Backport ESD into Windows 7 Setup?

[ppw0]

Is it possible to backport the ability to read solid-compressed WIMs (or to read the ESD format) into the Windows 7 Setup environment with NTLite?

 

[nuhi]

Haven't tried this, but potentially taking the entire Win10 or 11 ISO, and replacing only Install.wim/esd with Win7 one, maybe.
AIO ISOs work with that fact that setup/boot environment will deploy any image you give it.

Make sure to delete, if there, the \sources\ei.cfg file.

You can convert Win7 WIM to ESD by right-clicking it (before loading) on the Image page and choosing Convert - ESD.

Alternatively, similar by using the newer ISO files, but once booted to the disk selection, press Shift+F10 and use DISM to Apply the ESD to the desired partition.

 

[garlin]

Most users solve this problem by dropping a W7 ESD file into a W8 or W10 ISO. Probably not W11, if you need to keep legacy MBR support.

 

[ppw0]

I've attempted this approach, but unfortunately this renders the ISO unbootable under CPUs without NX support.

 

[garlin]

Fall back to 8.1

 

[ppw0]

Fall back to 8.1

That was the version I tried it with.

 

[Clanger]

Why not use 8.1 instead? its close to 7 in resources usage and has inbox usb3 and nvme drivers so no messing around.

 

[ppw0]

Why not use 8.1 instead? its close to 7 in resources usage and has inbox usb3 and nvme drivers so no messing around.

Not only do I lack a license, the ISO also doesn't boot, presumably for the same reason as above (no NX support).

 

[Clanger]

Dont know what hardware you are using, 8.1 installs on intel 8/9th gen very easily and on 10th gen with caveats.

 

[garlin]

The straight answer is then you can't use ESD format, because it requires a 8.1 or higher boot image. If that's not possible, switch to using split WIM's with your image spanning multiple files.

Some people have talked online about bypassing 8.1 CPU checks, but hacking binaries is unnecessarily complicated and that discussion is out of bounds on this site (per forum rules).