It is no secret that most of the Windows distributions, from those that are laid out on torrent trackers, are custom assemblies. All these assemblies, albeit conditionally, can be divided into two types. The first type includes assemblies with preserved original system components and third-party software integrated into them, the second type includes so-called lightweight assemblies, from which a good half of the components are cut.
It is also no secret that it is precisely such lightweight assemblies that give users the most problems.
Initially, Windows has more features than the average user might need, the system, if I may say so, is given to grow. And so, if a user wants to screw something to his system, the components he previously unused will be even very useful. Now imagine that this very user has a lightweight assembly installed. It is interesting to know who he will remember with an unkind word, the creator of this assembly or himself, so short-sighted, who managed to lead the promised lightness and productivity Lite-systems.
So how can you use only official assemblies? It is not necessary, especially if you have a low-power computer, it is just sometimes better to do everything yourself, that is, build a Windows image yourself, taking into account your needs. How to do this will be described in this article. We propose to create an assembly using the program. It is paid, the price of the home version is 40 dollars who do not want to pay can search the Internet, even if not the newest, but "Cured" and quite working versions.
What is NTLite
Program is a powerful tool for creating modified Windows assemblies. With its help, you can remove from the distribution kit of the system everything that seems superfluous to you, or, on the contrary, add to it something that was not in it initially. allows you to remove system components from images, disable services, set settings, integrate third-party software, registry tweaks, drivers and updates.
Does NTLite require any knowledge from the collector? Yes. You must at least know what purposes certain components serve, otherwise you can get a buggy system at the output. But this is if you are going to facilitate assembly. Integration of third party components is much less risky.
Building your own Windows assembly
Assembly design is a three-step process. The first one unpacks the Windows image, the second one - configures it in the program , the third step is to package the files into an installation image. First of all, unpack the installation file with the archiver. ISO-image with Windows in a separate folder. Let it be called data .
Launch , press the button "Add" and specify the path to the folder with the previously unpacked image ISO... In this case, in the program window you will see the structure of the image, which, by the way, may contain several editions. We will work with the editors Windows 10 Pro... Click on it PKM and select the option "Download"... If the program asks to confirm the conversion of the image Wim v ESD, we confirm the operation. Conversion procedure (downloads) Wim or ESD the image will take some time. Upon completion of the procedure, you will see a panel with several tabs on the left side of the program window. Let's go over them in a quick way.
Removing and disabling components and services
In chapter "Components" contains Windows modules that can be disabled by unchecking them. This includes pre-installed universal applications together with the Defender, hardware support components for some peripheral devices and their drivers, multimedia modules - themes, sounds, wallpapers, etc., network services and applications, for example, a payment manager NFC, system components - Hyper-V, subsystem Linux, symbol editor, shadow copying and more. Some components are locked by compatibility, which means that they cannot be removed, but can be disabled in the section "Functions". When removing components, you must be careful, carefully read the descriptions, fortunately, they are given in Russian.
In chapter "Functions" components unavailable for removal are disabled, for example, NET Framework... Among the modules available to disable are office games, gadgets, working folders client, indexing and search, subsystem Linux , WMC, service IIS , PowerShell 2.0 , PDF-printer and Internet Explorer , disabling which, by the way, is not recommended, as this may lead to incorrect operation of other programs.
Chapter "Settings" responsible for enable / disable various settings that are valid for all users of the system, section "Services"- per enable / disable system services. Here, as in "Components" you need to be careful not to disable an important service, without which Windows will not even be able to start. This is especially true for services in the tab "Additional services".
Integration of updates, drivers and registry tweaks
The next three tabs contain tools for integrating updates, drivers and registry tweaks into the distribution. If you need to add, say, a new security update or a language pack, click the button "Add" and specify the path to the file CAB , MSU or EXE... The already installed packages are displayed in the same section. With drivers, everything is the same, only the driver must be unpacked, since you will need its configuration inf-file. In the same way, registry tweaks are integrated into the system: press the button "Add" and specify the path to the files REG .
Personal settings and installation of third-party programs
If the assembly is created for yourself, it will not be superfluous to look into the section "Automatic"... Personal user settings are set here: computer name, localization, time zone, network settings, shell options, compression, licensing options (key installation, etc.) , setting is in progress WinPE .
If you want to integrate third-party software into the image, you can do this in the section "After installation" using the function Post-Install... This is also not difficult, just press the already familiar button "Add" and specify the path to the executable files of the applications. The procedure for their installation will be launched one by one at an early stage of the installation of the Windows assembly. Additionally, installation with parameters is supported, - in the field "Parameters" the necessary keys are registered, for example, for a quiet installation.
Saving the settings and packing the assembly into an image
By and large, this is all, it remains only to apply the specified settings and pack the files of the modified assembly into the installation image. Switch to the tab Apply and determine the parameters of the image. When creating an assembly Windows 7 everything can be left by default if it is an assembly Windows 8.1 or 10 , you must select the image format "High compression" at which Wim-image is converted to ESD... After that, tick the checkbox "Create ISO".
Almost everything is ready, you can start packing. After assigning a suitable name to the assembly, press the button "Treatment"... If Defender is enabled on your system, will ask him to turn it off, so things will go faster. The time it takes to create an assembly will depend on the number of specified operations, and the conversion will take most of the time. Wim v ESD (on Windows 8.1 and 10) , on average, the whole procedure takes from 40 minutes to an hour or more. Upon completion, you will receive a ready-made installation image that can be written to a USB flash drive or optical disc.
If you often have to reinstall the system or have a fleet of machines with fixed software and settings, then you should think about creating your own distribution.
In my situation, it was an office with a fleet of laptops and a certain number of programs and strict settings.
So, given:
The original distribution of Windows 7, let it be Starter for example.
A certain number of programs, for example:
1. Office 2007 Standart Rus
2. Google Chrome
3.7zip
4. Notepad ++
5. PuntoSwitcher
6. FoxitReader
7. Skype
8. MS Essential
9. TeamViewer Host
Settings for all users:
1. Taskbar - use small icons
2. Notification area icons - Always show all icons
3. Games uninstall
6. Mapping network drives
We will need the same tools:
0. Your work computer (PC1) with installed Windows 7 system of any bit. In the case of x64 there is a nuance, but more about it below.
1. The Windows 7 installation disk (in my case x86 Starter) can be downloaded from the Internet or from MSDN - whoever has access to the subscription, for experiments, we do NOT even need a product key. Windows 7 is normally installed without it, and after installation, we can "mock" a fully functional system for at least 30 days.
2. The installation disk WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit), you can download, quite safely, from the Microsoft website.
3. Virtual machine (VM), or a physical machine (PC2) - if available.
5. Distributions of applications that will be installed on the system and will subsequently be deployed during the installation of the operating system, automatically (I installed everything from www.ninite.com).
Action plan.
1. Installing the operating system from the Windows 7 installation disc
2. Now let's apply the registry tweaks.
3. Preparing the system using the sysprep utility.
4. Let's move on to preparing the Windows PE image
5. Capturing an image of the installed system.
6. Creation of a distributive ISO image.
7. Integration of drivers into the image.
Let's get started.
1. Installing the operating system from the Windows 7 installation disc
Install Windows 7 Starter in VM or PC2. I advise you to make the first image x86 in any case, for training and something else, about which below.
The installation is not fraught with any tricks. If you plan to save the customized image to a non-system disk partition, use the installer to create partitions and create two partitions in VM (or PC2) during installation.
Advice... When installing the system on VMWare Workstation or Virtual Server 2005, you can connect a second virtual disk and later use it to save the image. This will make it easier to copy the image to your production environment, since these virtual machines have the ability to connect a virtual disk to a physical system.
Proceed with the installation until the OOBE phase. It is easy to recognize when prompted to select an account name and computer name.
At this stage, without choosing an account name , press CTRL + SHIFT + F3. This key combination will put the system into audit mode with the privileges of the built-in Administrator account.
The system will reboot and the message "The installation program is preparing the computer for the first use" appears. Then you will see the desktop:
Do not close this window. If, nevertheless, they closed it, what to do will be described below.
Now you can install the necessary programs, I also installed updates through Windows Update. If the application requires a system restart to install, you can do so. After rebooting, the system will return to audit mode.
In the "Control Panel - Programs and Features" through the "Turn Windows features on or off" snap-in, I disable games and the Windows gadgets platform, enable the telnet client (sometimes it helps for diagnostics).
2. Now let's apply the registry tweaks.
The peculiarity of using tweaks at this stage is that we cannot apply custom settings in the usual way, because the real user does not exist yet, which means that his registry does not exist either. The solution to the problem is reduced to setting the default user (Default User), which will become a donor for all subsequently created users.
The default user registry file is located at the path C: \ Users \ Default \ NTUSER.DAT and to make changes to it, you need to connect this file to the active registry. To do this, run the command:
reg load HKEY_USERS \ Custom C: \ Users \ Default \ NTUSER.DAT
Now you can open the registry (WIN + R >> regedit) and make sure that there is a new branch HKEY_USERS \ Custom, in which we just have to make the settings.
We apply the following settings:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Use small icons on the taskbar
"TaskbarSmallIcons" = dword: 00000001
; Show all icons and notifications in the notification area
"EnableAutoTray" = dword: 00000000
; Prohibiting the use of USB sticks
"Start" = dword: 00000004
After applying this tweak, unload the registry file with the command:
reg unload HKEY_USERS \ Custom
If all programs are installed and all settings are made, then preparation is performed using the sysprep utility.
3. Preparing the system using the sysprep utility.
In a manual system installation, the sysprep utility runs when you enter audit mode. To prepare the system for further use (in this case, for creating a customized image), you need to set the parameters to the utility, as shown in the figure below.
Or. if you accidentally close this window with the command:
% SystemRoot% \ system32 \ sysprep \ sysprep.exe / generalize / oobe / shutdown / quiet
The first three command line parameters are listed in the same order as the above parameters for the graphical interface of the utility. Parametr / quiet- provides quiet operation and is necessary for automation. Now let's look at the last two.
After sysprep shutdown, the system will shutdown. Now it is fully configured, and you can create an image of it using the utility ImageX .
4. Let's move on to preparing the Windows PE image
Windows Preinstallation Environment, what it is, you can read on Wikipedia.
In short, this "thing" is loaded during the Windows installation and is a shell for the installer.
Further actions are performed on the working computer PC1.
We need to install WAIK. Thereafter:
We are creating a distribution kit of Windows 7 Starter, then the image for capturing will be Windows PE x86. To begin with, open the command line, WIN + R, write CMD in it and press Enter.
Go to the folder with the WinPE files:
cd c: \ Program Files \ Windows AIK \ Tools \ PETools
Now, we need to copy the Windows PE files. Let's name the folder win_pex86 and copy the x86 architecture files into it, the folder does not need to be created in advance, it is created automatically when copying.
copype.cmd x86 d: \ win_pex86
Also, we need to throw ImageX to d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO folder
copy "c: \ Program Files \ Windows AIK \ Tools \ x86 \ imagex.exe" d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO
Just in case, we will add a memory diagnostic tool to our disk, by default it is not added, but it is present in the menu, this is done in case when incomprehensible system glitches occur during installation and a memory test can greatly make life easier when the cause of the failure is not clear. but there is no way to download and cut into a disc:
copy c: \ Windows \ Boot \ PCAT \ memtest.exe d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO \ boot
Now, we need to add a Windows PE image that will boot from our disk.
The d: \ win_pex86 folder contains the winpe.wim file, which is exactly what we need, it must be copied to the d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO \ sources folder and renamed to boot.wim, let's do this.
Copying the Windows PE image
copy d: \ win_pex86 \ winpe.wim d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO \ sources
Go to the folder:
cd d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO \ sources
Rename the winpe.wim file to boot.wim
rename winpe.wim boot.wim
With the main task, everything, we need to create a bootable ISO image that can be written to an empty disc, for this we need to go:
Start-> All Programs-> Microsoft Windows AIK->, copy the following there:
oscdimg -n -bd: \ win_pex86 \ etfsboot.com d: \ win_pex86 \ iso d: \ win_pex86 \ winpe.iso
Attention. Here everything is OK with spaces, errors in the record -bd: ... no.
As a result of all our actions, the winpe.iso file will appear in the d: \ win_pex86 folder, this is an image ready for writing to a disc. You can write to a blank disk or directly mount in a VM.
5. Capturing an image of the installed system.
We need to boot from winpe.iso, which we created on PC2 or VM.
The Windows PE shell is as follows:
We are not afraid :) everything is as it should be.
Enter notepad, press Enter.
Through File-open, we examine our disks in order to determine which of them is who.
For example, in my case, the C: drive with Windows 7 Starter installed became the E: drive, and the D: drive remained so. And the drive with the winpe.iso image has the letter F:.
We remember these moments, or better write them down :)
We close the notebook and cut the image of the installed Windows 7 Starter.
f: \ imagex.exe / capture E: d: \ install.wim "Windows 7 Starter" "My Windows 7 Starter"/ compress maximum / verify
This command uses the following parameters:
/ capture E: - capture section E:
d: \ install.wim - location and name of the saved .wim file. Specify the drive letter corresponding to the non-system partition or USB drive.
"Windows 7 Starter" is the name of the image. The name must be enclosed in quotation marks.
"My Windows 7 Starter" - (optional) description of the image. The description must be enclosed in quotation marks.
/ compress maximum - (optional) the type of compression of the files in the image. Valid values for this parameter are maximum (maximum compression), fast (fast compression), and none (no compression). If not specified, fast compression is used. Maximum compression reduces the size of the image, but takes longer to capture than fast compression. Image decompression speed is practically independent of the type of compression.
/ verify - Provides verification of file resources for errors and duplications during creation and application. This option is enabled by default for network operations.
At maximum compression, capturing an image can take quite a long time.
Capture in progress:
While the image is being created, we go for a walk / drink coffee / eat, etc.
We previously created a folder along the path d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO, we will need it again, in it we will collect the installation image, from the ISO folder we need to delete all its contents and copy into it, the contents of the installation disk from Windows 7 by going copy the install.wim file to the d: \ win_pex86 \ ISO \ sources folder (which we got when we captured the system), because this folder already contains a file with the same name, then we agree to a replacement.
Basically, now you need to integrate the drivers into the distribution. But if this is not necessary, then the next item can be skipped.
6. Integration of drivers into the image.
Start-> All Programs-> Microsoft Windows AIK-> Deployment Tools Command Prompt on behalf of the Administrator.
Mount the image:
dism / mount-wim /wimfile:d:\win_pex86\ISO\sources\install.wim / index: 1 / mountdir: d: \ win_pex86 \ mount
11/27/2009, Fri, 15:11, Moscow time
Deploying an OS in an organization very often involves the use of customized assemblies that include pre-created settings, necessary drivers and system libraries required to work with Windows. To create them, there are special tools, united under the general name Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK). In Windows 7, this product has already reached the second version and provides more flexible options for creating installation images of the system. How can I use it to create a Windows 7 image for a company installation?
The second version of the Windows AIK is currently being released to create Windows 7 installation images. In the previous (Windows AIK 1.1) version of this package of tools, developed for creating installation images of Windows Vista / 2008 Server, the composition of software components was determined that are responsible for integrating drivers and service packs into the final distribution, setting up the Windows installer, running additional commands after installation ... Here, for the first time, WIM files were used - a special format for representing images of an operating system, which is independent of hardware, and which can be edited in order to include modified OS distributions in them. Thus, for example, an IT specialist has the right to create a WIM file for installing several OS editions from the same media. Accordingly, using the Windows AIK, you can predefine the progress of all three parts of a Windows installation - copying files to disk for the first time, creating and saving a configuration based on the detected hardware, and finally installing the operating system directly. Thus, it is possible to implement a scenario of mass OS installation on devices with the same hardware configuration, for example, on a batch of laptops (if we are talking about an OEM installation of Windows) or on office computers of the same type (for example, in the case of deploying the system in a heterogeneous IT infrastructure of one company ).
We start preparing
To work with Windows AIK 2.0, you will need to download the ISO image of the toolbox itself, which must either be burned to DVD media or mounted to a virtual drive.
Windows AIK autorun window contains all the necessary tools
During installation, the user will be presented with an autorun window containing several items. At this step, you can download additional software components - Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) to check the compatibility of installed programs with Windows 7; Microsoft Assesment and Planning (MAP), which allows you to analyze the possibility of installing Windows 7 in the existing IT infrastructure of a company, as well as the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT), a set of special tools that automate the system installation process. Windows AIK 2.0 can run on Windows XP SP3 and higher, for correct operation the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 must be installed in the system.
First stage. Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit
The first step in preparing an image for a Windows 7 installation begins with running the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAP). This tool is designed for hardware inventory and provides an opportunity to analyze the feasibility of installing the system on existing configurations of workstations and servers. The Windows AIK 2.0 uses the fourth version of MAP, which includes more visual tools for analyzing the readiness of computer hardware for the implementation of Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2. These include a reporting system that includes advice on upgrading hardware, reassigning server roles that define computers on which to install the hypervisor, the ability to use NAP on an organization's LAN, and so on. Such data is illustrated by preliminary calculations of the savings from migration to the new system.
Data collection is carried out in standard ways - the user launches a special wizard, sequentially specifying the settings for access to computers, importing a list of machines from Active Directory, and so on. Upon completion of the work, the wizard will display a report on the prospects for introducing a new OS.
Second phase. Windows AIK and DSIM
Microsoft provides IT professionals in the Windows AIK with a special DSIM tool that allows them to add drivers for peripheral and internal devices (both 32- and 64-bit), additional language packs, change the composition and number of OS components and its updates. Let's consider the basic principles of the DSIM system.
In addition to DSIM, you can enable and disable Windows components (for example, included in some versions of games or additional network services) using the OSSetup command line. It works with CBS and MSI files, which have their own associated EXE installers. With its help, you can define server roles in the case of customizing the distribution for Windows Server 2008 R2.
It can be used to manage the components included in the Windows 7 / Server 2008 R2 distribution image by running from the command line with specific parameters. For example, using / Add-Driver, you can add a driver INF file, including an unsigned one (if you specify the / ForceUnsigned command). In addition, DSIM allows you to include and exclude packages that include system components or offline installation files for OS updates from a finished Windows image. To do this, the user through the commands / Get-PackageInfo and / Get-Features (of a specific package) can get information about all the functionality of certain CAB or MSU files and decide to include / remove one or another component (or components) from Windows 7. A similar method is used to configure the regional settings of the system (translation of the interface, connecting keyboard layouts, time zones) and applications installed via Windows Installer.
Stage three. Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)
At this stage, the user creates an OS image directly, including drivers, service packs, additional application programs, and so on. These processes take place in the Deployment WorkBench. To do this, you will need to create a special directory (repository) called Deployment Share using a convenient and simple wizard. It will contain all the necessary files that will be required for further work. The next step is to launch another wizard, this time offering to download the files themselves for installation. They can be copied both from an existing Windows installation disc, or from a separate folder on your computer, from a separate WIM file. After you finish copying them to Deployment Share, you can add additional drivers, hot fixes, and applications.
A special wizard is responsible for creating the Deployment Share
To automate the process of installing the system from the selected media, the user can use the Task sequence wizard (it provides several templates or the ability to create a new template that includes pre-created settings and parameters of the installer's work - for example, automatically entering the user name, organization name, Windows 7 serial number, login and the password for the administrator account). In this case, the choice is to use the Standard Client Task Sequence template.
Creation of images for installation is carried out on the basis of existing distributions or WIM files
Upon completion of this operation, files with a customized pre-installation version of Windows (LiteTouch Windows PE) should be created in the Deployment Share folder. To do this, you need to run the Update Deployment Share command, which will create the necessary images - ISO and WIM files.
More detailed settings of the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit are specified in two configuration files - BootStrap.ini (path to the repository, administrator login, domain, password, keyboard layout before entering Windows Deployment) and CustomSettings.ini (a detailed list of settings related to automatic filling and selection of parameters during installation).
The resulting images (ISO and WIM) can be used to create a customized distribution by burning the image to DVD media, or by using a WIM file to further install the distribution (in this case, you must restart the Task sequence wizard, specifying Sysprep and Capture as a template).
As with Windows Vista, IT professionals can use the easy-to-use and intuitive Windows AIK to create customized distributions of Windows 7, just like they do with Windows Vista. Its new version has updated components that simplify routine operations.
We remind you that attempts to repeat the actions of the author may lead to the loss of the warranty for the equipment and even to its failure. The material is provided for informational purposes only. If you are going to reproduce the steps described below, we strongly advise you to carefully read the article to the end at least once. 3DNews editors are not responsible for any possible consequences.
Ten years ago, a new Windows XP operating system emerged from the depths of Microsoft, and with it another WinPE environment, Windows Preinstallation Environment, was released - in fact, the utterly truncated Windows OS, in which utility programs were launched to install the system itself on a computer. On the basis of this environment, it was already possible without much effort to create your own Live-builds of XP - almost full-fledged systems that booted from CD on any (well, almost any) PC and served for relatively narrow tasks like system recovery, anti-virus scanning, data extraction, and then just for super-fast organization of the workplace. With the advent of BartPE, making your own Live CD has become a snap. Alas, this product has not been updated for a very long time, and it is not suitable for working with Windows Vista or 7. It was replaced by WinBuilder, with which we will get acquainted exclusively for educational purposes in this material.
Everything is ready? Great, now you can start directly creating a test build. Launch WinBuilder and start configuring. First of all, click the Source button on the right side of the window, where in the Source Directory section we specify the path to our folder with the Windows 7 installation files. Then we go to the Drivers → Driver Package Installer section. In the desired section (x86 or x64), click on the Explore button. A folder will open where we will need to copy the 7z archives with the driver sets that we downloaded earlier. If you need drivers for some specific devices, they will also need to be copied here. (Just do not copy the installer files downloaded from the manufacturer's sites - we only need sets * .inf, *. Sys, * .dll or * .exe.) In VirtualTest, check the Best Emulation item. That, in fact, is all - everything is ready for a trial assembly. We press Play and wait until all the scripts run - the speed of their execution depends on the power of your PC, but you will hardly have to wait more than half an hour.
If everything went smoothly, then WinBuilder will launch the virtual machine with the freshly created live image of the system. Otherwise, the program will show an error, write its details to the log file and offer a solution to the problem. After running in a virtual machine, it becomes obvious that Windows 7 is really cut down on the most I can not - neither Aero, nor standard utilities, nor anything else. You can only launch the PENetwork icon from the desktop and configure the network connection. In general, it is boring and has no practical meaning. Well, let's get down to customizing the distribution kit for ourselves.
We go through all the sections and change or add the necessary settings. In the main configuration, you can safely change the default screen resolution and select a theme for the bootloader - it is not recommended to touch the rest. In Shell, you can enable a choice of different extensions for the standard Windows Explorer. Components enable / disable standard Windows 7 utilities. Here, in the Additional Files subsection, you can add your own files to the assembly. Not programs, but documents, media files, or something else. Click Directory Example and see an example of which folders can be used. Then click Open Source Directory and copy the files we need according to the example. In the Tweaks section, you can change, for example, the wallpaper on the desktop or enable the coveted Aero interface and add a sidebar with gadgets. Just keep in mind that the more you choose features (scripts, components, files), the longer the build process will take.
Applications are also added to the assembly using scripts, which are sometimes also called plugins. A large set of ready-made scripts can be found. There, on the developer forum, there are various add-ons to WinBuilder. The downloaded script must be placed in the C: \ WinBuilder \ Projects \ Win7PE_SE \ Apps folder, in one of the existing subdirectories, or you must create separate directories for convenience. After that, we restart WinBuilder, include new utilities in the assembly and, if necessary, change their settings. Please note that for some applications you will have to download their installer (usually this happens automatically) or perform some other actions. All this should be described in the ReadMe script.
If there are no ready-made scripts for the applications you need, then you will have to create them yourself. For this we need the MakeScript utility. Download the archive with the standalone version and unpack it, for example, in C: \ MakeScript. The best option is to use portable versions of the required applications or pre-install them on your PC. In the second case, you need to be careful, since most programs have long been writing a mountain of data to the registry, shoving their files into different folders on the computer and doing a lot of other things during installation. However, the finished script may not be available due to licensing restrictions, although there are no problems with the application itself.
Let's take a look at Skype conversion as an example. Download its portable version and install it in C: \ SkypePortable. Run MakeSript, select the desired folder and exe-file, change the name of the future script if necessary. We pass to the Customize section, where you can set some parameters of the future application - import branches from the registry, set file associations, change the description and name, and so on. For small programs, it makes sense to package them directly into a script (Encode files in script) or compress them in 7z. Finally, at the last stage, click on the big Make It button and wait for the script to be created. By default, finished assemblies are saved in C: \ MakeScript \ Script. For enthusiasts who are eager to manually write their own script, you can recommend this instruction, as well as the WinBuilder wiki.
The finished ISO image of the system is saved by default in a folder with this name in the root of WinBuilder. In the minimal configuration, it will just fit into a standard CD-blank. We are also interested in creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 PE. To do this, in the WriteMedia section, check the Copy to USB-Device box and select the drive letter of our flash drive. When you enable the script (Copy to USB), we will be prompted to format the drive using the HP USB Format Tool in FS NTFS or FAT32. Then you will need to install the Grub4Dos bootloader. We select the Disk item and in the drop-down list we find our USB flash drive - we need to search by the volume of the drive. Look, don't mix anything up! In the Part list, select Whole disk (MBR), and in the options, check the Don’t search floppy box. It remains to click Install, Quit and wait until everything you need is copied to the USB drive. That's it, the bootable USB drive is ready!
Now you can try booting from a USB flash drive and see how everything works and if there are any errors. Before writing to a USB flash drive, it is still recommended to run the system in a virtual machine. The system requirements for our assembly are about the same as for the regular Windows 7. Do not get carried away with the excessive addition of functionality - the more complex the system, the higher its hardware requirements and the greater the likelihood of errors. Remember to update WinBuilder, all scripts and your distribution regularly as well. On this, perhaps, we can finish. Good luck!
