Learn How to Sysprep Capture Windows 10 Image using DISM

My name is Jitesh Kumar, and I have more than three years of experience in the IT Domain, having expertise in Windows 10 deployment, including the various Microsoft tools (ConfigMgr, MDT) and deployment solutions. I’ll have more posts in the future.

This post will learn details about running Sysprep to capture Windows 10 Images using the DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) Tool.

Introduction

DISM is a command-line tool that can service a Windows image or prepare a Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) image.

It can be used to mount and service a Windows image from a .wim file, .ffu file, .vhd file, or a .vhdx file and update a running operating system. It can be used with older Windows image files (.wim files).

DISM is in the c:\windows\system32 folder of all Windows 10 installations, but you can run DISM in the command prompt from any location.

Why Use DISM -In most organizations, Windows Image deployments are preferred through Microsoft Deployment Tools [SCCM, MDT]. But, due to applied policies in the environment several times, we are not permitted to run the capture Task Sequences.

What is SysPrep?

Sysprep (System Preparation) prepares a Windows installation (Windows client and Windows Server) for imaging, allowing you to capture a customized structure.

Sysprep removes PC-specific information from a Windows installation, “generalizing” the structure to be installed on different PCs.

With Sysprep, you can configure the PC to boot to audit mode, where you can make additional changes or updates to your Image. Or, you can configure Windows to boot to the Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE).

Benefits of using Sysprep

• Removes system-specific data from Windows. Sysprep can remove all system-specific information from an installed Windows image, including the computer security identifier (SID). The Windows installation can then be captured and installed throughout an organization.
• Configures Windows to boot to Audit mode. Audit mode enables you to install third-party applications and device drivers and test the functionality of the computer.
• Configures Windows to boot to Windows Welcome. Configures a Windows installation to boot to Windows Welcome the next time the computer starts. You configure a system to boot to Windows Welcome immediately before delivering the computer to a customer.
• Resets Windows Product Activation. Sysprep can reset Windows Product Activation up to three times.

Limitations

• You must use only the Sysprep version installed with the Windows image that you intend to configure.
• Only an administrator can run Sysprep.
• Only one instance of Sysprep can run at a time.
• Sysprep must not be used on upgrade installation types. Run Sysprep only on clean installations.
• The Sysprep tool runs only if the computer is a workgroup member, not a domain. If the computer is joined to a domain, Sysprep removes the computer from the domain.
• You can run Sysprep command up to 1001 times on a single Windows image. After running Sysprep 1001 times, you must recreate your Windows image.

Prerequisites

Software Requirements

• Hyper-V
• Windows Operating System ISO
• Windows ADK to create a WinPE ISO (Download)

Overview – Windows Capture Process

The following steps help you perform the windows capture once you have the prepared machines with all prerequisites and customizations.

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

Create WinPE ISO

The next step is to create a WinPE ISO to use with Virtual Machine

Start the DISM (Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment). Run as administrator.

Run the below command for copies of amd64 boot files.

copype amd64 C:\WinPE_amd64

Started creating Windows PE working directory in the specified location.

Once the Windows PE working directory is successfully created, use MakeWinPEMedia with the /ISO option to create an ISO file that contains the WinPE files.

 MakeWinPEMedia /ISO C:\WinPE_amd64 C:\WinPE_amd64\WinPE_amd64.iso

The WinPE ISO has been successfully generated.

Why do We Need a Virtual Machine to Prepare for Capturing?

Tips! Building an image from a VM allows you to use Checkpoint/state restores. With checkpoint, you can revert your operating system state to any saved state later, which is useful to run right before you begin the capture process. That is a value-added feature for experimenting with software or tweaks that may cause the operating system problems.

Capturing an image from hardware will result in driver injection failure on several new models. When building a universal vision for deployment, you do not want any hardware-specific configurations in your Image.

Additional Tips & Tricks

While preparing the System to capture, you have to consider these steps.

• Perform a clean installation of the Windows Operating System.
• During installation, create a local Administrator account.
• After installation is complete, log in to the System with a created local Administrator account.

Before connecting with the network, ensure that the Windows store apps do not get automatically updated.

Apply Local GPO Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Store Enable -Turn off Automatic Download and Install of updates policy

Perform ‘Prepare for image capture’ prerequisite tasks

• Check for Windows updates to install the latest patches to the System.
• Don’t include drivers in captured Image.
• Don’t install any Microsoft Store apps using the Microsoft Store.
• Verify that necessary applications, updates, and language packs are installed on Windows, configured Time Zone, and validated other system personalization.
• Before you start capturing, clean up your System.
• Remove Quick Access history from file explorer.
• Run Disk Clean-up, and empty the Recycle Bin. Some other common directories that can be cleaned up include %LocalAppData%\temp,C:\Windows\Temp.
• Delete all profiles before running SYSPREP. The only profiles that should be in WIM are Administrator and Default.
• Remove unwanted Built-in apps from Windows Store.

Why Should We Generalize the Image?

We need to generalize the Image to remove unique specific information, replace the Computer SID related to an image and make it ready for deployment on different platforms.

Generalize Image and Run Sysprep

Insert Disk to mount the WinPE ISO (created and explained in the above section) file by providing the path where the ISO file is located. Booting the prepared Image in WinPE will be needed to start the capturing.

Once the ISO file is mounted, it will appear as shown below

• Use SYSPREP to prepare the System for capture
• Sysprep can be executed in two modes through the GUI or Command prompt.

GUI Mode

Start the Sysprep.exe utility. Run as administrator located in folder C:\Windows\System32\sysprep directory.

• Tick the Generalize checkbox and select Shutdown options.
• Shutdown – Once Sysprep is complete, the machine will automatically shut down.

Click on OK to start the process.

Sysprep started running. Please wait for a few moments! Once Sysprep completes, the Machine will shut down after processing the changes.

Command Prompt

• Start to command prompt Run as administrator.
• Go to the Sysprep folder to locate the Sysprep utility and type the following command for execution.

Sysprep.exe /generalize /oobe /shutdown

Sysprep started running. Please wait for a few moments! Once Sysprep completes, the Machine will shut down after processing the changes.

The System generalizes the images and shuts down. Start the Virtual Machine. Your virtual Machine should appear like this.

Capture Windows Image after Generalize

Boot the virtual machine with Windows PE media.

You may be prompted to “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…..“. Go ahead and press the key.

Important: You may need to click inside the window to ensure that your keystrokes are sent to the Virtual Machine.

The Machine should boot to the Command prompt for PE, identified as X:\

Important! The System must be connected with the stable network to save the image file to the network share.

• Identify the network IP address where you will keep the captured Image.
• Use the net use command to map a network shared folder to save the image.
• If prompted, provide the user credentials for the connection.

Run the following Dism command to capture the Windows partition. For Example :

Dism /Capture-Image /Compress:maximum /ImageFile:\\<NetworkSharePath>\SurfacePro.wim /CaptureDir:D:\ /Name:"SurfacePro"

/ImageFile: Specifies the file’s path where the Image will save.

/Compress: Specifies the type of compression used for the initial capture operation. The maximum option provides the best reduction.

/CaptureDir: Specifies the directory to which the Image was applied.

Note: Assigning of drive letters to partitions is handled by WinPE when it first boots up, normally assigns the System Reserved partition a drive letter C: and the OS partition a drive letter D:

Here the image capture is running.

The Image file is successfully captured in a shared folder, Copy the Image and use it for deployment.

Deploy Capture Windows Image

We can either use WinPE, Configuration Manager, or Microsoft Deployment Tools to deploy the captured image.

The post will help you manage the deployment of Windows Captured Image & Deploy Windows Image using MDT + SCCM – Deploy Windows Captured Image Using SCCM and MDT.

Troubleshooting

Windows image will cause Sysprep to fail when you update an app from the Microsoft Store. That app becomes tied to the logged-in user account.

You may encounter an issue when you remove or update a provisioned Microsoft Store app by using the Microsoft Store and then running Sysprep on the computer.

Review the log file at %Windir%\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setupact.log. The following error appears in the log files.

This Microsoft article discusses an issue when removing or updating a provisioned Microsoft store app.

To resolve this issue, remove the appx package for the user. You will get package information from the log file.

• Start Powershell run as administrator.
• Type the following command to remove the package.
• Run Remove-AppxPackage -Package <packagefullname> from PowerShell.

Resources – Sysprep Capture Windows 10 Image

• Sysprep (System Preparation) Overview
• Windows 10 Update Enhancements Number of Devices Updates Every Hour