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How to install updates to a Windows 7 image. About interesting things from the world of IT, instructions and reviews. Creating your own distribution

For all this we will use the RT Se7en Lite utility. If you've used nLite for Windows XP or vLite for Windows Vista before, then RT Se7en Lite will seem familiar to you. RT Se7en Lite is a variation of vLite or nLite for Windows 7.

To create an installation disk, you will need Windows 7 installed on your computer. You will also have to download and install the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) for Windows 7 from Microsoft - RT Se7en Lite is a friendlier version of WAIK.

WAIK is 1.7GB in size, so it may take you a while to download. After downloading the program, extract it using an archiver like 7-Zip.

You will also need a Windows 7 distribution - either as a physical disk or as an ISO file.

Next, download and install RT Se7en Lite. The utility is free, although you can donate any amount to its fund if you wish. When downloading the utility, take into account your version of Windows - x86 when using 32-bit Windows or x64 when using 64-bit.

Using RT Se7en Lite

To get started, click on the Browse button and go to your Windows 7 distribution. If you have an ISO file, then select Select ISO file and go to it. If you have a Windows 7 installation disk, then insert it, click Select OS path, and go to it.

When using an ISO file, you will have to specify the exact path to extract it. To do this, you will need several free gigabytes on your hard drive.

The ISO files will be extracted automatically.

After selecting the desired edition of Windows 7, RT Se7en Lite will allow you to create your customized image. So, if your Windows 7 installation disk does not contain Service Pack 1, then using the Slipstream Service Pack option in the “Select an image to configure” window you can integrate SP1 into it.

Click on the Task panel and select the tasks you want to perform with your custom image. To do this, you can check the necessary boxes or select a ready-made preset. Checking the boxes will activate the corresponding configuration panel on the left.

The Integration panel allows you to integrate Windows updates, drivers, language packs, and even third-party applications onto your installation disk. To integrate updates, you will have to download their distributions and upload them to RT Seven Lite using the Add button.

On the Features Removal or Components tab, you can permanently remove unnecessary components from your Windows installation disk and add the features you need. So, for example, you can remove games from your installation disk, or force Windows to install the IIS web server by default.

The Tweaks settings tab allows you to customize settings for the Windows Control Panel, Desktop, Explorer, and several other Windows components. You can even add your own registry settings to customize other settings not listed.

The Unattended section allows you to create a maintenance-free installation disk - you answer all installation questions in advance, after which Windows will install automatically without asking you.

So, for example, you can enter your product key in advance so that Windows won't ask you for it later. Other sections allow you to control other settings. For example, you can specify the hard drive on which Windows will be installed. If you answer all the questions, Windows will install automatically, without asking you any questions, and allowing you to walk away from the computer altogether.

The Customization panel allows you to add your own screensaver, wallpaper, themes, documents, and even a Windows login picture to your installation disk.

In the ISO Bootable panel, you can create an ISO image from your custom installation disk. You can also cut it into a DVD or copy it to a bootable USB flash drive.

The developers of RT Se7en Lite recommend trying their customized Windows 7 image on a virtual machine. Just to make sure everything works. And then feel free to use it in real life. For testing, you can use VirtualBox or VMware Player - both programs are free.

Hello friends! It's no secret that the Windows 7 operating system is still very popular and many users whose computers are 7-compatible keep Win 7 as a second or even the main operating system on their computer. Knowing about the undying popularity of the old system, back in the summer Microsoft released for it a very convenient cumulative update package “Rollup Update” (or update KB3125574), which received the unofficial name - Service Pack 2, since it contains all the most important updates since 2011. This cumulative package is very convenient, because everyone knows that immediately after installation on a computer, Windows 7 begins to download a lot of updates and install them with a whole series of reboots, which is very inconvenient for the user. Another thing is that immediately after installing the system, roll out the Rollup Update cumulative package with all the updates and work quietly. In one of our previous articles, we discussed , but I wonder if it’s possible to integrate this cumulative package into the OS distribution so that after installation all updates are already installed in the operating system. We will talk about this in today's article.

Integration of the cumulative update package “Rollup Update” KB3125574 into the Windows 7 distribution kit

Right-click on the downloaded archive with the WinToolkit 1.5 program and select “7-Zip” --> “Unpack”

I'll unzip the program to partition (E:).

I launch the WinToolkit 1.5 program.

Click on the ISO Maker button to create an image containing all editions of Windows 7

Click on the top button “Browse”

In the explorer that opens, find on the drive (E:) folder “1” with Windows 7 files, select it with the left mouse and click the “Select folder” button

Click on the bottom button “Browse”

In the explorer that opens, select the save location future Windows 7 ISO image (section E:) And give it a name“Win7”, then click “Save”

Click on the “Create ISO” button

and the process of creating an ISO image of Windows 7 begins

ISO image of Windows 7 64-bit with integrated updates is ready!

and is located on drive (E:).

Installing Windows 7 with integrated Rollup Updates on another computer

After successful installation, go to Windows Update and look at the installed updates.

We see that our integrated updates were installed along with the operating system.

Return to the previous window and click on the “Check for updates” button

Windows 7 starts searching for updates.

And updates are coming. Click on the “Install updates” button

Accept the terms of the license agreement and click “Finish”

Updates are being installed.

After installing the updates, the system asks to reboot.

Setting up updates begins.

After reboot we go “Windows Update and we see that all updates are installed”

We look at the Update Log.

Article on this topic:

Hi all! In this article I want to tell you how to easily and simply integrate the necessary updates into the Windows distribution and subsequently, after reinstalling the system, not waste time on it.

I decided to deal with this issue after, when reinstalling Windows on one laptop, all the necessary updates were downloaded as expected and even began to be installed, but when I rebooted, the computer could not install them and began to cancel them.

At the stage of canceling updates, the laptop simply froze and the system would not boot any further. After that, I thought of solving this issue differently.

Of course, someone will say that you don’t need to download system updates at all, but I have a different opinion and believe that at least critical updates should be installed after reinstalling the system. So, let's get down to the process itself.

We will need:

  • Windows 7 distribution
  • UltraIso program
  • Windows Update Pack

First, in the crown of drive C, create a folder W7. Next, open the Windows image with UltraIso and find the file in the sources folder install.wim.

We put this file in the W7 folder.

The updates themselves can be downloaded from this forum. Now we launch the command line, to do this, click the Start button and in the search form write the command cmd.
Now actually on the command line we write this code and press Enter

Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:C:\W7\install.wim

It is not necessary to write it, you can simply select it with the mouse, copy and paste it into the command line window. Next we will be shown the indexes of all Windows that are contained in our distribution. If you want to integrate updates into all versions, then write the following code and press Enter

C:\W7\UpdatePack7R2.exe /ie11 /WimFile=C:\W7\install.wim /Index=*

If you need to integrate updates into only one edition of Windows, then instead of an asterisk at the end of the code, put its index.

As a result, you will be given a report that will tell you how the integration of updates went.

After this, we go to our W7 folder and notice that our install.wim file has noticeably gained weight. Now run UltraIso again and drag and drop our new file install.wim back to folder sources, to the question about replacement we answer Yes!

After all the manipulations in the UltraIso program, press the button file>save, or press the keyboard shortcut ctrl+s. All!

The output is a system distribution with integrated updates. Now you can safely write it to a disk or flash drive and safely install the system! Thank you all for your attention!

One Response

    Vladimir says:

    I updated 2 assemblies this way, then I enter the first command: Dism / Get-WimInfo /WimFile:C:W7 and install.wim and I get: error 11. The DISM log file is located at C:WindowsLogsDISMdism.log.
    Tell me what to do? Thank you in advance! V.I.

By manipulating the Windows installation image, we mean adding or removing individual components of the operating system even before its installation. The point is to add components (for example, drivers or service packs) to the distribution (usually a file with an ISO extension) without the help of Microsoft specialists.

Such an operation can be carried out using specialized software. When and why might this be needed? In a variety of circumstances and for a variety of Windows users. Primarily for those who need to integrate updates into their existing Windows 7 image.

A variety of circumstances can prompt you to modify your image. For example:

  • You are trying to install Windows 7 on a laptop you just purchased and find that the installation process fails with an error indicating missing drivers.
  • You are doing a mass installation of an OS on many computers in an organization.
  • Having created a working environment that is convenient for you, you would like to save it for future use and receive a suitable environment for yourself immediately after installation.
  • You have a Windows distribution without the latest service packs and would like to include them on the installation disc.

In all these cases, it would be advisable for you to obtain a modified Windows distribution image with a personalized configuration.

A little history and where is information about the download process stored?

From the very moment the NT model operating systems appeared, tools began to be supplied with them for automatic installation of the system on one or many computers. For example, Windows 2000 contained quite developed tools for this purpose. Those who have installed an OS from a regular installation disk manually are well aware that during the installation process, the operating system requires the user to answer a number of questions regarding the installation location, file system type and some other parameters. Automatic installation of the system implies that the answers to these questions are pre-recorded in a separate file, which is called the “answer file”.

If this file is included in the installation image and contains all the necessary answers, the installation can occur automatically or hide its individual stages from the user. It would seem, what does all this have to do with the stated topic? The most direct.

If you add additional components to the distribution (drivers, service packs, etc.), and also tell the installer where these updates are located and what to do with them, you can get an image with the required characteristics. Those. integrate updates directly into the Windows installer.

What do "response files" look like and what is wim?

In modern Windows 7 distributions (made as an iso image), the response file is a regular xml document called autounattend.xml, located at the root of the image file hierarchy. The installation package itself is represented by two files with the wim extension - boot.wim and install.wim. the first is responsible for the initial boot, and the second contains the actual system to be installed. Wim files are essentially containers for other files included in the operating system image. Therefore, you can add or remove individual components to them, thereby forming an instance of Windows with the necessary internal content.

Further work on modifying the system is as follows:

  • The Windows ISO file is unpacked with a suitable archiver into a separate folder.
  • The necessary components and updates are added to it.
  • The nuances of installing these updates are written in the “answer file”
  • All this is packed back into the ISO box, ready for use.

The result is a ready-made installer with the necessary updates. It should be borne in mind that in the general case, this kind of integration requires certain, sometimes quite small, knowledge. The answer file can be generated automatically during the system installation process - but this is not our case because We want to achieve not just automatic installation, but also a distribution with updates.

From theory to practice

Some Windows 7 users have encountered the following situation (it is very reminiscent of the story of the inability to install Windows 7 on a new laptop): after the next automatic update and reboot of the computer, the system refuses to start in the new configuration and simply freezes at the startup stage. One solution to this problem is to download the update package from the Internet and integrate it directly into the OS image. There is no need to be scared in advance - you will not need to create and edit “answer files” for this purpose. In this case, everything turns out to be much simpler, although everything happens according to the scheme described above.

What do we need? Firstly, a good program for working with disk images, like the widely used free utility Ultraiso. And, secondly, a little ingenuity and accuracy. Below are step-by-step instructions:

  • Open the image in ultraiso.
  • Create a separate folder.
  • We put install.wim from the iso file there. You should look for it in the /source folder.
  • We put the file with the service pack there.
  • Open a command line window and enter the command to view all editions of Windows integrated into our image (usually there are several of them). The command looks like this:

Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile: …\install.wim (instead of three dots, write the path to install.wim)

And then we roll up the service pack into one or all editions at once. To integrate across all editions, in the same command window, type something like:

…\UpdatePack7R2.exe /WimFile=…\install.wim /Index=*

During the modification process, the system will display message windows.

We transfer the new install.wim to the iso file in place of the old one.

That's the whole wisdom of integrating packages into an image.

Today, Windows 7 is the main corporate system, de facto, taking the baton from Windows XP. Therefore, the issue of its deployment is urgent for the system administrator, but since the last official image was compiled quite a long time ago, systems installed with its help require quite a large number of updates. You can avoid this if you assemble your own distribution containing all the current system updates. We will tell you how to do this in this article.

There are two ways to obtain the latest Windows 7 distribution: integrating updates directly into the image and using a reference system to download and install updates.

The first method is simpler and faster, but has a serious drawback - you need to download all the necessary updates. And this, even with a list, is quite difficult to do. At the same time, there are already downloaded update sets available on the network, but we do not recommend using them, since installing system components from unverified sources is a very bad idea. At a minimum, you could end up with an unstable system due to an untested or incompatible set of updates, and at worst, you could easily end up with unwanted or malicious software.

Using a reference system allows you to receive all the necessary updates automatically, install them, check the operation of the system, and only then proceed to creating a distribution kit. Therefore, we will consider this method.

Creation of a reference system

For these purposes, we recommend using a virtual machine in which we will create a guest system for Windows 7 and install the version of the OS for which we will create the distribution. If you need to create distributions for several versions or bits, then you will also need several reference systems.

Once the installation is complete, take your time; when the welcome screen appears, click CTRL+ SHIFT+ F3

This will reboot the system into audit mode, but if you managed to create a user and log in, then run the command as Administrator:

C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep /audit /reboot

When booting into audit mode, the utility starts automatically Sysprep, close this window, we don’t need it now.

It should be remembered that the system switched to audit mode will continue to boot into it until we start it again Sysprep and we will not change the regime. After downloading, open Windows Update and search for and install updates.

Important! On May 17, 2016, Microsoft released a cumulative update package for Windows 7 SP1 KB3125574, which includes updates from the release of SP1 until April 2016. In order to reduce the volume of downloaded updates, we recommend downloading and installing this package manually. Installation requires update KB3020369.

We reboot and search and install updates again. We reboot and repeat this operation again until the system installs all available updates.

If your goal was only to integrate all the latest updates into the distribution, then you can end there. However, the audit mode allows you to install a variety of software, which will also be included in the distribution. This is widely used by OEMs; we think everyone has come across distributions (usually on laptops) containing, in addition to the OS, various amounts of software of dubious usefulness.

Therefore, no one is stopping us from including the necessary software in our distribution, so as not to waste time on its subsequent installation. We usually limit ourselves to the "gentleman's set": archiver, Adobe Reader, Java, Silverlight. You can include in it the entire set of necessary software, including an office suite and other software. You should not include programs that install your own drivers and device drivers in the image, since all third-party drivers will be removed at the stage of preparing the system for image capture. Also, you should not activate the software; this information will also be lost.

Having finished preparing the reference system, we will delete all the files we downloaded and unnecessary software (if any), special attention should be paid to cleaning the system from copies of update files, for this use the tool Disk Cleanup:

Important! After cleaning be sure to reboot system to complete the updates, otherwise you risk getting a broken image.

Now let's prepare it for image capture using the utility Sysprep:

C:\Windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep /oobe /generalize /shutdown

Let's look at the utility keys in more detail:

  • oobe- starts the computer in welcome screen mode. The Windows Welcome screen allows end users to set up the Windows operating system, create new accounts, rename the computer, and perform other tasks.
  • generalize- prepares the Windows installation before creating the image. If this option is specified, all unique system information is removed from the Windows installation. The security identifier (SID) is reset, system restore points are reset, and event logs are deleted.
  • shutdown - Shuts down the computer after Sysprep has finished running.

After completing the necessary actions, the system will shut down. You cannot enable it before the image is captured. This concludes our work with the reference system and moves on to creating our own distribution based on it.

Creating your own distribution

For further work we will need a workstation running Windows 7 with installed Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). The bit size and version of the system do not play any role.

Installing WAIK should not be difficult and is done using the default settings.

Now let's prepare the image Windows PE to capture an image of the reference system. The WinPE bit capacity must match the bit capacity of the reference system.

Let's open Start - All Programs - Microsoft Windows AIK - Deployment Tools Command Line and run the command for 32-bit systems:

Copype.cmd x86 e:\win_pe

or for 64-bit:

Copype.cmd amd64 e:\win_pe

Where e:\win_pe desired location of the folder with the image. There is no need to create the folder first, as in this case you will receive an error that the folder already exists.

Now let's go to the destination folder and copy the file winpe.wim to a folder ISO\sources and rename it to boot.wim. Then copy it to a folder ISO from folder C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64 or C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86, depending on the bit depth, file imagex.exe.

Then in Command line deployment tools give the following command:

Oscdimg -n -be:\win_pe\etfsboot.com e:\win_pe\ISO e:\win_pe\winpe.iso

The result of the command will be an image winpe.iso from which the reference system should be loaded.

If you did not perform additional partitioning of the reference system disk, the partition to be captured will have the letter D:, and the boot disk E:, just in case, we check with the team dir.

Now let's start capturing the image, since the image is created file by file, it can be saved to the same partition. Let's enter the following command:

E:\imagex /capture d: d:\install.wim "Win7_ULT_x64" /compress maximum /boot /verify

As parameters we indicate to capture disk D: and save it to an image D:\install.wim, in quotation marks we indicate our own name of the image, we also set the maximum compression, the ability to download and check the created image. After which we can go have a coffee; this operation takes on average about half an hour.

We reboot the reference system into normal mode and copy the created image to a PC with WAIK installed. Let's go to e:\win_pe and empty the ISO folder, then copy the contents of the original Windows 7 disk that we used to install the reference system there.

Then we will replace the file install.wim in folder sources to the image we captured. Now you can start building your own ISO image, to do this, run the command:

Oscdimg -u2 -m -o -lWIN7ULTx64 -be:\win_pe\etfsboot.com e:\win_pe\iso e:\win_pe\Win7_ULT_x64.iso

Let's look at the command keys in more detail:

  • u2-creates an image that has only a UDF file system.
  • m- removes restrictions on image size.
  • o- replaces duplicate files with one copy, allowing you to reduce the size of the image.
  • l- volume label, entered without spaces, optional parameter.
  • b- location of the boot file, also without spaces.

The image is assembled quite quickly, the only thing is that with a high degree of probability its size will exceed 4.7 GB and it will not be possible to burn it to a regular DVD disc. In this case, you can use double-layer DVD9 discs, but they are less common on sale and may not be supported by all drive models. In this case, you can split the distribution into two parts, each of which will fit on a standard-capacity DVD. You should also remember the limitation of 32-bit systems that cannot work with wim images larger than 4 GB.

You can split the image with the following command:

Imagex /split e:\win_pe\install.wim e:\win_pe\install.swm 3000

This will create two or more swm file maximum size of 3000 MB. Then delete it from the folder ISO\sources install.wim and place install.swm there, after which we will assemble the image of the first disk:

Oscdimg -u2 -m -lWIN7ULTx64DVD1 -be:\win_pe\etfsboot.com e:\win_pe\iso e:\win_pe\Win7_ULT_x64_DVD1.iso

After this, delete install.swm and copy install2.swm in its place. There is no point in making the second disk bootable, so we will assemble it with a simpler command:

Oscdimg -u2 -m -lWIN7ULTx64DVD2 e:\win_pe\iso e:\win_pe\Win7_ULT_x64_DVD2.iso

Installation from a split image is carried out in the usual way, starting from the first disk; during operation, the installer itself will ask you to change the disk:

This way, you don’t have to worry about the size of the created image, especially if, in addition to updates, it is planned to include voluminous software, for example, the MS Office package, etc. We also recommend that before moving on to deploying workstations from the created distribution, you thoroughly test its operation on a test system.

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