Is it possible to combine different editions of Windows within the program?
- Thread starter Crawfish
- Start date
There are scripts like George King's Windows Setup AIO Builder for 7-10 with install.wim / install.esd, and others.
Follow along if you want to try this by hand. This demo will combine multiple images, and prepare EI.cfg; it doesn't address any post-setup steps.
I assume you have working images to merge.
We're combining different Windows releases in my example, but works exactly the same for different editions of the same release.
NTLite needs a little help, install the Windows ADK and copy \Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64\imagex.exe to an easier location. You might find random copies of imagex online, but stick to the official version.
Extract your ISO images to separate folders (7-Zip, etc).
Add "Image directory" for each distribution, but don't click on anything. Look up which images you want to merge.
Now append each of your selected images to the same WIM (pay attention to image number).
Rename this merged WIM as install.wim, and overwrite the original file in your target's sources folder. The target should be the highest numbered Windows release in your collection. The boot.wim will work with older images.
Now open the folder in NTLite. We have our imported images.
Finally, we need to create sources\EI.cfg to select which editions are eligible for installation. We don't want Setup to automatically pick which edition for us (especially if it finds a previous installation).
Click on your folder name, export to ISO. Now you get the idea; it works for any set of random images. When you combine builds from the same release (W10 Home, Home N, Pro, Pro N, etc.) disk space is reduced by file de-duplication. This won't happen when you have different releases present (W7, 8, 10).
If disk space is no problem, combine as many images as you want. You may encounter the 4GB FAT32 hard limit on install.wim for a UEFI/Secure Boot system. Figure it out.
Post-setup customization will be challenging, you must have scripts or tools which work on every image. This is why AIO's are hard: merging images is easy, scripting & testing them is hard. Can it work? Yes. But don't be upset if people don't help you debug it.
Follow along if you want to try this by hand. This demo will combine multiple images, and prepare EI.cfg; it doesn't address any post-setup steps.
I assume you have working images to merge.
We're combining different Windows releases in my example, but works exactly the same for different editions of the same release.
NTLite needs a little help, install the Windows ADK and copy \Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\amd64\imagex.exe to an easier location. You might find random copies of imagex online, but stick to the official version.
Extract your ISO images to separate folders (7-Zip, etc).
Add "Image directory" for each distribution, but don't click on anything. Look up which images you want to merge.
Now append each of your selected images to the same WIM (pay attention to image number).
Rename this merged WIM as install.wim, and overwrite the original file in your target's sources folder. The target should be the highest numbered Windows release in your collection. The boot.wim will work with older images.
Now open the folder in NTLite. We have our imported images.
Finally, we need to create sources\EI.cfg to select which editions are eligible for installation. We don't want Setup to automatically pick which edition for us (especially if it finds a previous installation).
Click on your folder name, export to ISO. Now you get the idea; it works for any set of random images. When you combine builds from the same release (W10 Home, Home N, Pro, Pro N, etc.) disk space is reduced by file de-duplication. This won't happen when you have different releases present (W7, 8, 10).
If disk space is no problem, combine as many images as you want. You may encounter the 4GB FAT32 hard limit on install.wim for a UEFI/Secure Boot system. Figure it out.
Post-setup customization will be challenging, you must have scripts or tools which work on every image. This is why AIO's are hard: merging images is easy, scripting & testing them is hard. Can it work? Yes. But don't be upset if people don't help you debug it.
DO NOT DISTRIBUTE AIO ISO's. Sharing will violate your license agreement.
THIS IS UNSUPPORTED, DO NOT ASK ME FOR HELP.
THIS IS UNSUPPORTED, DO NOT ASK ME FOR HELP.
Last edited:
What is going on here with all these scripts and steps.
To combine editions in NTLite, from the Source page right-click the edition and choose Export (e.g. WIM format), then select WIM file to which to save it.
Answer Append, not Overwrite when doing so, and done, they are combined.
More info here, let me know if you see anything lacking regarding edition combination.
To combine editions in NTLite, from the Source page right-click the edition and choose Export (e.g. WIM format), then select WIM file to which to save it.
Answer Append, not Overwrite when doing so, and done, they are combined.
More info here, let me know if you see anything lacking regarding edition combination.
maszd
Member
This error appear only in w8.1 installation setup, while the other (w7 and w10) working as expected.
maszd
Member
i'm not integrate any unattended file nor remove anything, just merged from untouched iso (w7 w8 and w10), make it bootable iso.
thanks.
Interesting, try using Win8.1's boot.wim?
Which ISO/boot files did you choose as basis for the merged editions?
That is correct, otherwise I can close the forum and stop upgrading.
maszd
Member
i'm use win10, export install.wim from win7 and win8 to win10.
maszd
Member
aah you right, redownload again and is working fine
thanks!