Creating Reference (Standard) Windows Images - Save Tens of Hours Installing Windows & Applications

We all install Windows on almost weekly (if not daily) basis, it takes up to 45 minutes to complete the installation, an hour or a bit less to install our apps (PDF reader, browser, Java, Office, and endless list), if you don't have WSUS also in the network, it will take forever to install all the updates (especially if you're still using Windows 7).

So isn't there a quick way to accomplish this? Sure there is, creating a standard image (sometimes called Master, Golden, Reference, Custom image), that will contain the applications you want, updates, and also drivers if you have the same hardware on a bulk of machines that you want to install Windows on.

There are some tools that help you to do this, and they are paid, like the famous Norton Ghost, which will clone the drive (C for example) for your device, and then you can deploy it on other machines, but what if I want to have multiple different copies for several hardware I have, and I don't want to buy multiple licenses from Norton Ghost?

The answer is easy, and very straight forward, with a fair amount of knowledge, you can do all that yourself, Microsoft provides you with the tools you need to get your Custom image ready to be deployed.

Here, in quick steps, we will explain everything you need to know to get your images ready, and if you are one of the people who prefers to watch practical rather than reading, you can find at the end of the article a link to course that explains every single step.

How to create your Custom Windows Image:

1. Install Hyper-V, or you can use any other Virtualization software you prefer, but I chose Hyper-V because it comes already with your Windows 8.1 & 10, for Windows 7, you can use VirtualBox or VMware.
2. Create your Windows virtual machine, whether it's Windows 7, 8.1, or 10, using the "Create New Virtual Machine" wizard in Hyper-V.
3. Install Windows on your machine using the standard ISO image you already have (If you don't have it, links are provided in the course below)
4. Customize your machine, install your applications, updates, files, and modify settings as you want.
5. Create a new local drive (D for example) so you can save the captured image of C drive on it.
6. Run Sysprep.exe with generalize option to remove all SID and other machine identifiers.
7. Turn off the machine.
8. Here you will need to get a WinPE with ImageX that matches your machine architecture, 32 or 64 bit, to create your own WinPE, follow this link:
   https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn293200.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
   Don't forget to add ImageX to your ISO
9. If you want it the easy way, you can download these ready-to-use WinPE ISO images:
   32-bit:
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxixQsp11I0hYVBwcHVCMlh3aEU/view?usp=sharing
   64-bit:
   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxixQsp11I0hTnBQbGR1OHVmamc/view?usp=sharing
10. Identify your Windows volume, your other volume (named it D before).
11. Move to your WinPE ISO volume, and run the following command:
    F:\imagex /capture D:\ E:\install.wim "Windows 7 Pro 32-Bit" /flags "Professional"
    Where:
    F: The WinPE drive
    D: The Windows volume
    E: The storage volume (where we want to save our image to)
    "Windows 7 Pro 32-Bit": The image name
    /Flags: Where you identify the Windows edition
    For a full explanation of the Capture command parameters, you can check this link:
    https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749447%28v=ws.10%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
12. Once done, either boot to your machine and copy the WIM file, or mount the VHD of your virtual machine using the Disk Management utility to accomplish that.
13. Now, you can replace the capture WIM, with the WIM found on your ISO file under Sources folder, there are some paid apps to do this, or if you prefer the free way (we all do of course), ImgBurn, the ultimate free tool can do this for you, it's found under "Advanced" and "Bootable Disk", again, all this is explained practically in the course.
14. Burn your ISO to a flash USB, because eventually, it will be larger than DVD size (4.7 GB), you can use the free tool, Rufus, to do this, very easy and friendly tiny tool:
    https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Now you have your Custom image ready to be used, which will save you tens of hours installing Windows and applications on your machines, if you want to see all that in practice, and as a bonus, learn how to automate the installation process using Unattend.xml, enroll in this course, which will explain every minor step to get your image ready, and for the blog readers, we offer 50% discount using the coupon "Blogger", or just follow this link:

https://www.udemy.com/custom-windows-image/?couponCode=Blogger

Let me know how it goes, and if you face any issue or have any question, just drop a comment here, and it would be my pleasure to help,

Good luck,

Omar