Create a Custom Windows Image with Pre-installed Apps (WIM/ISO)

In this guide, we’ll cover how to create a custom Windows 10/11 installation image with pre-installed apps, necessary files, and other environment and application settings. Currently, many admins prefer deploying a clean Windows image and then installing all required applications and tools afterward. This can be done using software deployment via GPO, using the installation commands defined in AutoUnattend.xml or with the %WINDIR%\Setup\Scripts\SetupComplete.cmd script (allow to install software during OOBE), as well as GPO logon scripts. or using other automation tools (SCCM, Intune, MDT, Ansible).

However, in some cases, business specifics require that a fully pre-configured Windows image containing all the necessary programs be deployed to end-user computers. Such an image can be rapidly deployed across multiple machines within an organization without the need for manual software installation or basic system configuration. This article has been updated to reflect the latest Windows 11 25H2 build.

The process of creating your custom Windows installation image with pre-installed software can include the following steps:

1. Deploy a clean Windows instance on a reference computer (virtual machine).
2. Boot Windows in Audit Mode, then install the apps and configure the environment.
3. Boot the device into the WinPE environment and use the DISM command to capture the WIM image of the installed Windows.
4. Replace the original install.wim file on the installation USB stick (ISO image).

Build a Reference Windows Image with Pre-installed Software

The first step is to create a reference image of Windows with all the programs, files, and settings you need. Perform a clean Windows installation on either a virtual machine or a physical computer.

Download the original Windows 11 installation image as an ISO file, or use the Media Creation Tool or Rufus to burn it directly to a bootable USB flash drive.

Perform a manual Windows installation and press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 at the OOBE stage (when prompted to select regional settings and create an account). This will put the computer into Audit Mode, and you will be automatically logged in using the built-in Administrator account

When the desktop appears, minimize the Sysprep window (don’t close it!!). Then you can start installing programs and updates, and configuring the necessary Windows settings.

Download and install all the latest updates for your version of Windows (either automatically via Settings > Windows Update, manually, or using the PowerShell update management module).

Install all the necessary software, such as Microsoft Office, and install any device drivers, tools, services, and apps that your users need.

I will use the built-in WinGet package manager to install various apps and tools on Windows. Please note that apps should be installed for all users of the computer (--scope machine), not just the current user (otherwise, this will cause additional problems when preparing the image via Sysprep, as discussed below).

winget install -e --scope machine 7zip.7zip Git.Git Microsoft.VisualStudioCode Microsoft.Sysinternals Notepad++.Notepad++ VideoLAN.VLC WinDirStat.WinDirStat dotPDN.PaintDotNet IrfanSkiljan.IrfanView

I also manually created directories and copied files for several business apps

Create the desktop shortcuts, customize the Start menu and Taskbar layout, pin items to the taskbar, customize wallpapers, screensavers, color schemes, and more.  Configure local Group Policy settings using the gpedit.msc editor. These settings will be applied to all computers that you deploy from this custom Windows image.

Check if the BitLocker encryption is disabled for the system drive (in Windows 11, BitLocker drive encryption is automatically enabled on all supported devices):

manage-bde -status

Disable the BitLocker encryption:

manage-bde -off C:

Once you have finished configuring the operating system and applications, you need to prepare the system for deployment, clean up, and optimize Windows to minimize the final image size.

Delete the C:\Windows.old folder (otherwise, a Windows installation error will appear when deploying from such a WIM image.):

rmdir c:\windows.old -Force -Recurse

Delete existing shadow copies and system restore points:

vssadmin delete shadows /All /Quiet

Clean up unused components and update files in the WinSxS folder:

Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase

Delete the Windows Update cache files:

del %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\Download\*.* /f /s /q

Perform a disk cleanup using the cleanmgr tool:

Cleanmgr /sagerun:1

Clear the Event Viewer logs:

for /F "tokens=*" %1 in ('wevtutil.exe el') DO wevtutil.exe cl "%1"

Empty the Recycle Bin in Windows:

Clear-RecycleBin -Force

To apply the current user’s settings to the Default user (used as a template when creating new Windows users), create an unattend.xml answer file in the C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep directory.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="specialize">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
</component>
</settings>
</unattend>

The final step is to use the sysprep.exe tool to prepare your custom Windows 11 image for deployment. Expand the Sysprep window and select the following options:

• Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)
• Generalize
• Shutdown

You may receive the following error after running the Sysprep command:

Sysprep was not able to validate your Windows installation. Review the log file at %WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\Panther\setupact.log for details. After resolving the issue, use Sysprep to validate your installation again.

Open and analyse the Sysprep log file (setupact.log) in the %WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep\Panther directory for the most recent errors.

In my case, the last error in the setupact.log file indicates that the Notepad++ Microsoft Store app is installed only for the current user and has not been provisioned for all users in the Windows image:

Error  SYSPRP Package NotepadPlusPlus_1.0.0.0_neutral__7njy0v32s6xk6  was installed for a user, but not provisioned for all users. This package will not function properly in the sysprep image.
Error  SYSPRP Failed to remove apps for the current user: 0x80073cf2.

To successfully prepare the image with SysPrep, you need to:

• Uninstall this Microsoft Store app: Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | where-object {$_.PackageFullName -like '*NotepadPlus*'}| Remove-AppPackage –AllUsers -verbose
• Or, you can install the app into the system account using the Add-AppxProvisionedPackage command, which will automatically install the app for all new users.

Run the Sysprep again. If the error persists, repeat these steps for each Microsoft Store app that appears in the error log.

When this process is complete, the computer will automatically shut down.

Capture a Custom Windows Image Using DISM

At this stage, you will need to capture an offline Windows image from a local drive, save it as a WIM file, and place it on a separate drive (we connected an empty 60 GB drive to the computer).

Boot the computer with the referenced Windows image into the WinPE or WinRE environment. If you are using a Windows installation USB stick, boot the computer from it and press Shift+F10 to open the command prompt.

Identify the drive letters assigned to the Windows partition and the empty drive to which the WIM file will be copied. Run the commands:

diskpart
list disk
exit

In this example, the drive containing Windows is assigned the letter E: and the empty drive is D:.

To capture an offline Windows image drive E:\ and save the resulting WIM image to the drive D:\, run the command:

dism /capture-image /imagefile:D:\install.wim /capturedir:E:\ /ScratchDir:D:\ /name:"MyWinImage" /compress:maximum /checkintegrity /verify /bootable

It took about 30 minutes to capture the image in my case.

Replace the Original Install.wim File in the Windows Installation Image

Once you have captured your customized Windows image, you can replace the original install.wim or install.esd image file in the\sources folder on the installation USB flash drive or ISO image file (ESD is the compression format with the highest compression ratio used for WIM files).

In my case, I renamed the old image file to install.esd_bak and copied the new install.wim image to the USB stick.

Note that the WIM image size with pre-installed software has increased significantly, from 7GB to 10GB.

If you use a FAT32 bootable USB key to install Windows on UEFI computers, you cannot save a WIM file larger than 4GB to this file system. A large WIM image file must be split into several smaller SWM files:

Dism /Split-Image /ImageFile:D:\sources\install.wim /SWMFile:c:\tmp\install.swm /FileSize:3500

In this case, DISM will create the following files install.swm, install2.swm, install3.swm, and so on. Copy these files to the \sources folder on the installation media or ISO image. When Windows Setup installs the operating system, it merges the SWM files.

Now you can use your bootable USB flash drive to deploy the Windows image you created to any computer (you can also install Windows over the network using PXE boot).

Windows 11 Installation has failed

Check that all preinstalled apps are available after Windows installation is complete:

Get-Package

The downside of this method of deploying a preconfigured Windows image is that you have to rebuild the image to update any of the apps it contains.