Windows 7 Universal Installation Disc - Create

How to Create a Windows 7 Universal Installation Disc​

Introduction

For Windows users who installed or upgraded Windows Vista, there is one big difference that will be immediately noticed when installing or upgrading to Windows 7: The Windows 7 installation wizard no longer prompts, or asks, for the user to select which edition of the operating system to install. Instead, each Windows 7 DVD disc will automatically install the specific edition which it’s limited to. So a Windows 7 Home Premium disc will only install Windows 7 HP, a Pro disc will only install Pro, etc.

Although Microsoft does not provide any such universal Windows 7 installation media, the function is indeed feasible. (see Screenshot below) A disc such as this can be especially helpful to PC technicians, IT staff, and the like who need to reinstall Win7 frequently. Remember you will still need a valid license key specific to the version you are installing. In addition, Microsoft has eliminated the differences between the retail and OEM install discs with Windows 7, so this disc can be used to reinstall Win7 on PC’s where the owner has lost, or is unable to find, the OEM restore discs. In order to create such a disc; just delete and remove the ei.cfg from any Windows 7 ISO to convert that image into a universal disc for all editions of Windows 7.






STAGE 1 UNIVERSAL DVD - ALL 32 OR 64 BIT ON 1 DVD

For any user who has the Windows 7 install DVD or ISO and wishes to make a universal installer disc now there is an easier way to modify the ISO. Normally this was accomplished by manually unpacking and extracting the contents of the ISO image (or copying files from DVD to HDD), deleting the ei.cfg and then repacking the installation files back into an ISO to burn. Users can now eliminate these tedious procedures by making use of the “ei.cfg Removal Utility”.

The ei.cfg Removal Utility is a simple tool that will disable the ei.cfg from any Windows 7 ISO disc image, thereby converting the image into a “universal disc” that will prompt the user to select their preferred edition during setup. The ei.cfg Removal Utility works directly to patch the ISO image, by toggling the deletion bit in the UDF file table to instruct the operating system to ignore and remove ei.cfg, or treat it as if it does not exist. Best of all, the ei.cfg Removal Utility can reverse the patching to restore the ISO disc image to its original state when the tool is been used to apply on a disc image that previously been patched by the utility.

The ei.cfg Removal Utility is a standalone portable app, and requires no installation. In fact, the program does not have much of a user interface at all. Simply selecting the target Windows 7 ISO, and the disc image (ISO) will be patched right away. So make sure a backup copy of your ISO is created beforehand.

Download the ei.cfg Removal Utility here:eicfg_removal_utility.zip


STAGE 2 UNIVERSAL DVD - ALL 32 AND ALL 64 BIT ON 1 DVD

I was amazed at how easy it is to merge Win7 x86 and Win7 x64 editions (DVDs) in a single DVD or 4GB USB. The process is pretty simple, you need a copy of both any 32 bit and any 64 bit Windows 7 install DVD or ISO. Either copy the DVD's contents to a folder on a HDD, or extract the ISO's contents to a folder. Run 4 commands from the prompt, then create and burn your new Universal install DVD/USB.


Requirements:

1. WAIK (Windows Automation Installation Kit) Download WAIK
2. Windows Win7 x86 and Windows Win7 x64 DVDs.
3. An application that can extract the files from an ISO (if using a downloaded ISO). I use WinRAR, but many apps can do this extraction.
4. An application that allows you to build a new iso or create a bootable DVD/USB. I use UltraISO for this.
5. Single Layer DVD, compatible DVD Burner and, of course DVD burning software… or a 4GB USB flash drive.

We will merge the four Windows 7 x64 editions into the Win7 x86 DVD contents, because Win7 x64 DVD has 64-bit content that can’t run some of the Win32 installation components.


Getting Started


1. Install WAIK in your Windows (doesn’t matter you are running Win7 or Windows XP)

2. Make two folders, in my examples I use Win7_64 and Win7_32. Now copy both Windows 7 x64 and x86 DVDs contents into their respective folders. Or extract your downloaded ISO’s into their respective folder.

   Note

If copying files over from a DVD to the above folders, you actually only need the Sources\install.wim file from the Windows 7 x64 DVD.

3. Run WAIK command prompt (Run as Administrator if UAC enabled):
Start à All Programs àWindows AIK àWindows AIK and PE Command Prompt

4. Each and every Win7 edition has an index no. in the install.wim (WIM file), you can check using the following command:

Imagex/info G:\Win7_32\Sources\install.wim

   Note

Where G:\Win7_32 represents the location of your 32 bit DVD files

The results will look something like above.
This shows that INDEX=1 denotes Windows 7 Starter and so on… (you may have to scroll down to observe these entries)

5. We will use the Imagex /export command to move our x64 WIM entries into the x86 wim file.

   Note

The syntax for this command is:

   Note

imagex /export src_file src_number src_name dest_file dest_name

Now execute the following commands with appropriate INDEX no. to export a copy of the specified image to the Windows 7 32bit (x86) WIM file.

For Win7 Home Basic x64:

Imagex/export G:\Win7_64\Sources\install.wim 1 G:\Win7_32\Sources\install.wim "Windows 7 Home Basic (x64)"

For Win7 Home Premium x64:

Imagex/export G:\Win7_64\Sources\install.wim 2 G:\Win7_32\Sources\install.wim "Windows 7 Home Premium (x64)"

For Win7 Professional x64:

Imagex/export G:\Win7_64\Sources\install.wim 3 G:\Win7_32\Sources\install.wim "Windows 7 Professional (x64)"

For Win7 Ultimate x64:

Imagex /export G:\Win7_64\Sources\install.wim 4 G:\Win7_32\Sources\install.wim "Windows 7 Ultimate (x64)"

6. After execution of above commands Win7_32's WIM file will be the universal WIM file that contains all version of Win7. You can export only desired versions into the image. For example you could make a Win7 DVD, which includes Win7 Ultimate x86 and x64 version only.

7. Now to make bootable DVD image...

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc
• How to Create a Windows 7 Installation USB Key
• How to Install Windows 7 from USB Pen Drive Using Grub4Dos
• How to Slipstream Windows 7 SP1 and Updates to Create a Bootable USB, Installation DVD, or ISO File

 

[SIW2]

Not sure what you did there.

Have a look in install.wim with this fella download-GImageX .The Select button shows you the images inside

 

[DocBrown]

You need to download a win7 Ultimate .iso & use the removal on it

 

[derekimo]

What's strange Doc, is the DVD he made works but the flash drive doesn't.

 

[DocBrown]

Are you putting the .iso files into a folder on the HD & then removing the ei.cfg file ? You cannot remove it directly from the .iso.

 

[derekimo]

You can use this tool to remove it from the ISO,

winisoutils - Windows ISO Disc Image Utilities

Which I think is how ESL did his.

 

[DocBrown]

Ok, So I do it the long way, but it always works when I make a USB stick.

 

[derekimo]

How do you make yours? ESL can use some help here.

 

[ESL]

You can use this tool to remove it from the ISO,

winisoutils - Windows ISO Disc Image Utilities

Which I think is how ESL did his.

That is correct.

 

[ESL]

Are you putting the .iso files into a folder on the HD & then removing the ei.cfg file ? You cannot remove it directly from the .iso.

Yes. The weird thing is this works when I make a DVD. I just made a DVD of the ISO with the one file removed, and it works. It just doesn't work when I make it a USB.

 

[DocBrown]

Did you folow Brink's tutorial for the USB ?

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

 

[ESL]

Yes. Step-by-step.

 

[ESL]

Thanks to all your guys' help, I finally figured it out. What I did was I copied the DVD I burned of Windows 7 with all 32-bit editions on it (that worked) as an ISO file with ImgBurn. I then went through Brink's tutorial again step-by-step on creating a Windows 7 USB stick rather than using the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD tool. I connected the stick and voila, the option to choose Starter appeared along with all of the other choices. Thanks a lot, guys. I learn a lot from you, and it is VERY much appreciated.

 

[derekimo]

Glad you got it.

 

[DocBrown]

Good science experiments need Trial & Error

 

[pwrcat4000]

Since this has been done why not just put the clean .iso up somewhere?? I mean it looks like a cool fun project and all but...

 

[Brink]

Hello pwrcat,

We can't since it would violate Microsoft's copyright and EULA by distributing it like that.

 

[pwrcat4000]

Brink,
Thanks for your reply. Damn EULA!:devil:
You would think Microsoft would make it avalable on technet, for use I mean clean iso's are the only reason I dropped the $400.00 to join.
[rant]
Of course a couple of months after I joined they announce that they are discontinuing the program. I feel like screeming "I just want to help people who use your software"
jeez. I have been win MS os's since dos but I am about done. esp with the XPocolypse comming. I think i will start encouraging people to switch to linux maybe Mint-MATE LTS seems like 7 is just as susceptable as XP to malware...of course if everyone goes to Linux then I am sure you will start seeing malware there.
[/rant]

 

[ChrisStayner21]

This is very slick and easy to do. Im glad I found this. Thanks to the OP for posting this.

 

[LM2008]

I had to format the usb drive because needed it for another thing. I again prepared it as a usb bootable windows 7 aio. The problem is that when i boot to X64 [EMS enabled] to repair Windows or restore i get a message "The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible" and tell me to put a Windows 7 64 repair disc when i was able to use the repair function in the past without disc.

 

[pharoahtaz]

Thanks to all, I have been inspired, now I want to try to put all versions of Win7 and Server 2008R2 on one disk (or USB Drive)... has this been tried by anyone?