Whether you are new to image servicing, or come from other programs, this guide will help you learn the Windows deployment tools and set up your deployment workbench.
Understanding the Windows deployment and setup tools
To begin, we will have to go back to the Windows Vista days, in order to understand its setup and deployment tools. Don't worry, this is not a long section.
Before this operating system, the installation CD contained all the files of the Windows installation in a compressed manner, but did not contain an entire Windows installation in one file. For example, each file from 3D Pinball was compressed into their own files. This meant that you needed the CD at all times during the Setup process, until the very end. If you ejected it during installation, it would tell you to insert it again:
Constant transfers from the CD to the computer's HDD also meant that installation would take a while.
Given these drawbacks, Microsoft started work on a new setup system during the development of Windows Vista (codenamed Longhorn) that would install Windows in less than 15 minutes:
Myers says the goal is for an unattended setup of Longhorn to take less than 15 minutes from start to finish. Compared to the 45- to 60-minute install time for Windows XP, that's amazing, though Longhorn pre-alphas are still quite slow.
— Paul Thurrott, "Longhorn Setup and Deployment Strategies"
This resulted in the WIM file format, which is a single file containing one or more complete installations of Windows. This means that the computer only needs to perform transfers from installation media to the HDD once: during image expansion.
Obviously, because you're working with new deployment formats and standards, existing technology will not work, so Microsoft included a couple of deployment, management, and servicing tools as part of the Windows Vista AIK.
During the development of Windows 7, Microsoft listened to customer feedback and streamlined all these tools into one application that would also be integrated with the operating system. Called DISM, this program is able to perform every feature found in the previous Windows Vista programs, and a lot more, thanks to improvements done in later versions of Windows.
DISM is a command-line utility with a syntax that may look difficult to you. However, there are a couple of user interfaces available at your disposal, this being one of them.
What DISMTools offers to you
As a user interface for DISM, DISMTools offers some interesting features:
- It is the first project-based UI, allowing for easier organization of your work
- It provides rich information at speed, and offers tools that help you with your management tasks. More on that can be found on Stage 2 of this tour
- It offers built-in tools for image deployment and testing. More on that can be found on Stage 3 of this tour
In this Stage, you will learn the basic tasks.
Creating your first project and mounting your first Windows image
To create your first project, simply click the "New project..." link on the home screen, or go to File > New project...
The following dialog will be shown:
Type the name and location of your project. You can go wild with the name. Afterwards, click OK.
After the project is created, you will be greeted by the project view:
Before you get to do anything with your newly created project, you need to mount a Windows image. To do this, click the Mount image... button. You will see the following dialog:
Specify a Windows image, the location to mount it to, and the index. You can configure additional options, but they are not required in most cases.
How do I get a Windows image?
Windows images are usually found in the install.wim file, which is located in the sources folder of your Windows installation media. You can also find them in the install.esd file, which is a compressed version of the WIM file. This file is usually found in the same location as the WIM file.
After you copy it, specify it in the dialog, like this:
Configure the remaining settings that were previously mentioned, and click OK. Then wait for the operation to complete.
Throughout the usage of DISMTools, you will see this progress panel. In here, you can look at operation logs and the DISM command-line output. Click one of the links below to see both sections:
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You can switch to either section by clicking the buttons on the bottom left.
After the mount operation is done, you will return to the project view, but with more stuff to explore:
I've done it. Now what?
After mounting your image, you can continue in 2 ways:
- On your own, or
- With help from the remaining Stages of this tour
If you want to continue with the tour, click the Stage 2 button on the top right to go to its text version.
If you want to continue with the tour using the video format, click here.