Save Install/Boot.wim to New Location Instead of Overwriting

It would be useful if there was an option to select a new location for the Install/Boot.wim files to be saved after processing. The desire here is to allow the original Install/Boot.wim file to remain unchanged, but the new version to be saved somewhere else. Understandably, this would likely cause complications if you wanted to also create an ISO (or perhaps not, I'm not sure) from it in the same process, but I'd still be comfortable with the feature if it meant I couldn't save as an ISO in the same run, and it was simply processed and exported.

This would be useful in conveniently building multiple new images based off a golden .wim, without having to repeatedly replace the new files with the golden copy. This would save me significant amounts of times in experimenting with new builds.
 
Agreed, something like that is in my wishlist for a long time, as I use directory syncing with scripts all this time.

Will bump it up a bit in priority, thanks.
 
You can make a copy/backup first, before you start a new job.

I’ve been using NTLite for over a year, and I build a lot of different versions. I have been doing what you’re suggestion during that time, and I recommended this feature because doing what you’re suggesting grows to be exceedingly tedious and inconvenient to manage.
 
I do not agree with you. Everyone has their own way of working, and how they manage their projects. Give good names to directories/maps and files, and it always remains well-organized. There are only a few files that you have to copy, and not the complete DVD or other media.
 
I do not agree with you. Everyone has their own way of working, and how they manage their projects. Give good names to directories/maps and files, and it always remains well-organized. There are only a few files that you have to copy, and not the complete DVD or other media.

Naming and organization is not the problem; many have told me my file organization skills are some of the best they’ve seen. My concern is that when you’re creating more than a dozen different builds in a day, having to repeatedly duplicate files gets annoying really fast, especially if write speeds aren’t optimal. If you’re content with doing that, then you do you, but as Nuhi voiced, he likes the idea. If you’re familiar with DISM, then you’ll know that exporting the changes to a new file instead of overwriting the old one is easy.
 
I often use a dedicated partition for use with projects involving windows images. I have enabled volume shadow copies on the partition I am using and take advantage of that feature to rollback changes all the time. I agree though, a checkbox somewhere to enable duplication rather than overwrite would be a nice feature.
 
@trentfromrid, I have a sub-question. You mentioned that DISM has the ability to save the changes to another image, are you sure about that?
As far as I know it can export already existing edition from the WIM to another location, NTLite can do that as well (right-click Export from the Source page).
But what would be great if one can save mounted directory changes into another WIM, not the one it was mounted from.
That would simplify the upcoming feature of reading the original source image, and not needing to copy it first, so I would like to know that it's possible.

Thanks.
 
I would like to see an automated copy + protect feature too. It might be a simple as the user initially points NTLite to the image folder, which NTLite then makes Read Only, and then which NTLite makes a copy of the image in the final directory and works on it there. (RO to keep dummies like me from overwriting the base iso in the middle of the night.)
 
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If you want a neat Marketing idea, you could have a "Beginner's Mode" for NTLite, where there's a "box" to drop an iso (like you see on file upload websites). The user would drop the iso into the box, NTLike would automagically mount it (in iso terms), copy the folders, work on the folders, and point the user to a "download" folder to go to (on their computer) to find the processed files. (An "Advanced Mode" would work the way things work now, although I like the idea of NTLite automagically expanding the iso.)
 
@trentfromrid, I have a sub-question. You mentioned that DISM has the ability to save the changes to another image, are you sure about that?
As far as I know it can export already existing edition from the WIM to another location, NTLite can do that as well (right-click Export from the Source page).
But what would be great if one can save mounted directory changes into another WIM, not the one it was mounted from.
That would simplify the upcoming feature of reading the original source image, and not needing to copy it first, so I would like to know that it's possible.

Thanks.

@nuhi;
Before I started using NTLite I was customizing my ISOs from scratch with no external software (Excluding PowerISO for creating a bootable ISO), which included an extensive amount of DISM (It's AIDS, purchasing NTLite was the best software purchase of my life). It's been a year or two since I went the DISM route, but I am pretty sure I always decided to export saved changes to a new WIM instead of saving to the original.

After further testing and research, I'm not confident that DISM has a built in feature for exporting changes while still retaining the original state of the WIM. However, there are some workarounds that accomplish the same end goal, with some consequences.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...agement-command-line-options-s14#export-image

The DISM /Export-Image command is likely what you're looking for.

"Exports a copy of the specified image to another file. The source and destination files must use the same compression type. You can also optimize an image by exporting to a new image file. When you modify an image, DISM stores additional resource files that increase the overall size of the image. Exporting the image will remove unnecessary resource files."

There's a problem with this though. This command will only export committed changes. This is gets tricky when you want to retain the original WIM and still export the new version. There's a few workarounds that I thought of to accommodate for this.

Keep original in place but save new WIM elsewhere
1. Mount (Ex: D:\install.wim)
2. Make Changes
3. Export to same directory (no compress option) (Ex: D:\install1.wim)
4. Commit changes
5. Export with compress option (Ex: D:\New\install2.wim) (cannot use compress without export) (User selects new location)
6. Unmount
7. Delete original wim (D:\install.wim)
8. Rename backup to original filename (D:\install1.wim to D:\install.wim)

Replace original with new but save original elsewhere
1. Mount (Ex: D:\install.wim)
2. Make Changes
3. Export to user selected directory and filename (no compress option) (Ex: D:\Backup\install.wim)
4. Commit changes (If no desire for compression option, then you can unmount here)
If compression option is desired:
5. Export with compress option (Ex: D:\install1.wim) (cannot use compress without export)
6. Unmount
7. Delete original wim (D:\install.wim)
8. Rename new to original filename (D:\install1.wim to D:\install.wim)

There's a few hoops that are necessary and this has the potential to add time to the process, but it's the only way that I'm aware of that could be made to be automated by NTLite.

/Extract-Image includes additional switches for SWM file references, marking the bootable image for WinPE images, appending WIMBoot boot configuration (Windows 8.1 only), file integrity checks, and compression.

"/Compress specifies the type of compression used for the initial capture operation. The /Compress argument does not apply when you export an image to an existing .wim file, you can only use this argument when you export an image to a new .wim file. The maximum option provides the best compression, but takes more time to capture the image. The fast option provides faster image compression, but the resulting files are larger than those compressed by using the maximum option. This is also the default compression type that is used if you do not specify the argument. Use the recovery option to export push-button reset images. The resulting files are much smaller in size, which in turn, greatly reduce the amount of disk space needed for saving the push-button reset image on a recovery drive. The destination file must be specified with an .esd extension. The none option does not compress the captured image at all."

With an image I made using NTLite (W7 Professional, no changes except for additional windows update) I tested the process. The original WIM was 2.60GB. Commiting changes and unmounting without exporting increased file size by 11KB. After exporting using the /Compress:max switch, the new WIM is 2.59GB. So, in this test, without any prior removals, the file size difference is very small with the compress option, so whether or not it's worth the extra time added is up to you.

One thing I have noticed though, is that if I need to replace a file that already exists, I have to delete the file and then re-add it, or else the new version doesn't save over. I experience the same problem with using NTLite as well.
 
@pmikep yeah dropping ISO to the Source page will be done eventually, and read-only mode with option to choose destination.

@trentfromrid, ok that confirms what I suspected, DISM also only edits the mounted image directly.
Sure we can efficiently copy/mount and then choose the destination.
Also except USB destinations, even better would be to choose the destination on Read-only load, that way the image is copied to that final destination before mounting and then edited in-place.
 
@pmikep yeah dropping ISO to the Source page will be done eventually, and read-only mode with option to choose destination.
Bumping topic for v2.2/.3 Beta. You mentioned reading directly from ISO many moons ago :)
My personal preference would be an ISO folder inside the main directory, custom folder for those who prefer that. Tool scans for and lists ISO's, users right click ISO to load. We did have a load from cd/dvd/copy to function(before load) in nLite. Export/Save image to Export folder(in main directory) or custom location. Check file hash before load(using md5 file generated by other tools or the hash itself, copy/pasted text)) and generate file hash for exported ISO's.
 
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