Is it possible to create a universal win7 installation media?

Hi again Marie SWE,

Yes, 3 Ways To Create An x86 and x64 All in one Windows 7 ISO

Here's link to ISOs and ei.cfg utility.

TechBench

All editions ( pro, home premium, etc ) can be made available from any windows 7 ISO - either by removing the ei.cfg file from the sources folder, or by using:
ei.cfg_removal_utility.zip

Nic

You can use 7 zip to extract the files to your desktop or extract files from ISO. WinRar will not extract ISOs. I'm not sure if all versions of Win7 are on the OEM. I don't have OEM DVD or I'd find out right now.

"ei.cfg" file is present in "Sources" directory of Windows 7 setup disc which tells the setup which edition should be installed in system. Not sure if it's in the OEM though, which you can check easy enough. If it is, you can open it in notepad and see if it says OEM, etc. Delete or rename ei.cfg file.
Use IsoCreator download | SourceForge.net to create the ISO from the files you extracted from the DVD.

Give @torchwood a PM shout with link to this thread, he might know!

Interested in what you find!!!!

Nic

The contents of oem installation media

iso\



iso\sources\



iso\sources\$OEM$\$$\setup\scripts\




1. The contents of iso\sources\$OEM$ are different for each oem and each edition.

2. The easiest way is to apply the correct edition from install.wim ( use something like winntsetup in winpe to apply the image - it also creates the boot files). Then copy the matching $OEM$ folder from e.g. a usb drive to the the root of the installation partition. Then boot into the installation.

3. Alternatively, apply the image, boot into it, copy the matching $OEM$ folder to the root of the drive and manually rt click and run as admin on iso\sources\$OEM$\$$\setup\scripts\slp.cmd to activate.

4. There are projects which contain a little program that checks the image edition, the slic table, then applies the maching oem adjustments and activation. That just saves doing it manually.

Great info thank you SIW2!!!

Hi Marie SWE,

Marie SWE said:

This got me wondering if it's possible to create one installation media for all of my OEM computers?

Yes it is!

Marie SWE said:

I have all recovery disks and two of them also have their recovery partitions left.

If you are open to options then maybe this could work for you!

Download the latest (build 7601) Windows 7 x64 ISO from TechBench. Extract the contents of the ISO using something like 7-Zip and then either rename/delete the ei.cfg file in ISO > Sources > ei.cfg or use the eicfg_removal_utility.zip tool. This will make ALL the versions of Windows 7 (Start, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate) available from the ISO when reinstalling.

Then burn the amended ISO to a DVD or USB using something like: Windows USB/DVD Download Tool

This way you could do away with the recovery disks and recovery partitions giving you more HDD space.

When reinstalling you can use the Product Key on the COA (Certificate Of Authenticity) sticker located on the bottom of your computer or in the battery compartment for activation.

The only thing you would need to do it to have ALL the relevant drivers (BIOS, Chipset, Video, Bluetooth, WLAN etc) for the specific manufacturers of the computers. If you have four computers for example you could create a drivers folder for each of the them (if they are all different manufacturers of course). Then you could inject/add the drivers for the specifc computer being reinstalled from the correct folder during the installation process. You could even do this after the installation is complete. It is advisable to do it during installation if possible though.

The other thing here to remember is that the new ISO installation disk will be out of date as far as Windows updates is concerned. This can be easily remedied by slipstreaming the Windows updates into the install.wim file using DISM, then just create a new installation ISO! This will reduce the hours and hours of waiting for Windows updates to download and install. There will obviously be extra updates that need to be done after the installation is complete of course, but no where near the 300+ updates that appear after a reinstallation and check for Windows update. There are those here that recommend alternatives to incorporating/slipstreaming the Windows updates so I will leave that upto them to comment and suggest these to you!

This way, you will end up with one ISO that has all the versions of Windows 7, including most of the Windows 7 updates, and four folders with all the drivers that are needed. I know that initially this is a lot of work (especially downloading the .msu updates - I have a post that explains what updates are needed and in what order they need to be installed) but at the end you will end up with an ISO that will install Windows 7 quite quickly and not take forever to install the updates that are not included. Plus, you can update the ISO when there are enough Windows updates to make it worth while in case it is needed in the future, but lets hope not!

I know that you know the following two points Marie SWE, but for others who read this thread and find it useful then these points are crucial in my opinion!

IMPORTANT: Always make sure that you backup ALL of your data onto an external HDD or USB drive because when you reinstall Windows everything on the HDD will get wiped/deleted.

SUGGESTION: It is also a good idea to download and use imaging software once that you have got everything running smoothly.

Marie SWE said:

But the other problem is how do I make a script or what other file/s to edit and what to write in them to get a installation media to become a Acer, Asus or HP identity?

Excellent answer and information given by SIW2 in Post #7 above.

I hope this helps!