IMAGING AN EXISTING SYSTEM
The alternative goes like this: Install
Windows 10 as usual on a sacrificial
machine (or a sacrificial drive), making
sure everything stays on your C: drive.
Configure it using the standard tools. Set
up your favorite user accounts, your visual
settings, install your software, and disable
whatever you want disabled. Then turn it
into something you can move elsewhere.
There are a few ways to do this, but
creating an ISO isn’t the most sensible. Nor
is wrestling with DISM at the command
prompt of a Windows installer, or creating
some kind of Windows PE boot media.
You’d be better off running something like
Macrium Reflect or EaseUs ToDo Backup,
both of which include bootable backup
environments, and exporting the contents
of your hard drive to a system image on an
external disk. On your target machine, just
restore that disk image, reactivate it with a
new key, and you’re good to go.
Frankly, while this is possible and
feasible if you’re using the same hardware
on both machines (or just want to roll back
the same machine to its original settings),
it’s less practical for these purposes
than preconfiguring and preloading a
Windows 10 ISO. Porting an existing
install, particularly one that’s already
been activated with a product key, to a
machine with differing hardware can cause
problems, and might even mean a sheepish
call to Microsoft’s beleaguered activationrepresentatives if your OS decides you’re
up to no good. Making regular backups is A
Good Thing, and you should totally do that,
but leave system imaging to those poor
IT departments with fleets of identical
hardware to maintain.Trim out editions you don’t need, and build media you can work with. WinReducer is very powerful, but could do with a design overhaul.
“Save the image and trim editions,” unless you’re flush with keys
for all kinds of Windows versions, because this chops away any
files not explicitly required for the version you’re configuring.
At the bottom of the tasks list, check the box that says “Create
ISO.” If you don’t, NTLite instead simply produces a new
install.wim file (the guts of a Windows installer), which may be
handy if you’re looking to deploy from, say, an existing Windows
install USB or a network location. Click “Process,” and you
create that ISO—but not before disabling Windows Defender on
your existing machine to speed up the process. Again, this isn’t
100 percent required, but it’s safe enough to switch it off while
NTLite grinds away. When your ISO is complete, you can write it
in whatever way you see fit—we recommend using Rufus (http://
rufus.ie) to put it on a USB stick.MORE EXTREME
A final mention to another tool: WinReducer. It’s ugly, crude, and
wants you to pay for an activation key (from around $11 for six
months), but it’s well regarded for its ability to hack chunks away
from Windows 10 ISOs and toss them in the trash. If that’s your
goal, its remover gives you access to 1,265 Windows items—and
there’s an automated removal preset designed to optimize the
size of its output ISO without cutting down on features too heavily.
If NTLite is a bit much, WinReducer could be just the thing.maximumpc.com JUN 2019 MAXIMUMPC 49