. Unfortunately the server only has a
CD drive and the local administrator has requested that the Vista Install WIM file be
provided on CD. In this exercise you will use ImageX to split an existing WIM file into
multiple parts of a predetermined size.

ImageX.exe and the WIM file format allow technical staff an enormous range of options
when it comes to managing & manipulating images. The following exercise highlights a
number of the command line options for ImageX and how they can be used in typical
scenarios.
 Use Xmage to split your image into multiple files for burning onto CDs
In this task you will use ImageX to split an existing WIM file into 600Mb segments
so that they can be distributed using standard CD-ROMs.

4. Open a command prompt and change to the C:\Program Files\Windows

AIK\Tools\x86 directory. Enter the following command to view the
existing install.wim and verify its size.

ImageX /info E:\ sources\install.wim

Note the Part Number and TOTALBYTES values

5. Enter the following command to create a new folder to store the files in
and then split the existing WIM file.

md e:\sources\split

ImageX /split E:\sources\install.wim

e:\sources\split\install.wim 600

This process will take approximately 5 minutes to complete

6. Once the image split has been completed, review the contents of the
e:\sources\split folder and note the size of the install.wim files. Enter the
following command at the command prompt to retrieve the image
information from the WIM file and compare the Part Number value of
the new file to value returned for the original install.wim

ImageX /info e:\sources\split\install.wim

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 Manipulating images & WIM files

This exercise you will learn how it is possible to store multiple images in a single
WIM file and how those images can be manipulated. For performance purposes, this
exercise will use a directory of files, as opposed to an entire operating system image.

7. Open a command prompt and change to the C:\Program Files\Windows

AIK\Tools\x86 directory. Enter the following command as a single line
to capture the E:\Sources\packages folder to a WIM file named
sample.wim.

ImageX /capture /compress maximum

E:\Sources\packages e:\sources\packages.wim
"image 1 – distribution share packages"

8. In order to confirm that the files have successfully been saved in the
packages.wim file, enter the following command to view a file listing of
the image

ImageX /dir e:\sources\packages.wim 1

9. After the original WIM was distributed, a request was received to add an
additional directory to the file. Enter the following command as a single
line to append a second image file to the existing packages.wim file that
contains the E:\Sources\packages

ImageX /append "E:\Sources\out-of-box drivers"

e:\sources\packages.wim "image 2 – distribution
share drivers"

10. Now that the WIM file has been updated, you would like to get a listing
of the images that it now contains as well as the total number of files and
directories. Enter the following command and then review the output

ImageX /info e:\sources\packages.wim

11. After confirming that the packages.wim file now contains two separate
images, you would like to test that you can extract the files from the
second image before you distribute it. Enter the following commands to
create a new folder and then extract the contents of the second image to
the new folder

md c:\wimdemo
ImageX /apply e:\sources\packages.wim 2
c:\wimdemo

Review the contents of the c:\wimdemo folder to confirm that the files have been
extracted from the WIM file then delete the directory

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12. After reviewing the contents of the second image in the packages.wim
file it has been decided that the second image should be maintained as a
separate WIM file. Enter the following command to export the second
image to a separate WIM file

ImageX /export e:\sources\packages.wim 2

e:\sources\drivers.wim "distribution share
drivers"

13. Now that the second image has been successfully exported from the
packages.wim file, it can be deleted from the original WIM. Enter the
following command to delete the second image.

ImageX /delete e:\sources\packages.wim 2

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