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Making the smallest Win10 install (Wimboot mode) on 512 MB VHD

wimboot ramboot

Best Answer alacran , 20 March 2019 - 11:53 AM

Well, I think now this thread has all info, I'm going to make a summary of all relevant post you need to follow to be able to Create and Ramboot from a Wimboot VHD and also how to make a compressed copy (to keep as backup) of the coupled files required to wimboot.

 

I started this thread thinking the smallest the best, and was able to run a 512 MB VHD, as the name of the thread says, but during the development of this thread I change my mind and decided that a 1.5 GB VHD is a good size to load a VHD in RAM on an acceptable time, and this size VHD is also capable to Ramboot on PCs with a minimum of 4 GB of RAM.

 

Introductory info and required programs: http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209470

 

Making the VHD:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209472

 

Optionally apply unnatend.xml, services modifications and control Telemetry during install: http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209480

 

Install your programs, SVBus driver and Capture Wimboot Image:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209483

 

Apply Wimboot Image to a 1.5 VHD: http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209485

 

Installing your Wimboot VHD on a USB device and Ramboot:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209488

 

You may consider this as an Hybrid Ramboot:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209518

 

Selecting to use wimlib on WinNTSetup:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209568

 

What I put on my VHD:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209602

 

Improve Portability: http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=21957#entry209809

 

EDIT: I finally found some info about the WimBootCompress.ini file located on WinNTSetup\Tools\, see: https://wimlib.net/f...wtopic.php?t=16

 

cdob comments: http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209834

 

Making copies of coupled files (VHD + wimboot wim file) for backup pourposes:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209917

 

cdob suggestion for redirect on the VHD the path to source wim file:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209947

 

WimBootCompress.ini very last version from 2020-05-18 (MBR only) and 2021-02-23 (MBR/UEFI): http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry214854

 

karyonix suggestion for redirect on the VHD the path to source wim file: http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209952

 

More cdob comments:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209976

 

Redirect the VHD path to wimboot wim file is finally a success:  http://reboot.pro/in...957#entry209979

 

NOTE: When relocating the files, edit the BCD(s) may be required, better check to be sure all will work fine.

 

EDIT: If for any reason you want to reduce the source wim file see:   http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=21972

 

New version of WinNTSetup with new features, for more info see: http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=22119

 

Capture and apply Windows Full Flash Update (FFU) images: http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=22182

 

DismMountService (DMS) a GUI for Dism by Retokener: http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=21534

 

Procedure to make Wimboot VHDs using DMS: http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=22182

 

Useful info for WinPEs, Wimboot and Compact installs: http://reboot.pro/in...showtopic=22333

 

Hope this can be of any help for some of our members.

 

Best Regards

 

alacran

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#1 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 07:19 AM

Making the smallest Win10 install (Wimboot mode) on 512 MB VHD, to latter Ramboot.

 

So far I have been writing recently some post on several topics, all of them in some way related to this subject. And I decided this subject deserves its own thread to let all interested people easily find all info.

 

If you are unfamiliar with Windows wimboot mode, please visit this thread started by erwan.l some time ago, it is very informative: Windows Image File Boot (WIMBoot)

 

And see my post from 2015-04-01 there: http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry191800

 

Of course you can make this in several diferent ways, but here I will transmit the way I make it in order to get the smallest source.wim (standard express 4K compressed) and installed OS, very usefull as a portable version.

 

You can use DISM for all the procedure, but wimlib-imagex  from Synchronicity is faster and gives us better compression rates, in order to make things easier for all people like me, that when available prefer a graphic program we will use wimlib-clc from ReTokener a GUI for wimlib-imagex, (for those prefering command line this program has the posivility to save required commands if you want, so I will not comment about wimlib-imagex commands in this thread.

 

If you do not have an Iso of 10x64 1809, you need to download the required 10 x64 1809 MediaCreationTool from this link: https://www.microsof...nload/windows10

 

Latter download all required free programs:

 

Spoiler

 

This is all required to start, I will be adding more info latter.

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#2 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 08:31 AM

Make a VHD with your selected sytem

 

In order to not make changes on our running OS we will make a VHD on the root of a partition and install our 10x64 on it.

 

We can make the VHD install in several diferent ways but the easier way is using WinNTSetup, once we downloaded it and expanded on a folder on our disk (preferable on the root of a partition or at leats in a route with no spaces in the path (I know this is not a requirement, but we need to start doing it this way every time we will work with *.wim files, as when making WinPE(s), because not all tools support spaces on path and it is better to avoid potential troubles since the begining, Okay?

 

If we are running WinNTSetup on an x64 OS we must use WinNTSetupx64.exe, (respectively same apllies for x86 OS), it doesn't matter what architecture is going to be installed, only matter your running OS for this. first time we run WinNTSetup it will ask us to let it download some files/folders from Microsoft, we need to acept this before anything else, once it is done, we need to select the install.wim file located into the *.iso file, if you are runing 8.x or 10 just mount the iso and find it in folder sources of iso, if you are running 7 use right button of mouse on the iso to mount it using imdisk (comes into WinNTSetup) and select the required install.wim, when you run WinNTSetup it will make visible the boot partition of your actual OS as drive Z: and select it for appling there the boot files rquired for new OS install, next thing is select where is going to be installed new OS, but as we will do it on a VHD we must first create the VHD, just make click on VHD button and follow instructions, they are very clear, I used to recommend always use fixed size VHD of 25 GB for this first install, (but you may try use 10 GB as a minimum), once VHD is created it is mounted as drive Y: and automatically selected as installation drive, then we make click on tricks button and select all tricks under System and close the window.

 

Now it is time to select the version on 10x64 we want to install, we may use Home or Pro as you prefer, but remember some option will not be available on Home version as you allready know.

 

Now if you do not want to remove any Apps or change OS services and tasks and add some usefull tricks (we will see this on following post), just click Install button, a new window will open, there select do not update booting code to not install new boot code on your Disk and select ALL, MBR or UEFI as required to update respective BCD file adding a line for booting from new installed OS as Default, after deploying system a new window will let you know, I suggest do not make an automatic reboot from it, better close the window and make sure all your files and programs are closed before rebootin the OS.

 

As said new installed OS will be set as Default OS, but you will have 30 secons to select wich OS you want to boot, it is important to boot new installed OS on VHD several times untill desktop to let the install finish. Latter if we want we can change Default OS using BootIce.



#3 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 11:13 AM

Optionally apply unnatend.xml, services modifications and control Telemetry during install.

 

If you want to modify the install of your new OS during install, wich I higly recommend, (removing Apps, changing OS services and tasks and adding some usefull tricks) You need to download Multi-OEMRetail Project {MRP} - Feb 13th 2019 from: https://forums.mydig...-mrp-mk3.71555/, see second post for download links, and make your own MRPConfig.ini file, requires login to see links.

 

But for your convenience I added an attachment with a link to download this tool, and also you can download folder Imagenes to use as a guide, once downloaded using MRPConfigCreator you can make with this tool MRPConfig.ini, put it into $oem$ folder, of course you can open and check MRPConfig.ini to see what changes will be made into your OS before you see first desktop, I highly prevent you from modifiying this file to avoid troubles, (it is made with an specific tool and it is UTF-8) and even saving it under UTF-8 code results are not guaranteed, on this file you will find setupcomplete.cmd and you can add also WinTel.cmd from Optional folder, you can open/edit  both to check what will be changed, also there is DeCompile.exe, a little program to make all this work and verify if your system has a OEM serial number on Bios and copy/apply it to your installed OS if installing same as originaly instaled version of 10 (HOME, Pro, etc).

 

Of course if your equipment is not OEM and do not have a serial number in Bios for 10 nothing will be done and you will have to type your own serial number after boot if you have a retail serial or connect to internet to get an ID verification.

 

Also on attachement download you will find an unattend-Basico folder containing a basic unattend.xml file that requires to be edited to your preferences before using it to let you make a silent install (no questions from OS during install).  Even if this file says on first line <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> it is not true it is ANSI encoded but this first line is a requirement to let the OS follow the instructions, and do not commet mistakes in non en-US versions AFAIK,

 

Once you modified unattend.xml, put it in a folder on the root of any partition (NO spaces on folder name is recommended but not mandatory), you have to select this file on main window of WinNTSetup selecting unattend check box and path, then you can make click on install button and new window will open, there you need to select the path of your $oem$ folder (blue text) if it is not previously on sources folder (it will not be there as we haven't put it there before), then we can procede to select do not update booting code to not install new boot code on your Disk and select ALL, MBR or UEFI as required to update respective BCD file adding a line for booting from new installed OS as Default, and click acept, after deploying system a new window will let you know, I suggest do not make an automatic reboot from it, better close the window and make sure all your files and programs are closed before rebooting the OS.

 

As said new installed OS will be set as Default OS, but you will have 30 secons to select wich OS you want to boot, it is important to boot new installed OS on VHD several times untill desktop to let the install finish. Latter if we want we can change Default OS using BootIce.

 

After first boot it is important to go to C. and reed Project.log and MRPDebug.log to check all changes made during install are done. A reboot is mandatory

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#4 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 12:50 PM

Install your programs, SVBus driver and Capture Wimboot Image.

 

Once you have your new OS installed on VHD, add all programs, files, folders you will need to reboot the equipment, from another OS or a WinPE, run BootIce and on BCD Tab select BCD for current System, open it in Easy mode locate your VHD, select Test Mode (testsigning), this is required to let you install SVBus driver because it is not signed. I also recommend unselect Metro Boot Manager (to avoid double reboots), use the attached picture as a guide. Reboot your VHD and install SVBus driver selecting instx64.exe or instx86.exe (located on folder bin) as required, running as Admin., When Windows complains it is not signed, select install anyway, reboot and verify on Device Manages SVBus driver installed correctly.

 

You will need to reboot the equipment again, from another OS or a WinPE, mount the VHD and using wimlib-clc capture it selecting wimboot mode under options, as in attachment, you can use 10x64-WB.wim as the new .wim file name,  I can confirm it is safe to ignore the warning about Unrecogniced Section: [PinningFolderList]

 

also see this posts for more info:

 

http://reboot.pro/to...e-5#entry209426

http://reboot.pro/to...lc/#entry209461

 

EDIT: Signed SVBus driver see this post from tinybit: http://reboot.pro/to...os/#entry208348

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Edited by alacran, 09 October 2019 - 10:03 PM.


#5 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 01:03 PM

Apply Wimboot Image to a 1.5 VHD.

 

Then you make a new VHD lets say 1 to 1.5 GB to be sure it can hold 10x64 + all programs and info you added and make a new install using WinNTSetup wimlib-clc selecting wimboot option (no more unnatend, tricks or $oem$ need to be selected/applied) using previously created 10x64-WB.wim as souce now, this is made so fast that if once done you want to chage the size only delete the VHD and create a new one of desired size and redeploy the 10x64-WB.wim with wimboot option selected again. This 10x64-WB.wim needs to remain in same place to let the new wimboot VHD boot.

 

This were my tests during this procedure:

 

http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry209462

http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry209463

 

EDIT: wimlib-clc can also be used to deploy the wimboot captured image but WinNTSetup has given better results as it edits for us the BCD

 

EDIT 2: It is beter to use wimlib-clc since recently it has been detected WinNTSetup do not handle fine a custom WimBootCompress.ini


Edited by alacran, 09 October 2019 - 09:58 PM.


#6 blackbalfur

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 01:53 PM

This is a nice  way to rome but there are more ways.

 

It is the part where you state "the smallest source.wim (standard express 4K compressed)" i have my doubts with.

 

In my opinion yes you will have a smaller source.wim but it would also take more time to get information from it this way.

 

Mabe it is not so noticable on good new fast hardware but i think you will notice it on older hardware or on computers with less ram.

 

The 512 mb stated in the title is very tight the 1.5 GB you state later on is more likely but still very small.

 

just using a webbrowser will make your os grow in the vhd by some 100 mb easily.



#7 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 02:17 PM

Installing your Wimboot VHD on a USB device.

 

For puting your VHD on a portable USB HDD or SSD (preferable), partition and format your device as following:

1 .- Your HDD or SSD has to be inicialized as MBR disk, to let you Ramboot the VHD.

2.- If you want to boot as MBR first primary active partition can be NTFS or FAT-32.

3.- If you want to boot your device on MBR and also on UEFI, first primary active partition has to be FAT-32.

4.- First primary partition needs to have bootmanager PBR.

5.- Second primary partition has to be NTFS so you can mount  and run VHDs fron it.

 

You can use any good partition tool as PartitionGuru Free edition to partition your disk as required, also BootIce can do it but I allways prefer to do it with PartitionGuru as BootIce and Windows 7, 8.x, (haven't tested 10) when making small partitions on VHDs located on USB sticks have the tendency to do not use 2048 as first sector as usually done by OS, they sometimes use 63 or 128 and PartitionGuru allways uses 2048 (but can be changed if required) as starting LBA and automatically make the first partition MBR 6.x and activate it, also installs bootmanager PBR on it and on second partition too.

 

EDIT: To update the info, This is a post from Wonko about first sector  :

 

 

In practice:

64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024

will "cover" page sizes up to 32 Kb in EXACTLY the same manner, and 

128, 256, 512 and 1024 will "cover" page sizes up to 64 Kb in EXACTLY the same manner.

 

Then to deploy OS into VHD on your portable device we first copy the source wimboot .win 10x64-WB.wim on NTFS partition I usually make a WimBoot folder and into it put the .wim file to have some order, then you follow same procedure as before on post No. 5, this time you will not use tricks, unatted.xml or $oem$ too, remember do not update boot code to not install new boot code on your device, also to select the appropiate boot mode, ALL, MBR or UEFI and WinNTSetup will create the required BCD entries for us on ALL, MBR or UEFI, but it is allways better to check this with BootIce.

 

For the case of MBR and UEFI booting you need to open and create/verify entries with BootIce on both BCD(s) as required, (remember to unmark Hide OS protected files on folder options (or equivalent) on your running OS so you can locate one (Legacy) on Boot\BCD and the other (UEFI) on EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD.

 

Ramboot

 

Also there is another set of BCD(s) located into the VHD that will be used when Rambooting, you need to verify/modify only the one located on C: \Boot \BCD in accordance with Other BCD.png and BCD into VHD.png (so far there is not possible to Ramboot on UEFI, so it is unnecessary to edit that BCD).

 

Also you will need to Download grub4dos-0.4.6a-2018-12-23.7z 516K, extract it on a folder and add to your USB device first partition (FAT32) the following files: grldr.mbr, grldr and create a menu.lst, I'll attach part of mine as a guide for you. Also you will need to create a new entry on Boot\BCD located on first partition (FAT32), open it on Easy mode and on the left sellect Add New Real Mode Entry (Grub/Linux), once created Save Gloval Settings, go to it and on right panel rename it to Grub4dos Menu, then Save Current System and that is all, now you can Ramboot from your VHD.

 

Use attached pictures as a guide.

 

NOTE: Added a new picture VHD BCD.png for a latter and more generical option suggested by karyonix to use into BCD located into VHD boot folder (actually used by wimb's tool http://reboot.pro/fi...for-os-in-vhd/)

 

alacran

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#8 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 03:39 PM

This is a nice  way to rome but there are more ways.

 

It is the part where you state "the smallest source.wim (standard express 4K compressed)" i have my doubts with.

 

In my opinion yes you will have a smaller source.wim but it would also take more time to get information from it this way.

 

Mabe it is not so noticable on good new fast hardware but i think you will notice it on older hardware or on computers with less ram.

 

The 512 mb stated in the title is very tight the 1.5 GB you state later on is more likely but still very small.

 

just using a webbrowser will make your os grow in the vhd by some 100 mb easily.

 

Hello my friend, It is nice to see you again.

 

Sure there are more ways, I said that mayself since the very first post. See:

 

 

Of course you can make this in several diferent ways, but here I will transmit the way I make it in order to get the smallest source.wim (standard express 4K compressed) and installed OS, very usefull as a portable version.

 

I'm using Express compression 4K as this is the standard set by Microsoft for wimboot installs and I wanted to go by the book, but let me tell you I have made just for fun wimboot 8.1u1 VHDs using as source.wim LZX 32K compressed or Maximum as called by Dism (the one used on all standard isos).

 

The smaller the size of the info, the faster it can be read from Mass Storage, but there may be a cost on very low power CPUs and slow Ram, anyway it is the way 8.1u1 was installed on many low resources as Atom CPUs x64 tablets and also small HDMI devices USB powered used to connect them on TV screens, only diference is it was not on VHD, but on 32 GB solid state devices.

 

The reason behind looking for the smaller size is in order to finally RAMBOOT the VHD, so far I made a 512 GB VHD having 132 MB free, even after booting it several times. A RamBoot VHD is in any way more complete than a WinPE.

 

And yes, you are right any time you start IE-11 it will have a high impact on available storage, not for running the program itself, but for all cached info, unless we use a RamDisk for this, I have SoftPerfectRamdisk v3.4.8, the last free version allready into Documents folder on the VHD, ready to install if required, another free and very good option that can be used is ImDisk ToolKit from V-77 member of this forum, based on ImDisk from Olof Lagerkvist.  

 

But it is up to the user to determine acording with his final use the size of the VHD, Following is quoted what I reccomended on this post: http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry209464

 

 

@ antonino61

 

See this posts, you don't need to run a test to satisfy your curiosity, I have just done it, so far this are the smallest Win10x64 1809 wimboot installs I can make, only thing (from Windows) not installed are unnecesary Apps, and all is running great:

 

http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry209462

 

& http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry209463

 

In order to have some space for installing future programs, I do not recommend 512 MB unless it is for portable use.

 

Remember the starting standard install (not wimboot and not compressed is 10 GB and has 2.49 GB free), this may be good for daily use.

 

alacran

 

alacran



#9 alacran

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 09:58 PM

I edited my post here: http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry209468

 

Adding new info that I think can be of some interest.

 

 

By now I have USB booted from the VHD and source .wim  located both (to be totally portable) on same secondary NTFS partition of a USB 2.0 device, (AData UV100 32 GB), it feels as slow like old times booting my first BartPE from a CD, it took about a minute or maybe a minute and a half to get desktop, once there and after waiting about 20 seconds the task manager showed no more disk activity and all was a little slow but fine.

 

This USB 2.0 device is about 24 to 25 MB/sec in reading and writting speed, wich is not bad for a USB 2.0, My MicroSD Kingston with an USB 3.0 adapter is capable of upto real 74 to 75 MB/seg reading speed but only about 14 to 15 MB/seg writing speed, this are real speeds I have observed during real files transfer on daily tasks.

 

Of course once RamBoted all will be very fast, By now my system is consuming about 800 MB, but will check carefully.

 

 Have you seen how much Ram is consumed when you RamBoot your wimboot VHD?, I'm on an old I3 with 8 GB RAM, hope this can be enought, but would like to make sure.

 

EDIT: This time I made the VHD on my MicroSDHC 32GB UHS-I Kingston SDCS/32GB CL10, 80R (Canvas Select) connected with my USB 3.0 adapter to a USB 2.0 port and it took only 48 seconds to reach desktop, and all was working very fine OS do not feel slow.

But I would reccomend you to better buy the new Kingston model Canvas Go! with 90 MB/sec on reading speed and 45 MB/sec on writing speed.

 

alacran

 

This MicroSD and the small adapter are really unexpensive, and absolutely more portables than a 2 1/2 " SSD into a USB 3.0 enclosure/adapter, but not for every day use, they are good to keep our UEFI MULTI, E2B or AIO Boot, since this are tools used only to let us fix some problems on our equipments when required.

 

alacran



#10 alacran

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Posted 27 February 2019 - 10:45 AM

Then with instructions on UEFI MULTI topic (and following posts), and with the help from wimb by PM as my device did not Ramboot or even open/load files on second partition from grub4dos, finally I was able to Ramboot this VHD and also 8.1x64.vhd too.

 

For more info see this post on UEFI MULTI : http://reboot.pro/to...e-6#entry209512

 

EDIT: Sorry but forgot to make pictures of 10x64, but it is almost the same thing, just a marginal diference on RAM used, maybe latter I can add some pictures.

 

I would like to give you some very conservative guidance about required Ram to boot this wimboot VHDs:

 

Basically 8.x and 10 takes a little less than 1 GB of Ram (from 800 MB to 1 GB) without internet connection + the size of your VHD (I'm using at the moment 1GB) loaded on Ram + the Ram required to run each program you open, let's say another 1 GB, so I'm almost sure any machine with 4 GB of Ram is capable to run this VHDs.

 

alacran

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#11 blackbalfur

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Posted 27 February 2019 - 09:51 PM

Hi there alacran,

 

Correct me if i am wrong but when i realised the same setup i thought wait this is not real booting in to ram.

 

The vhd you created is booting in to ram yes but the wimboot file that is on your hd is not.

 

I only say this because an os truly booting into ram is so many times faster then this setup.



#12 alacran

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Posted 27 February 2019 - 10:51 PM

You may consider this as an Hybrid Ramboot, part on Ram and part (compressed) on mass storage device.

 

Because you only load in Ram the VHD but not the source *.wim file it is related to, located on a mass storage device internal or external (portable).

 

But it is also a very big advantage since you only load in Ram just what is required to boot (making is smaller) + a bunch of hard links to a source that will expand and load also in Ram all not essentiall parts of OS and programs to run them only when required (as usually any OS does during its use), then modifiying as required the VHD loaded in RAM, but all this changes will not be kept after you turn off the system.

 

But since one big advantages of Ramboot is do not keep any changes when you shut off the OS. You may say it acts exactly same way.

 

The diference with standard booting a VHD installed on wimboot mode is: in this case all changes are kept in the VHD.

 

In both cases no change is made to source *.wim, it will be allways inmutable.

 

When Rambooting, since my point of view, we may say we are capable to boot a full OS on RAM (in the sense of having all its capabilities and it will not change after turned off), good for booting just the same safe OS every time, no virus or modifications will be keept.  It has been the dream of many people.

On the other hand if you want to make permanent changes to the VHD just boot it normally, not Ramboot and as an example you can install a progran you need urgently, and next time you Ramboot the OS the program will be there for you, that's why even if I was able to make the VHD as small as 512 MB I'm using for my tests a 1 GB VHD.

 

alacran



#13 blackbalfur

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Posted 27 February 2019 - 11:16 PM

If you only use portable apps that do not write to the installed os you can make very small vhd's.

 

I was able to make a 300 mb vhd file that boots into ram with a wimboot file of around 350 mb.

 

To do this i used windows 7 embedded standard.

 

When using truly portable apps outside the ram booted vhd file all works great.


Edited by blackbalfur, 27 February 2019 - 11:17 PM.


#14 alacran

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Posted 28 February 2019 - 12:48 AM

Hello my friend.

 

I understand what you mean, and I respect your point of view. Also let me suggest you to make a thread about your  300 MB VHD of 7 embedded standard, it may be of interest for some members, (even if it has lack of drivers for actual harward as USB 3.0, it can be solved).

 

But that is a castrated OS not a full OS, also a WinPE can be considered a castrated OS.

 

Having only portables that may run outside the WinPE or any other kind of portable OS (castrated or not) or even from a full OS is a very good alternative.

 

I'm a big fan of portables see my thread:  http://reboot.pro/to...utable-from-pe/and also tried to explain there how to make your own compressed portables.

Of course I tried to list there all those you can't find on: https://portableapps.com/ or some other good places as: https://www.sordum.org/

 

And it is good we have all this alternatives on both Portable Programs and Portable OSs, there is no one that fits all, it lets us select what is better for our preferences or needs.

 

As I have a lot of WinPE that upto today have solved all my needs (been Betatester and a big fan of MistyPE and a member of PEBakery development Team and also made several scripts for ChisPE project) it do not mean I can't see advantages on other ways to do things, we must keep our mind open to new ideas and see if there is something we can use for our actual or future needs.

 

alacran


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#15 alacran

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 04:25 AM

Selecting to use wimlib on WinNTSetup

 

Some times on WinNTSetup Windows API do not let us install an OS on a very limited space (VHD on this case), as an example I wasn't able to wimboot install my  Full Win8.1x64 (dic 2014) on a 1 GB VHD, even if I previously used a tool to remove all (CR)Apps from the Iso before the first install (about 400 MB from the Iso).

 

But afortunatelly we can select to use Wimlib-Imagex (libwim-15.dll x64 or x86 respectively) if we previously put a copy ot it on WinNTSetup3.9.3.1 on its folder Tools\x64\wimlib or equivalent x86 folder as required,  and select to use it as on attached picture.

 

After some test, I have found that 1 Gb is a good size for VHD, if we don't install additional drivers and let the system use those it has into it.

 

alacran

Attached Files


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#16 blackbalfur

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 06:22 PM

Using this dism command in a 1 GB vhd created with simple vhd manager does not give this limitation.

 

dism /apply-image /imagefile:C:\install.Wim /index:1 /applydir:K:\ /wimboot

 

This is just as an alternative.


Edited by blackbalfur, 02 March 2019 - 06:23 PM.


#17 Wonko the Sane

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 06:34 PM

Using this dism command in a 1 GB vhd created with simple vhd manager does not give this limitation.

 

dism /apply-image /imagefile:C:\install.Wim /index:1 /applydir:K:\ /wimboot

 

This is just as an alternative.

Well, allow me to state how it is only a minor part of an alternative.

 

WHAT OS is it?

WHAT has been done before to the install.wim to make it fit into a 1 GB vhd?

 

:duff:

Wonko



#18 blackbalfur

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 06:55 PM

Hello there Wonko,

I was reffering to the step alacran was discribing in the post before mine:

 

I wasn't able to wimbbot install my  Full Win8.1x64 (dic 2014) on a 1 GB VHD, even if I previously used a tool to remove all (CR)Apps from the Iso ( about 400 MB from the Iso).

 

So ofcourse i was talking about a Full Win8.1X64.

 

Nothing has to be done for fitting Win8.1X64 on a 1 GB VHD when using the wimboot option.

 

That said it is step 3 of installing  the os.

 

It will fit but you can add allmost nothing like also alcran stated:

 

After some test, I have found that 1 Gb is a good size for VHD, if we don't install additional drivers and let the system use those it has into it.

 

The rest of my alternative is in another link, you can check it out if you like:

 

http://reboot.pro/topic/21948-my-look-on-wimboot-and-tutorial/

 

It is an alternative wich have some more controll over the creation of boot entries and is easy to follow for people that are not so far in computer skills.

 

Ofcourse that is my believe.

 

Just to proof i'm not just talking:

 

MH3EmY8.jpg

 

 

GIxbCuG.jpg

 

When the wimboot file has been made you can make very small vhd files.

 

But you must understand that it is not practicle to make small ones.

 

Also when you have your wimboot file installing windows is in minutes.


Edited by blackbalfur, 02 March 2019 - 07:48 PM.


#19 antonino61

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 09:49 PM

excuse me, what is wrong with vhd resizer?



#20 blackbalfur

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 10:03 PM

excuse me, what is wrong with vhd resizer?

 

I don't know mabe it ate to much.



#21 antonino61

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 10:32 PM

me, I suggest you should try it. I use it and find it comfortable. the rest, of course, is up to u. as for eating, it eats as much as u want it to, within 1 byte more than the partition.



#22 blackbalfur

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 11:05 PM

I do not see the connection between the tool you are mentioning and the fact that i gave an alternative sollution to get a wimboot file to install to a 1 gb vhd.

 

I "can" use a 1 gb vhd file not that i will do that.

 

I'm sure that it is a very nice tool antonino61.



#23 antonino61

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 11:17 PM

sorry, I was referring to those who claimed they could not bake a wimboot lower than 1gb, so I thought why not make it 2 or 3 or 4gb or whatever and then cut it down to size with vhd resizer, as I do, for instance? that is exactly all I meant.


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#24 blackbalfur

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 11:23 PM

No problem antonino61 then we understand eachother :happy_dance:



#25 alacran

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Posted 02 March 2019 - 11:55 PM

I think maybe I was not clear when said:

 

 

if we don't install additional drivers and let the system use those it has into it.

 

I was thinking in those lovely drivers for nVidia or ATI graphic cards with an stupid size of several GB.

 

But on the contrary I have installed on the first 8.1u1 x64 VHD before recapturing it as wimboot all this:

 

Word and Excell from Office 2003 + compativility packages for read/write/save Office 2007 and newer files.

 

335 MB of Portables on Documents: (this is optional as they can be outside the VHD to save size but I wanted to test a full portable with all my favorite programs included.)

 

Diskmod: to can deal with multi partitioned USB sticks (remember Windows is capable to do it since 10 1709).

 

SVBus driver: to latter can RamBoot the final VHD

 

7 Zip 19.0.0

 

Sumatra PDF

 

CCleaner

 

SoftPerfect RamDisk (v3.4.8 Free): to latter create every boot a 512 MB RamDisk (it can be any size AFAIR upto 4 GB in free version) NTFS compressed A: drive to load there FireFox profile (with all my markers, uBlock Origin, preferences, etc copied from my everyday OS) just after booting, this is to keep my VHD on 1 GB and do not delate loading on Ram at the moment of booting a biger size, since I can create additional volatile RamDisk for FireFox every boot, and do not keep on VHD all internet cached info, allways same clean profile is loaded.    Of course same could be done with some changes for IE-11 and Chrome (The haviest an more prone to keep a tremendous amount of cached info from internet)

 

FireFox 65.0: I didn't have available at the moment the offline instaler for v65.02 (the very last) but procedure is the same, and it was good enought to run a test.

 

And still have about 400 MB free space on the VHD after first boot, I will verify this info to give more acurate numbers and add a picture latter.

 

This is all required to put FireFox profile on RamDisk:

 

Install SoftPerfect RamDisk (v3.4.8 Free) create a disk to be loaded every boot, select the size you want, select disk letter, select removable (recommended) select NTFS, select avanded and on the new window only select compressed disk and acept, and acept again on first main window.

 

Download offline instaler on your language for last version of FireFox, Without conected to internet install FireFox on running VHD, run it once, it will not connect to any place, that's OK, then close it and go to \Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles located on your daily use OSs and copy the file inside profiles called someting like xxxxxxx.default  (it is recommended to previously have ran CCleaner on that OS berore doing this to clean as much as possible the profile before copy it).     Then just paste this xxxxxxx.default file inside the profiles folder on VHD and delete the one created when first ran the program, open and edit profiles.ini as following or using the letter for your personal created RamDisk, and the actual name of your *.default file

 

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=0

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=A:\Profiles\xxxxxxx.default
Default=1
 

Now following is my Profile_RamDisk.cmd, edit it as required to your needs and put it next to profile.ini file, make a direct access on desktop, that needs to be run before running FireFox, or to make it automatic open start menu and copy the link on the place to be loaded every boot it is "inicio" on my Spanish menu I know translation is "start" but I can't be sure as I'm not running any OS English version, hope you understand what I mean, it seems a little ugly each time the command runs, to avoid this I made a little .exe with Bat_To_Exe_Converter just selecting invisible application (this is an old version wonko kindly recommended me, but makes smaller .exe) and use this .exe same way as the command file then.

 

@echo off
XCopy C:\Users\YOUR-NAME\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles A:\Profiles  /s /i
exit

 

You need to change YOUR-NAME and RamDisk letter as required.

 

Of course some will say it is easier to just make a biger size VHD about 2 GB since the beggining, but I want to keep the VHD on a maximum of 1 GB to load it faster on RAM, also I have in mind this VHD can be RamBooted easily on 4 GB Ram equipments (actual minimum standard on new equipmentes since at least 1 or 2 years), and still have enought Ram available to let all programs work fine.

 

alacran


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