Imagex or Dism

[Efo74]

Hello Autoit Forum,

I read in some forums that the tool imagex has been "deprecated", and now the tool to use to capture Windows image is Dism. I made an automated preinstallation of PC based on windowsPE 4.1 and Autoit, I can still continue using Imagex in Windows 10 or do I have to change the source for autoit to use the new Dism ? I want to know what are the drawbacks of using imagex ?

Thank you

 

[Jon]

It should work fine as long as you use the version that comes with the Windows 10 ADK. They just want people to use DISM as the go-to tool. Imagex used the same DLL for WIM imaging as DISM the last time I checked. I'll admit I've not looked at the latest version yet. I need to do that soon-ish to see if I can update GImageX to work.

[Efo74]

I am honored in having the answer to you Jon, and thank you for this wonderful language that you have created. I had lost the desire to write programs (I started in MS-DOS with the Borland Turbo C 2.0), then I found Autoit only in 2007 (and did not seem real could exist) Thank you Thank you Thank you !!!!. .... .Now I will try to use Dism if this is the official tool.

[timkatje]

I really hope we're able to get an updated version that works nicely with Windows 10.  GImageX is way easier to teach to techs than imagex or dism.  

Could I ask for a new feature, if you do manage to work on GImageX again?  And please excuse me if it's already supported and I just haven't figured it out yet...

But could GImageX support split wim files like the cli version does?  It would need to recognize the first split file as image.swm and then use the /ref flag with arguement image*.swm to know the pattern to search for the remaining split files.

Thanks for your consideration.

-Tim

[Tony4219]

feedback:

I was finally able to get GimageX 2.1.1 to work in Win10PESE x64.

I followed your Help info to place parts of the  ADK in the same folder with GimageX itself (on the X: partition of X/Y usbstick.  I used the Win10 ADK, since this is for Win10PESE preboot environment.

I don't know if it helped or not but I added wofadk.sys to these:

wimgapi.dll
wimmount.sys
wimmountadksetupamd64.exe
wimprovider.dll
wimserv.exe
imagex.exe

You do have to run "wimmountadksetupamd64.exe /install" each new session.

You absolutely have to use a newly created, virgin, folder as the mountpoint each time.

It WORKS!  I was able to mount a WIM, modify it, Capture a new WIM and tested it ok.

I don't know why Unmounting leaves the files behind or how it knows a preexisting folder is somehow 'dirty' but that must be due to Windows 10. On a Windows 10 computer with ADK installed the SAME thing happens: Unmounting leaves the files behind, and you cannot juse just any old empty folder but must create a new one each time.

 

[in Win7PESE x64, with GimageX, older version, I can use the same mount point over and over] The Win7PESE script was written by someone else and had references to wimfltr, which is not a separate item in the Win10 ADK that I can find, BUT IF YOU TRY TO RENAME THE ORIGINAL WIM WITHOUT REBOOTING YOU GET A MESSAGE THAT WIMFLTR V 2 EXTRACTOR IS USING THE FILE.]

Thanks!

Tony4219