Building a Basic Windows 7 Hardware Independent Image

This post should give you the basics in how to build a Windows 7 image that contains drivers for many different models.  Image creation can be fairly straight forward or it can be very involved depending on how much you want to customize it.

What you will need:

1. Windows 7 Installation CD / DVD
2. WAIK installed on your computer
3. A computer to build the image on (if you have VMWare or a HyperV server that would be better)
4. A USB flash drive large enough to hold your image and WinPE (8 gig drive is OK if your image is pretty thin, 16 gig drive should do it unless your image is really big)

Create Bootable USB with WinPE 3.0

There are endless things you can do with WinPE, but first you must learn to hold it in stillness.

What you will need:

1. Download WAIK from Microsoft and install it on your computer
2. USB Drive (should be at least 512MB)
3. Computer with Windows 7

First, let's create the WinPE files.

1. Go to Start > All Programs > Microsoft Windows AIK - then right click on "Deployment Tools Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator".

2. At the command line type the following:  "copype x86 c:\winpex86" without the quotes of course.  This will copy the WinPE files to the location c:\winpex86.   If you need to create a 64bit WinPE boot image, then type the following:  "copype amd64 c:\winpex64".

3. Now copy the following file: C:\winpex86\winpe.wim  to the following folder  C:\winpex86\ISO\sources.  After you copy the file in that folder, rename "winpe.wim" to "boot.wim".

Outline for making a Hardware Independent XP Image

For anyone interested in building a hardware independent XP image, here is a quick outline on how to make one.

1. Install Windows XP Pro on a computer that has a multi-processor HAL.  You can determine if your computer is a multiprocessor by right clicking on "My Computer" and then clicking on "Manage".  Then go to "Device Manager" and expand "Computer".

2. Do NOT install third party drivers.

3. Collect drivers from all model desktops you will be supporting.  A good tool to extract drivers can be found here.  There are other utilities that you can use, but this is a good one you can use.  Once you have extracted the drivers from all model's put them all in a folder called "drivers".  This will go in your sysprep folder later on.