Hello everyone, we continue to create our Windows 10 disk image, let me remind you that in the first part we installed ADK, you can see it using the link on the left. Now we will prepare Windows 10 itself, everyone will of course do this for themselves, I will just tell you how I get a clean and updated ten, which differs from MSDN, only with fresh updates, which is very important when reinstalling the system, in view of saving a huge amount of time, which you would spend one hundred percent on installing software and updates.
And so I remind you that we will make ISOs based on the original MSDN Windows 10 threshold 2 (you can download the original Windows 10 image from the link on the left from the Yandex disk). Next, to create your image, you will need either a separate laptop, or best of all, a virtual machine on vmware workstation, the convenience is that everything will be done on one computer and you can easily access it, and the ten installed inside the virtual machine will not affect your main one in any way system.
And so we do a clean installation of Windows 10, in my case this is the Professional edition, you can have any other. Now you need to install MS Office and other programs. After which you need to install cumulative windows 10 updates so that when you try to find new ones, they are missing. After the update, be sure to reboot so that you do not have glitches and problems, the most common are
- problems rebooting windows 10
- Windows 10 start button not working
If everything is ok with the system, then you can now begin to prepare it for the reference image. A built-in utility called sysprep will help us with this.
Sysprep on Windows 10
And so the sysprep utility helps to depersonalize the Windows system, what does this mean
- Removing Unique GUIDs and SIDs
- Removing drivers installed for the current operating system
As I wrote above, the utility is built-in and is located along this path.
C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep
Let's launch it.
First of all, it is necessary to audit the system and prepare it for use, set everything as in the picture, if you get the error Sysprep could not verify the installation of Windows, then read how to fix it.
The utility will begin running; it may take a minute or more, depending on the speed of the disks.
After running the utility, your operating system will reboot and automatically log in under the Administrator account.
Now, so that you do not have an old account, when next installation, it needs to be removed. To do this, go to Control Panel > User Accounts
Click Manage another account
As you can see, I have an Iva account, I’ll delete it
Choose complete removal without saving data
As a result, you should only have the Administrator account.
AND last action you must select the item in sysprep > Go to the OOBE system welcome window, check the Prepare for use checkbox, and in the Options select Shut down and click OK. The utility will run and turn off your system.
Want to optimize Windows 10? Then you need to create your own system installer that will install a clean OS without unnecessary applications and add-ons. See how to create a Windows 10 ISO image.
Windows 10 has a number of add-ons that many users never use. Modern programs such as Skype for Windows 10, Weather, Mail, Contacts and Maps are installed along with the system. Not to mention games like Candy Crush Soda Saga from the Windows Store. Added to all this are features that irritate many users, including Microsoft telemetry (data collection), the built-in OneDrive cloud and many other additions that were not included in the widely popular Windows versions 7.
Many are looking for ways to remove these unnecessary applications and functions preinstalled in the system. But you can approach this problem from the other side and make changes to the installation image of the system itself so that these additions are not added at all during Windows installations 10.
This way, you can create your own Windows 10 image, which will immediately install a clean system without unnecessary add-ons.
What do you need to create your own Windows 10 installer?
You can make changes to the ISO image with Windows 10 using the MSMG Toolkit utility. This program allows you to make changes to the ISO image and create your own installer. That is, you can remove all Modern applications from the installation, as well as disable all unnecessary functions.
To create it you will need the specified MSMG Toolkit, as well as the latest ISO image with Windows 10. You can download them from the following links.
Download MSMG Toolkit (file ToolKit-v7.3.7)
Download Media Creation Tool for Windows 10
Launch the Media Creation Tool, then accept the agreement that appears.
In the next step, indicate your next action. Here you can select the system update feature as well as the option to download the Windows 10 installer. Check the second option, that is, “Create installation media for another computer.”
Media Creation Tool will automatically offer to download the appropriate language version of the operating system compatible with the architecture of your computer. If the settings do not match, then uncheck the “Use recommended settings” checkbox and manually specify the version and architecture as 32-bit or 64-bit.
The next screen requires you to specify where you want to download the installer, directly to a flash drive or to an ISO file. In our case, you need to download to ISO file, since before downloading to a USB flash drive you need to create your own installer and make the appropriate changes using MSMG Toolkit. Open the ISO image download option and specify the disk location to download it.
After downloading the utility, unpack it into the specified folder. Before running the tool, you need to unpack the downloaded image into the “DVD” folder inside the MSMG directory.
The ISO image can be extracted using any archiver, such as WinRAR or 7-Zip. To do this, click right click mouse on the image and select “Open with” and select a program like WinRAR.
The data extraction utility window will open. Select the "Extract to..." option and then navigate to the DVD folder which is located inside the MSMG directory.
After unpacking the data, launch MSMG using the ToolKit-v7.3.cmd file. A window will appear notifying you that the author is not responsible for any problems and you must confirm that you are using the service at your own risk. Press A to accept the terms.
The program will check the Windows 10 system image unpacked into the DVD folder. When the message “Press ENTER Key to Continue” appears, press the indicated button.
The main menu will open with the available options. Bookmarks are opened using number buttons. You can return to the main menu with the X button.
Let's move on to how to create a system image in Windows 10 without unnecessary functions and programs.
1. Go to the “Convert” tab and select the “Convert ESD Image to Wim Image” option. When the program asks which version of the operating system you downloaded, select the one you downloaded. The process of converting the Install.esd file to Install.wim will begin.
2. Once the process is complete, return to the main menu and open the “Source” tab and then “Select Source from Folder”. Recognized versions of Windows 10 will appear in the list - press a key, for example, 1, to select the downloaded one. When prompted whether you want to mount the image, confirm with Y (Yes). Wait until the message “Press any key to continue” appears on the screen and press any key to return to the main menu.
3. Go to the “Remove” section and select “Remove Default Metro Apps”. This parameter is responsible for removing Modern applications. You can check the “All Apps” option to remove all programs of this type or “Any individual apps” and specify individual ones to remove. If you want to remove all Modern apps, select All Apps (Windows Store will also be removed).
4. Go back to the “Remove” tab and select “Remove default Metro Apps Associations”. This option allows you to remove all residues and relationships associated with Modern.
5. Go again to the “Remove” tab and open “Remove Components”. Here you can check the “All Windows Components” option to remove all Windows 10 components or the “Any desired option” to remove unnecessary functions yourself.
These components include a telemetry service (data collection), the Xbox application complete with an overlay for games, Geolocation, Cortana, the OneDrive cloud and others.
6. Now return to the main menu and go to the “Apply” option. Confirm saving the changes with the “Apply & Save Changes to Source Images” button.
7. Go to the "Apply" tab again, and this time click on "Rebuild Source Images" to rebuild the installer files and apply the changes you made.
8. Finally, go back to the main menu and open the “Target” option, then go to “Make a DVD ISO Image”. This option will allow you to create your own Windows 10 installer in ISO format, ready to burn to DVD or create a bootable USB flash drive.
The created image will be available in the “ISO” folder in the directory with the MSMG program. Now you can burn an ISO image to a disk or flash drive and install a clean version of Windows 10 from it without unnecessary services and applications.
How to create your own reference Windows assembly 10 – a distribution with system settings carried out, tweaks implemented and desktop software installed? This process will be discussed in detail below, but first let’s talk about the features of our own system builds.
1. Pros and cons of native Windows builds
What are the advantages of native Windows builds? Assembling your own system saves time and effort when installing the system. For example, you can prepare a Windows 10 distribution kit with a standard set of programs for a circle of loved ones: a browser, archiver, torrent downloader, cleaner, uninstaller and similar software for a wide audience will be installed along with the system. The benefits compared to a regular Windows distribution are obvious, but what will we get as opposed to other methods of system deployment? Your own Windows build, the reference image of which was created on a GPT disk, can later be deployed on an MBR disk and vice versa. Whereas transferring a system using backup programs or managers disk space will not help when changing the style of disk partitions. Unlike the latter, the native assembly on the installation media will not be linked to the file backup copy on a non-system disk partition or a removable device, as there will be no need to connect HDD Windows cloning destinations.
Native builds of Windows have three disadvantages. The first is that the distribution kit of its assembly will take up more space than a pure Microsoft distribution kit. But this problem can be solved by using a flash drive with a capacity of at least 8 GB. The second disadvantage is that the Windows installation process will take a little longer than usual, which is due to the deployment of added software. The third disadvantage is the red tape involved in creating the assembly. The effort is unlikely to be worth it if the system is rarely reinstalled.
2. Algorithm of actions
The process of creating your own Windows 10 build will take place in several main stages:
- Creation of a reference image of the system - an ideal state of the system prepared for deployment (with the settings carried out and the software installed, without reference to computer components);
- Capture the reference image into the install.esd file;
- Repacking the original installation ISO image of the system with the replacement of the install.esd file.
3. Windows 10 reference image
You can prepare a Windows 10 reference image different ways, it could be:
- An established system with remote binding to components using the Sysprep utility (see paragraph 7 of the article);
- New Windows 10 installed on another disk partition;
- New Windows 10 on board the virtual machine.
The established system must be thoroughly cleaned - delete files in the user profile folders, clean the “Temp” folders, etc. Otherwise, the distribution kit will turn out to be gigantic in size. It’s easier with new systems: firstly, the distribution package based on them will take up less space, and secondly, during the installation process, a reference image of Windows 10 can be created from scratch in audit mode - a special mode of system operation without the participation of a user account. The audit mode is provided by Microsoft for the implementation of corporate settings and software by OEM suppliers and large organizations before delivering computers to customers and hired personnel, respectively. The end result is a properly configured system with installed desktop software, during the installation phase of which you can create new accounts, set regional parameters, disable options for sending data to Microsoft, etc. In this case, the old account will not be hanging around anywhere.
In our case, we will create a reference image of Windows 10 from scratch in audit mode using Hyper-V. This hypervisor was chosen due to its ease of use and ease of transferring large amounts of data from a virtual machine to the main system. VHDX and VHD disks used in Hyper-V virtual machines are mounted into the main system using File Explorer. Supporters of other hypervisors - VMware Workstation and VirtualBox can use them. To make data easier to access virtual disk from the main system and without bothering with guest OS additions, virtual machines can be created based on VHD disks. Both VMware Workstation and VirtualBox work with VHD disks.
Those who decide to create a reference image of Windows 10 on the second disk partition real computer for the future to help instructions on and complete.
4. Nuances with activation
The concept of your own build of Windows must be distinguished from pirated assemblies of the system that are delivered activated or with an activator on the desktop. The purpose of this article is to simplify the Windows installation process, but not to solve the issue of activating it. The reference image of Windows 10 will be created using tools that do not contradict Microsoft policies - in fact, its own tools. And their use does not guarantee the functionality of activated system builds. Let's remember that Microsoft's requirements are as follows: activation of each copies of Windows, from whatever distribution it is installed, on each individual computer. If the reference image is an activated, established Windows, during the process of removing the binding to components using the Sysprep utility, you must reset the activation (see paragraph 7 of the article).
Looking for a way to transfer activated Windows to other computers.
5. Create a Hyper-V virtual machine
So, to prepare a reference image of Windows 10, we create a virtual machine. The conditions for working with Hyper-V, activating the hypervisor, as well as the process of creating a virtual machine are described in detail in the site article. Only, unlike the example discussed in paragraph 5 of this article, the choice of generation of virtual machines is not important; you can create a machine of the 1st generation. If we do not plan to introduce resource-intensive software such as games, we can limit ourselves to the volume of the created hard drive VHDX in 50-60 GB. Well, the hackneyed advice for SSD owners is that the path for storing virtual machine files and VHDX disk must be specified on the HDD partition. At the last stage of creating a virtual machine, we specify the ISO image, turn on the machine and start the system installation process. The latter will be different from how it usually happens.
6. Installing and configuring Windows 10 in audit mode
We go through the Windows 10 installation process to the stage of selecting the installation type and select the second option.
We will need two partitions - one for Windows, the other non-system, where the install.esd file will subsequently be saved. We create partition C from 30-40 GB.
We give the remaining space to another section.
Installing Windows.
After completing the file copying stage, we do not extract the installation ISO image from the virtual machine; we will need it later. At the installation stage, where you need to set the first settings, we don’t touch anything, just press the Ctrl+Shift+F3 keys.
5 Let's enter audit mode by connecting a hidden administrator account.
Upon logging into the system in audit mode, we are greeted by the Sysprep utility window. The utility will wait for its fate to unbind the configured system from its components. You can start setting up the system. One caveat: it does not work in audit mode Microsoft Edge, to access the Internet you need to run Internet Explorer.
7 As for the limits of intervention in the system, in audit mode we can work with everything that does not relate to user accounts. We can install desktop software, change system settings, apply tweaks, leave folders or files on the desktop. But the universal applications from Windows Store it will not be possible to install. Like Microsoft Edge, the store does not work in audit mode. Even if the system is activated, it will not be possible to change the theme or other personalization parameters. To install universal apps and apply personalization settings, you need a user account, not a hidden administrator account.
If you need to reboot the system, for example, this is required to reinstall some programs, this process must be carried out using the Sysprep window: you must set the values “Switch to audit mode” and “Reboot”. Then click “Ok”.
In parallel with setting up the system, you need to do an important thing - format the non-system partition of the disk.
7. Removing binding to components (Sysprep)
So, the reference system image is ready. Now we can begin the process of removing the binding to components. Open the open Sysprep utility window or launch it by pressing Win+R and entering:
The folder that opens will contain the EXE file for launching the utility.
In the Sysprep window, set the action to “Go to the welcome window (OOBE)”. Check the “Preparing for use” checkbox to reset the activation. In the Shutdown settings, select “Shutdown”. And click “Ok”.
We wait until Sysprep finishes running and the virtual machine is turned off.
8. Create the install.esd file
We check whether it is worth starting the virtual machine from an ISO image of installing Windows 10, and boot from it. We use the installation disk to access the command line. If the reference image of Windows 10 was created on the second disk partition of a real computer, simply go to the main operating system and open there command line.
At the first stage of installing the system, press the Shift+F10 keys.
By using DISM utilities Let's capture the reference system image and save it to the install.esd file. But first, let’s see under what letters the two required partitions are listed - the system partition and the destination partition where install.esd will be saved. Enter:
In our case, the system disk is listed as D, and the non-system disk is listed as E. Therefore, the command to capture a system image will be as follows:
Dism /capture-image /imagefile:E:\install.esd /capturedir:D:\ /name:windows
In this command, accordingly, in each individual case it is necessary to replace the letters E and D with your own.
12 Upon completion of the operation, turn off the virtual machine. We won't need it anymore.
9. Mounting the virtual machine disk in the main system
In order for the virtual machine’s disk to be displayed in the main system, where further actions will take place, open the VHDX (or VHD) disk file of this machine in Explorer. In the context menu, click “Connect”.
13 All partitions of the virtual disk will appear in Explorer as separate disks. In our case, we select the last drive M, this is where the install.esd file is stored. After repacking the ISO image, the virtual disk will need to be unmounted; this is done using the “Eject” option in the context menu of any of the added virtual disk partitions.
14 We will replace the original one as part of the official Windows 10 distribution with the newly created install.esd file.
10. Repackaging the ISO image of the Windows 10 distribution
Many programs can replace one file with another as part of a bootable ISO image; in our case, the UltraISO program was selected for repacking. Let's launch it. Click the “File” menu, then “Open” and in Explorer indicate the path to the ISO image from which Windows 10 was installed on the virtual machine.
15 The contents of the ISO image will appear at the top of the UltraISO window. Here we open the “sources” folder and delete the source file install.esd in it. In our case, it weighed 3.7 GB. The lower part of the UltraISO window is the system explorer; here we open the mounted disk partition (or the desired partition of the real disk), on which the newly created install.esd file is stored. In our case, it weighs 4.09 GB. We either drag and drop the newly created file into top part windows - to where the original file was, or add it using context menu.
16 Let’s check: in the “sources” folder of the disk image there should be not the original install.esd with a weight of 3.7 GB, but the newly created install.esd with a weight of 4.09 GB.
17 
18 We are waiting for the progress of the operation to complete.
***
Now all that remains is to test your Windows 10 build on a new one virtual machine.
Have a great day!
Creating a Windows 10 OS image
Creating an installation image and burning it to a flash drive or disk is not that difficult. Moreover, this can be done (in some cases) even using standard operating system capabilities. Of course, you can also use third party software, but Windows will cope with this task much better, since the OS itself knows how to correctly record the image so that there are no problems with installation in the future. There are several ways to create a Windows 10 image. Some of them are even approved by Microsoft itself. However, to install the OS in the official way, you will need a license key.
Ways to create an image
Read also:
The vast majority of users are accustomed to downloading various OS builds from torrent trackers and writing them to a drive or disk using third-party programs. But this method is by no means the only one.
- Using Windows 10 Installation Media Creation Tool. This is an official utility from Microsoft that helps you create bootable media with “ten” on board. The company's specialists recommend using this method.
- Simple copying (if there is UEFI mode in the BIOS). This option is suitable for new PCs and laptops. If there is UEFI mode and the partition table is of GPT type, then the user will not need any special utilities to create the installation image
- Use of third party programs. Today, many utilities can create the “correct” flash drives or disks with Windows installation images. As a rule, this option is much simpler than all previous ones
- Creating an image using the Archive Wizard. This utility helps to create an image of an already running operating system and write it to media. Sort of " Lifebuoy"in case the OS suddenly refuses to boot
You can also simply update your version of Windows to the latest one. But it is worth considering that in this case system failures are possible. They can be so severe that the user may lose all of their data. Therefore, it is better to perform the installation from scratch.
1. Use a utility from Microsoft
Read also:How to speed up Windows 10? TOP 6 Main ways to overclock an operating system
This is the “official” method approved by Microsoft. Its essence is that the user downloads the operating system image itself and a utility for creating bootable media from the company’s official website.
It is worth noting that the download speed from the company’s servers is quite decent, so the whole process happens quite quickly. To complete the process, the user will need a USB drive with 8 or 10 gigabytes free space. It's impossible to do less.
DOWNLOADAfter the download process is complete, open "Windows Explorer", go to the downloads directory and run the file "MediaCreationToolexe".
The installation wizard will immediately launch and ask you to accept the terms of the license agreement. Click on the button "Accept".
At the next stage, check the box "Create installation media" and press the button "Further".
Now we select the OS language, edition and architecture (32 bit or 64). After this, click on the button "Further".
At the next stage, it is proposed to create a bootable drive immediately or create an ISO image for subsequent recording on flash driveorDVD. It is better to choose the first option, since the installation image will require at least 8 gigabytes of space. And this is already a two-layer DVD. So select the first option and click "Further". But before that, you need to insert the USB flash drive into the appropriate port.
The recording process will begin immediately. It is worth considering that the wizard downloads necessary files With Microsoft servers and writes them to the drive. Therefore, the operation can take quite a long time. Will have to wait. Progress will be displayed as a percentage.
After the media creation process completes, the wizard will run an image integrity check. You must wait for it to complete.
As soon as the check is completed, the program will display a corresponding message indicating that image creation is complete. All you have to do is press the button "Ready".
This method allows you to be sure that the installation process will go as expected. Creating a Windows 10 image using the official Microsoft utility is the most preferable option.
Before starting the image creation process using the official utility, you need to close all programs. Otherwise, recording may be interrupted due to unknown error. Some utilities may block the Image Creation Wizard. So it's better not to take risks.
2. Copy the necessary data to the flash drive
Read also:3 ways to install Windows XP from a USB flash drive
As mentioned above, this method is available to owners of new PCs and laptops that have UEFI mode enabled and the partition table on the hard drive is GPT. Other users should not even try this method.
A similar method is sometimes used in Linux operating systems. There you can simply unpack the image and copy all the files to the flash drive, having previously made it bootable in the partition editor. However, in Windows latest not required.
Let's assume that the official Windows 10 image has already been downloaded from Microsoft servers. Now you need to mount the image using some program. Utilities such as Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% are capable of this. But even ordinary Total Commander can open ISO. We will use it. Let's open the program, find the desired image and simply click on it 2 times.
Now in the second panel we will switch to the flash drive.
Now select all the files located in the Windows 10 image and press the copy button (or press "F5").
The copying process will begin immediately. Once it is completed, you can restart your computer or laptop and select boot media in UEFI. Everything should work. But only in UEFI on a GPT table.
3. We use third-party programs
Read also:9 Easy Ways to Open Command Prompt in Windows 7-10
There are now many utilities that allow you to efficiently burn a Windows 10 image to a USB drive or DVD. As a rule, these programs are easy to use and have a Russian language in the interface. Let's look at the most popular ones.
Rufus
A small utility from independent developers. It is completely free and does not require installation. You can download it on the official website. And it's very easy to use. The program easily copes with recording Windows and Linux distributions.
DOWNLOADGo to the directory with the downloaded program and run executable file with EXE resolution.
The main program window will open immediately. If a USB drive is already inserted into the port, the utility will detect it. Next, you need to select the desired image to record by clicking on the button "Choose".
Now select the previously downloaded Windows 10 image and click "Open".
The next step is to select recording options. You must set the UEFI or BIOS options, and also select the partition table type (MBR or GPT).
All is ready. All you have to do is press the button "Start" and wait for the operation to complete.
The image is now written to the USB drive. You can restart your PC or laptop and begin installing the operating system on your hard drive. It is worth noting that for correct recording "tens" Requires the latest version of Rufus.
Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool
Another very popular program to write the image to a USB drive. It was originally created for recording on Windows flash drive 7. But also with "ten" The utility does a great job. And you can download it on the official Microsoft website.
DOWNLOADDownload and install the application. Then we launch it using the appropriate shortcut and get to the main window. First you need to select an image using the button "Browse"
Select the desired ISO image and click "Open".
Now press the button "Next".
Now the wizard will ask you to choose where to write the image. If you planned to record to a flash drive, then click "USB device". If you need to write to disk, then select "DVD".
Select the desired flash drive and press the button "Begin copying".
Creating and burning an image of Windows 10 to a disk or flash drive is the key to quickly restoring the system in the event of a crash or incorrect settings that could not be canceled using standard Windows tools.
Why do you need a Windows 10 system image?
The Windows 10 image is needed to burn the installation flash drive. With its help, it is possible to reinstall the system “from scratch” when the user is not satisfied with the update using standard means. A Windows image may also be required to correct problems when starting the OS, to reset it to its original settings, resulting in the removal of all programs and unnecessary devices installed after creating the system recovery image.
The system image is created using the following applications:
To burn the installation flash drive, you need a ready-made image. That is, you first need to prepare the ISO file itself with a copy of Windows 10.
Working on creating a Windows 10 image
All methods are quite easy and reliable. Completing any of them is unlikely to take you more than half an hour, especially if the PC or tablet on which you are creating the OS image is powerful enough.
It doesn't matter which of the latest versions of Windows you are burning - 7, 8, 8.1 or 10. They are all easily created in ISO format.
Creating a Windows image using the Backup Wizard
If you create not just a system image, but an image of drive C ( Windows system With installed drivers PC hardware), the following preliminary preparation is required:
You should not install any unnecessary applications. Otherwise, you will end up with an OS image that freezes due to tens or even hundreds of installed applications, as a result of which the meaning of creating an image is lost. Such builds (for example, ZverDVD for the XP version) do exist, but they are rare.
Modern versions of Windows, particularly 8.1 and 10, already contain most drivers. So, network adapters and the sound is integrated into the “top ten”, and put outdated drivers No need. In this way you will only disrupt the operation of modules and devices about which Microsoft company already taken care of.
Master Reserve copy not much different in Windows 7/8/8.1/10.
The Backup and Restore Wizard allows you to create an image Windows disk
The System Image Creator tool will help you copy system and program files to an ISO image
Drive C may not be suitable for saving a Windows archive
For archiving, drive C is set by defaultSaving the contents of the system and program folders on drive C will take from 20 to 40 minutes. After this, you will have a ready-made ISO image that can be burned to external drive or a flash drive using applications such as Media Creation Tool, Rufus, WinSetupFromUSB, Universal USB Installer, etc.
Video: How to create a Windows 10 image using the Backup Wizard
Burning a Windows 10 image using third-party utilities
Third-party utilities, such as Nero, Daemon Tools and Alcohol, were actively used to create an image of Windows 10 from a licensed DVD. However, you can burn a Windows 10 image to a USB flash drive or to an external HDD/SSD drive. For this, both a ready-made build of Windows 10 in ISO format, downloaded from a torrent tracker, and your personal ISO archive created using the Archiving Wizard (see instructions above) are suitable. Last method eliminates the need to reinstall hardware drivers and applications you need for work along with the system.
Burning an image to DVD is becoming obsolete: modern ultrabooks, netbooks and tablets come without a CD drive. All actions - data recovery after a Windows crash and system reinstallation, fixing startup problems - are performed from a flash drive, memory card or SSD drive. Therefore, you should not focus on burning a Windows image to DVD.
DAEMON Tools
To record an image using DAEMON Tools, do the following:
Pay due attention to the settings before burning the imageThat's it, the DAEMON Tools application will begin burning the installation disk or flash drive. Creation boot entry takes up to several seconds, its volume does not exceed several megabytes, but you will have to wait at least 20 minutes for the image to be recorded.
Copying a Windows image may take 20 minutes or more After recording a copy Windows program DAEMON Tools will report the success of the process.
All steps for copying a Windows image are described in detail by the program Write speed through USB interface 2.0, used in all PCs and gadgets for 15 years, reaches 21 MB/s. Most modern PCs and laptops are equipped with USB 3.0, and using more modern media will almost double the speed of USB 2.0. If a flash drive or external drive has been actively used for several years in a row and is worn out, the final write speed may drop several times. The newer the media, the faster all files will be written and the fewer problems there will be when updating/reinstalling Windows from it - take this seriously. Another reason why you should not use CDs is that the read/write speed here is several times lower (several megabytes per second) than the speed of flash memory used on modern media.
Video: how to burn a system image to disk using DAEMON Tools
Alcohol 120% (57%)
Everything that has been said about the advisability of writing Windows 10 to a USB flash drive does not work with software Alcohol brand, which were created and updated mainly to work with “blanks” - CD/DVD/BD, and not with flash drives and memory cards. Therefore, alas, it is better to forget about flash drives here. For this reason, the Alcohol utility is actively being replaced by competitors - WinSetupFromUSB, Rufus and other applications that work with electronic rather than optical media.
To create a system image using Alcohol 120%, follow these steps:
The Alcohol application is 120% paid, but you can also use the lite version
Select the image recording functionality in Alcohol 120%
The Windows 10 image must be downloaded in advance to burn to disk
Recording at 1x speed is ideal - this will reduce recording errors to zeroWrite speed affects errors when writing a Windows disc. Do not forget that it is not a selection of music or photos that is being recorded, but an image of the operating system. The requirements for the quality and error-free installation disks are very high: if something happens while installing Windows system error and the OS will freeze in the same place, start recording again. The best way out would be to use a 1x-12x speed drive from some long-standing company such as Verbatim, Sony, TDK or SKC.
Video: how to burn a system image to disk using Alcohol 120%
Alcohol 52%
The capabilities of the “junior” program Alcohol 52% are even more limited: it does not burn images to DVD, although it is free compared to Alcohol 120%.
Mounting images onto a virtual DVD won't do anything. The image is recorded on a separate object, information about which is stored on the built-in (local) disk of the PC, and not on external media. And flash drives and memory cards are identified by Windows as external, and not as local drives.
It is unlikely that you will be able to burn a Windows image to external media, be it a DVD or a flash drive, since Alcohol 52% simply does not know how to write images to external drives, as stated in the application description. Running Windows 10 from virtual media - unless it's a LiveDVD/USB version taken from any disk - makes no sense. It’s easier to set the BIOS/EFI to boot from this disk and start from it. It’s better to use more modern analogues that allow you to write images to disk and flash drive, for example, UltraISO.
Nero
As with Alcohol, Nero's ability to record to media other than CDs of various formats is limited.
Click the continue trial button
Select the type of data disk to burn the Windows image to
You must have a Windows 10 ISO image in advance.
After clicking the start recording button, Nero will begin copying the Windows imageBurning the disc can take up to an hour (depending on speed) before the disc is ready to install Windows 10.
Video: How to Burn a System Image to Disk Using Nero
Other Windows Image Burning Applications
You can write Windows to a flash drive using:
Some of them are suitable not only for recording images of Windows, but also of other operating systems, as well as multiboot disks.
For recording to DVD, in addition to some of the above applications, it is suitable Windows utility USB/DVD Download Tool created by Microsoft.
Problems encountered when recording a Windows image
The following problems may occur when burning Windows images:
The choice of media for creating and recording a Windows image - a disk or flash drive - is yours. Both methods are good, but they directly depend on what kind of PC you have and whether it has a disk drive or USB ports.