Slip streaming Updates for W7 and Office 2010 -- can it be done.

Hi everybody
If you've ever re-installed W7 recently (or office 2010) there's a myriad of updates that can take a long time (I think around 1 GB of downloads if you include Office).

Is it possible like we did with XP to "Slipstream" the Service packs and updates into W7 and an Office install media.

Would be useful - but haven't seen any mention of this.

Office 2010 sp1 is a separate download and W7 retail doesn't always have SP1 included.

Any ideas folks.

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo,

Do these help?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ows-7-sp1-into-installation-dvd-iso-file.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/172699-office-2010-slipstream-service-pack-1-a.html

Regards,
Golden

You can slipstream the Service Pack into W7, but I was unable to find a way to add the 70 or so updates for W7 since SP1. I spent some time researching it.

This would be a huge time saver if it was possible. If you find anything positive, please post it!

Windows Updates Downloader (WUD)

Have you tried "Windows Updates Downloader (WUD)"?
Windows Updates Downloader (WUD)

Other options:
MSFN's Unattended Windows : Getting the Hotfixes

Those look promising. Have you tried them yourself?

I've used WUD in the past and it worked alright. I would have to assume that it still works for Windows7. I'll give it a shot tomorrow and will let you know the results.

What i do at work is to install Windows 7, a few apps and keep it patched. I then run sysprep /generalize. From there, I use imagex to create a new install.wim file. I then put this install.wim onto my installable USB and now when I install my OS, I get my updates, config changes and some 3rd party apps that I always want.

Not Yet

TVeblen said:

Those look promising. Have you tried them yourself?

Click to expand...

I've downloaded it, but I haven't tried it out yet.

pparks1 said:

What i do at work is to install Windows 7, a few apps and keep it patched. I then run sysprep /generalize. From there, I use imagex to create a new install.wim file. I then put this install.wim onto my installable USB and now when I install my OS, I get my updates, config changes and some 3rd party apps that I always want.

Click to expand...

Do you know of any sensible tutorials about how to do this?
Being a CLI operation it could easily "end in tears".

Here is how I do the process.

I google for "Windows 7 USB Downloader Tool". I download this freebie and install it. From here, I point it to an .iso of my Windows 7 installer and it makes a bootable USB key that I can use to install Windows 7. More details here if you need them: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Creates and Makes Bootable DVD Disc or USB Flash/Hard Drive from ISO Image « My Digital Life

Next, I use that USB key to install Windows 7 on my host system. Install all other apps, run updates, more or less get it ready to be "imaged"

Next, you have to download and install the Microsoft WAIK (it's free, but 1.7GB download). Download: Windows® AIK for Windows® 7 - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details. Download and install this.

Open admin command prompt
cd \program files\Windows AIK\Tools\PETools
copype x86 C:\winpe (for x86) copype amd64 C:\winpe (for 64bit)
imagex /mountrw C:\winpe\winpe.wim 1 C:\winpe\mount
copy C:\program files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86\imagex.exe C:\winpe\mount\windows\system32 (or switch to amd64 for 64bit)

Create C:\winpe\mount\windows\system32\wimscript.ini containing following

imagex /unmount /commit C:\winpe\mount
copy C:\winpe\winpe.wim C:\winpe\iso\sources\boot.wim
oscdimg -n -h -bc:\winpe\etfsboot.com C:\winpe\iso C:\winpe\winpe.iso

At this point, you have an ISO in C:\winpe\winpe.iso. Burn this as you will boot from it soon.


SYSPREP the host computer (Be sure you are on a system you can do this on. This should not be on your everyday machine as it will unactivate your copy..which is probably not what you are wanting to do.

change to C:\windows\system32\sysprep
sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown
Note: This will remove any unique information and reseal the OS. Then the system will shut down


Now, boot from that WinPE image that we burned a couple of steps ago

Capturing your Image
Once PE boots, you get a command prompt
diskpart
select disk 0
list volume
(Find the Drive letter that is your installed Windows drive) (Mine was D)
exit

imagex /capture D:\ D:\install.wim "Windows" (substitute D:\ to be whatever your drive letter is)

This will leave you with an install.wim on your hard drive.


Simply copy this install.wim to your USB installer key into the \sources directory (overwriting the one that is there).


Now, if you boot again from this USB key, you can install the system again, and you will get your customized setup versus the typical standard windows 7 image.

Hi there
is the basic W7 WAIK OK or do we need the SP1 (and is this the complete WAIK or does it have to be upgraded from the non SP1 version).

I haven't had a lot of experience with the whole PE / deployment issue -- running a CLI is fine (I do enough on Linux anyway).

Otherwise your instructions look good -- might be interesting to get this on to the micro SD card on a smart phone since most smart phones can switch into "USB" mode where Windows simply sees the smart phone as an external USB drive.

On the W8 forums I used the imagex program from the VISTA waik to image the W8 to go stuff (Windows 8 on a Stick) - worked fine but that's a whole different process since you are actually creating a BOOTABLE real running Windows system and not the slipstreamed W7 install disk which is what I would like to get here

Cheers
jimbo

I just use the WAIK that I downloaded back in July of 2010. I don't see any reason why it would need components from SP1...we only use the WAIK to get a bootable PE disk that we can run imagex from.

Thanks pparks1

pparks1 said:

Here is how I do the process.
...

Click to expand...

Thanks for that info pparks1 (it's copied and filed).

I figured that it would be messy (based on TechNet's awful description).

I assume that the benefit of this method (over partition cloning) is that it is "hardware independent"?

lehnerus2000 said:

I assume that the benefit of this method (over partition cloning) is that it is "hardware independent"?

Click to expand...

Yes, exactly.

Ok, i tested out the WUD method as well. Using this tool, you install the WUD client on a machine, and then import in the .ulz (update list) file from the WUD website. This provides you with a list of updates and you can choose which ones you want. Once you have them picked, you download them to a folder of your choice on your machine.

Then, you install rt7lite on your machine. You will need to point to a Windows ISO or a Windows CD. It will then copy the files to a temp location on your hard drive. From here, you can choose to "apply" all of the updates above into the installer. In addition, you can can remove components, customize the system and setup various automated options to make setup a bit faster. Once down, you commit the changes and the system will gronk for a while.

At the end, you pop out a new ISO file that you can use to reinstall windows at a later time. With the latest update pack for Windows 7, I went form a clean SP1 installl which needed 70 updates, to a Windows 7 ISO which only required 24 updates. < So the update pack doesn't have absolutely everything. To get everything you have to hit Windows update, and then see which updates are missing and download the required .MSU files for each one and then use r7lite to reintegrate them into the installer.

Personally, I would rather just use my above method. I would install Windows 7 onto a VM, apply updates, a few other software components I always use and then use imagex to build a new install.wim file. This puts me closer to being fully up to date and means I have less screwing around to do after the install.

What about Sysprepping a win7 installation with everything you want and all Updates installed, then applying it's image to target machines?

Of course it requires an image for each version and bit rate.

This can also be done using Acronis True Image 2010+ with Universal Restore or Paragon Adaptive Restore CD if you can find it - I can unlock the download in my Skydrive and PM you the link if you want since it was freeware.

gregrocker said:

What about Sysprepping a win7 installation with everything you want and all Updates installed, then applying it's image to target machines?

Click to expand...

That's more or less what I did above. I did sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown.
Then I used imagex to capture it as install.wim
Then I simply replaced the install.wim on the original install media with mine and can install just like normal...except the resulting system is modified.

Patrick is there a way to generalize this enough to still be able to choose your version to install by also removing ei.cfg from sources?

I'm not deep enough into SysPrep since I use Acronis TI w/Universal Restore and Paragon Adaptive Restore and one or the other has always worked to apply my custom image to any hardware.

^If you use the WUD method, you can build new media coming from the old media that is combined and contains all of the versions.

With my method, since you have installed the system and did an image, you cannot change the versions and architecture type when you deploy it. At least, I haven't figured out how. For me at work, it's not a big deal, I have 1 USB key with Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit and 1 USB key with Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit. We don't use the other flavors.

Thanks again pparks1

pparks1 said:

Ok, i tested out the WUD method as well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for checking that out.

I've used nlite to create an XP +SP3 iso previously (once).
It wasn't very difficult.
It allowed you to strip out features.
The new iso created an initial XP install, which was about 1/2 the size of a standard install.