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Compact mode installs

compact mode

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#51 antonino61

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Posted 21 August 2020 - 09:30 PM

nothing compares to a properly debloated windows 10!!!



#52 JackPW15

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Posted 10 September 2020 - 01:33 AM


Or do I have to use a Windows 10 PE?

Windows 10 PE is a good choose.



#53 gbrao

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Posted 14 September 2020 - 08:59 AM

What is the difference between wofadk.sys and wof.sys?

 

If I want to boot Windows 8.1, modded, from a VHD and the files in the VHD are lzx compressed, do I need to install wofadk.sys ?

Windows 8.1 already has wof.sys.



#54 alacran

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Posted 14 September 2020 - 04:37 PM

What is the difference between wofadk.sys and wof.sys?

 

If I want to boot Windows 8.1, modded, from a VHD and the files in the VHD are lzx compressed, do I need to install wofadk.sys ?

Windows 8.1 already has wof.sys.

You only need one of the two drivers for Wimboot:

 

If the OS already has wof.sys (included on 8.1 Update 1 and newer), that's all you need.

 

If the OS does not have wof.sys, then you need to install wofadk.sys, (required on 7, 8 and 8.1).

 

EDIT: For Compact installs see new info on Post: http://reboot.pro/to...ls/#entry216154

 

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#55 gbrao

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Posted 15 September 2020 - 04:33 AM


If the OS does not have wof.sys, then you need to install wofadk.sys, (required on 7, 8 and 8.1).

 

alacran

 

8.1 does have wof.sys.
 



#56 gbrao

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Posted 15 September 2020 - 08:16 AM

I applied a wim of a modded Win 8.1 to a VHD with lzx (and proper WimBootCompress.ini).

 

Tried booting the vhd from bootmgr. It did not boot.

 

Installed wofadk.sys to the vhd (from a PE).

 

Tried again and the vhd booted find. So maybe wof.sys (edit, in win 8.1) does not support lzx (?).



#57 wimb

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Posted 15 September 2020 - 09:36 AM

I applied a wim of a modded Win 8.1 to a VHD with lzx (and proper WimBootCompress.ini).

 

Tried booting the vhd from bootmgr. It did not boot.

 

Installed wofadk.sys to the vhd (from a PE).

 

Tried again and the vhd booted find. So maybe wof.sys (edit, in win 8.1) does not support lzx (?).

 

Check if your modded Win8.1 contains uncompressed \Windows\System32\drivers\wof.sys

You can use WOF_Compress to check the WOF Status of wof.sys

 

What did you use to Capture and Apply the WIM file with LZX compression ?

 

wof.sys must be present uncompressed and in that case can be used in LZX compressed Windows booting from VHD.



#58 gbrao

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Posted 15 September 2020 - 10:42 AM

Check if your modded Win8.1 contains uncompressed \Windows\System32\drivers\wof.sys

You can use WOF_Compress to check the WOF Status of wof.sys

 

What did you use to Capture and Apply the WIM file with LZX compression ?

 

wof.sys must be present uncompressed and in that case can be used in LZX compressed Windows booting from VHD.

Yes the WimBootCompress.ini keeps all .sys uncompressed.

I captured and applied the wim using wimlib. Captured as XPRESS, applied as LZX.

Attached Files



#59 alacran

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Posted 15 September 2020 - 10:45 AM

8.1 does have wof.sys.
 

 

NO, 8.1 first version does not have wof.sys, but 8.1 Update 1 has it.

 

We started experimenting with Wimboot on 2014, see: http://reboot.pro/to...e-boot-wimboot/

 

 

Windows 8.1 update X64 installed on a Lenovo T61. Wosk fine.

From: http://reboot.pro/to...ot/#entry183366

 

But AFAIR LZX compression was not tested at that time.

 

alacran



#60 alacran

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Posted 15 September 2020 - 11:09 AM

But the wof.sys (on 8.1U1) was originaly designed to Wimboot, remember the Compact mode install started with Win10, so it is very possible that´s the cause of the issue, and for Compact installs wofadk.sys is then required on all systems before 10.

 

NOTE: I edited my previous posts about this subject and added a note with a link to this post.

 

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#61 alacran

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Posted 16 September 2020 - 05:23 AM

JFYI

 

I edited my post No. 29, with additional following info required on Win10 to create usefull links on PC context menu:

 

NOTE: Good from 7 to 10, But on 10 they need to be run as Trusted Installer, see: http://reboot.pro/to...est-privileges/

 

Spoiler

 

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#62 wimb

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Posted 16 September 2020 - 05:27 AM

But the wof.sys (on 8.1U1) was originaly designed to Wimboot, remember the Compact mode install started with Win10, so it is very possible that´s the cause of the issue, and for Compact installs wofadk.sys is then required on all systems before 10.

 

 

You are quite right.

Compact Install of system before 10 require wofadk.sys. WinNTSetup mode Compact:NONE will install wofadk.sys driver needed for older systems.

 

From wimlib Apply

 

 

--compact=FORMAT

Windows-only: compress the extracted files using System Compression, when possible. This only works on either Windows 10 or later, or on an older Windows to which Microsoft’s wofadk.sys driver has been added. Several different compression formats may be used with System Compression, and one must be specified as FORMAT. The choices are: xpress4k, xpress8k, xpress16k, and lzx.

 

Exclusions are handled in the same way as with the --wimboot option. That is: if it exists, the [PrepopulateList] section of the file \Windows\System32\WimBootCompress.ini in the WIM image will be read, and files matching any of the patterns in this section will not be compressed. In addition, wimlib has a hardcoded list of files for which it knows, for compatibility with the Windows bootloader, to override the requested compression format.

 


#63 wimb

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Posted 16 September 2020 - 01:23 PM

You are quite right.

Compact Install of system before 10 require wofadk.sys. WinNTSetup mode Compact:NONE will install wofadk.sys driver needed for older systems.

 

From wimlib Apply

 

Windows 8.1 was Installed by WinNTSetup using Compact:NONE mode so that wofadk.sys was installed.

VHD_WIMBOOT  was used for Capture and Apply in Compact LZX Mode in VHD and then booting of VHD is OK,  :)

 

Without wofadk.sys booting 8.1 Compact LZX fails as also observed by gbrao and in ageement with wimlib Apply documentation.

 

Attached File  W81_LZX_2020-09-16_151408.jpg   125.04KB   0 downloads



#64 alacran

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Posted 20 September 2020 - 05:45 AM

JFYI:

 

I saw this topic on wimlib Forum some time ago, but forgot to comment it on this Forum:

(The comments apply to Win10 1903 and newer)

 

Topic: https://wimlib.net/f...c.php?f=1&t=444

 

I will quote it here for your convenience:

 

Spoiler

 

Then the internal list of wimlib-imagex, ([he calls it black list] used to control/exclude critical files compression during Compact mode Apply), was updated on commit 4ab624f1529c, but from the Downloads page we can see there is not jet a new release after the commit date, so I assume this will be implemented on a future release, see:

 

Spoiler

 

 

alacran


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#65 wimb

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Posted 20 September 2020 - 06:00 AM

I saw this topic on wimlib Forum some time ago, but forgot to comment it on this Forum:

(The comments apply to Win10 1903 and newer)

 

Topic: https://wimlib.net/f...c.php?f=1&t=444

 

 

Thanks for interesting info regarding compression.

You also noticed a change in Microsoft standard from XPRESS4K into XPRESS8K for System Compression.

Also interesting that the list of files that must be uncompressed in Compact Installs is becoming smaller.



#66 alacran

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Posted 20 September 2020 - 06:54 AM

As said that change will be available on a future wimlib-imagex release, but anyway IMHO it's better to keep the current WimbootCompress.ini to maintain support for 7 and 8.x Compact and Wimboot mode installations, of course on long term on this OSs it will depend of the wofadk.sys version characteristics applied by WinNTSetup during first install.

 

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#67 gbrao

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Posted 23 September 2020 - 06:49 AM

Note : this is not ready for prime time :-)

 

Here is a autoit script I use to WOF compress/uncompress files.

 

If you find it useful ... I cannot guarantee it's bug free, LOL.

 

Source included. Credits to erwan.l, wimb & alacran.

 

It ignores files with regular NTFS compression, btw.

 

Edit : Updated. Added option to recurse/not recurse to stats tab.

 

 

Attached Files



#68 gbrao

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Posted 25 September 2020 - 01:47 AM

How does one list all the components/packages in a wim (or the active windows)?

 

I tried dism get-packages but it listed only a few.

 

How do progs like NTLite display all the components?

 

Would be useful for reducing/compacting windows.



#69 alacran

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Posted 25 September 2020 - 02:47 AM

@ gbrao

 

Info for the tool used to reduce the install.wim is on first post. just open the spoiler next to Summary of my procedure.

 

alacran



#70 gbrao

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Posted 25 September 2020 - 07:08 AM

Are you referring to MSMG ?

Thats only lists a few of the components/packages.

 

NTLite lists maybe 3 to 4 times as many.

 

If any one here is looking for a project : Listing all the components in a wim.

 

If I had the tech knowledge & skills I would attempt it.



#71 alacran

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Posted 25 September 2020 - 08:21 AM

Those are the safe to delete items, but It is also capable to use the user made list.

 

alacran



#72 gbrao

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Posted 25 September 2020 - 10:07 AM

I thought the user made list was :

- only to automate the process.

- the list could only contain the packages MSMG normally displays in the manual mode. For e.g. you could edit the file (i.e. remove components from ) RemovePkgsList_W10_LTSC_2019.txt.

 

To include anything else in that file you would need the name of the package. That's exactly what I was hoping someone here would do.



#73 alacran

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Posted 27 September 2020 - 04:46 PM

I thought the user made list was :

- only to automate the process.

- the list could only contain the packages MSMG normally displays in the manual mode. For e.g. you could edit the file (i.e. remove components from ) RemovePkgsList_W10_LTSC_2019.txt.

 

To include anything else in that file you would need the name of the package. That's exactly what I was hoping someone here would do.

 

Well my friend that is a moving target, every update there are new things or they are realocated/renamed (many people think this is made on pourpose to complicate the removing task), also each user make the list to his needs/preferences, so no user list can be permanet or valid for all cases, but there are also other sections on MSMG very long batch file, to remove OS characteristics and also see the tricks section. But I suggest you:

  • Always use last version.
  • DO NOT edit the batch file or you will not get author's support.

 

alacran



#74 crashnburn

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Posted 16 September 2021 - 03:17 PM

Well my friend that is a moving target, every update there are new things or they are realocated/renamed (many people think this is made on pourpose to complicate the removing task), also each user make the list to his needs/preferences, so no user list can be permanet or valid for all cases, but there are also other sections on MSMG very long batch file, to remove OS characteristics and also see the tricks section. But I suggest you:

  • Always use last version.
  • DO NOT edit the batch file or you will not get author's support.

 

alacran

 

I respect your work and your point of view, but I thinks we are looking for very different goals.

 

You prefer RAMbooting, and use it as your everyday system, and your goal is to make the Wimboot VHD the smaller possibe, and don't care about portability.

 

I don't intend to use Wimboot VHDs as my everyday OS, I prefer portability for RAMboot Wimboot VHDs and same for Compact mode installs trying to get the smaller size on both but without sacrificing portability, there are 5 different PCs at my home, and my idea is have a better tool than a WimPE to use for repairs.

 

So my comments interfere with yours and your comments interfere with my comments, then it is better I start a new topic, to not confuse future readers.

 

alacran

 

@alacran 

I want similar - dont need RAM boot for now. 

What do you recommend for me? Biggest bang for the buck? 

 

This is what I've done so far - I can restart but just want the simpler big ticket steps to compact the Win 10 VHD - No elimination of components that might break iTunes (my guess is .NET might be needed?) 

 

Thoughts? 

 

I just need a more compacted Win 10 VHD for use as a iDevice Backup toolkit so Apple iTunes + iCloud and maybe iMazing for making backups to non system/ vhd drive. 

 

But it needs to be "working" in terms of .NET etc whatever is needed for Apple 

PS: Posted more detail here but I think that thread & stuff is bit complicated for me to read right now.. as im unwell. 



#75 alacran

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Posted 16 September 2021 - 04:22 PM

You have 2 options:

 

Make a Compact mode installation (a single VHD) or make a Wimboot installation (it may be a very small [1 GB] VHD + the associated WIM file).

 

In your case it is better DO NOT remove anything and make a full installation on Compact mode or Wimboot mode.

 

Easier way is use VHD_WIMBOOT program from wimb, all our experience here on reboot.pro was added by wimb in his program and it's resumed in the PDF file included.

 

Just follow the instructions on his PDF file, but if you are not thinking in use it for Ramboot do not install SVBus driver as then it will not be requiered for Filedisk booting, before recapturing it install all your prefered programs (if you use portables located outside the VHD, will be even better) and make shure they work fine, but allways use Firewall App Blocker white list to only allow your browser to connect to Internet to avoid Win updates.  DO NOT run Win_Reduce_Trusted program by wimb as it may delete some files required for your especial case.

 

The re-capture and latter re-apply makes the WIM file and the resulting VHD used size smaller as it avoids many unnecessary files (mainly log fles and certain program installations backups as Office) but do not delete anything that will affect its full functionality.

 

alacran


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