Custom Windows Installation, pt.2

OK, OK ... so we're going to make our very own Frankendows custom Windows installation.

#0 -- Get all needed software

OK, I forgot to make sure that my toolbox was stocked.

We're going to need a couple of pieces of software, in addition to the ones explicitly named in Part 1:

• Some kind of ISO-maker
  I've been using ImgBurn for some time now, and from what I've seen, it's a thoroughly well-behaved program that does exactly what it says on the tin.
• Some kind of ISO-mounter
  You're going to need the ability to mount the ISOs you make as proper CDs. I've had good luck so far with VirtualCloneDrive.

Besides that, you'll need to get the Microsoft Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) -- but we mentioned that back in Part 1.

#1 -- Prep your Windows Environment

That means ...

• Uninstalling everything but a few essential programs.
  And by "essential" I mean "you absolutely have to have them and you don't mind paying the cost with a bigger Windows disk.
  For my part, that means I'll be keeping:
• Flash, Silverlight, Java
• Dropbox, Google Drive
• Chrome
• Notepad++
• 7zip
• VLC
• PuTTY
• Avast! and Malwarebytes
• f.lux [which is an absolutely-wonderful little gizmo, by the way]
• Sumatra PDF [fantastic as a lightweight PDF viewer]
• Skype
• Revo Uninstaller [another fantastic utility]
• Handbrake [as I'm in the middle of digitizing all my DVDs]

So gone is Steam, Eclipse, all those GOG games I keep neglecting, all those mods and mod-organizers for Skyrim and KSP, ...

• Get ALL TEH WINDOZE UPDAETS!!!!
  We don't want to waste time downloading updates and Service Packs out the wazoo, do we? Get them now, so we never have to get them again!
  
• Install WinPE
  As WinPE comes in the form of an ISO, you'll have to mount that ISO in order to install it ...

... and (if you've been a good boy and disabled Auto-Run) start the installer ...

That should take a while, right?

#2 -- Make your WinPE Boot-USB

... You do have a spare USB stick lying around, right?

So -- you've installed the AIK. Now you need to use part of it to make your WinPE boot device -- which'll have, as we said in Part 1, a bare-essentials copy of Windows on it.

So -- you'll want to start the AIK "Deployment Tools Command Prompt" as an Administrator.

This'll give you the unspeakable and horrific WinDOS command-prompt.

Anyway: now we get to execute some commands! (I know, right?)

copype.cmd x86 C:\winpex86\ISO\sources\boot.wim

Magic ensues.

Behold -- the boot image has been created!

Now:

copy C:\winpe_x86\winpe.wim C:\winpe_x86\ISO\boot.wim

Even deeper (and more talkative) magic ensues.
Our first command created a boot image. Just as discussed in my first series on Archlinux, we need to give the computer a relatively-simple boot-program to munch on when it wakes up first thing in the morning.

This second command creates a more-general system image, with all the other files we'll need to run our (extremely minimal) copy of Windows.


Finally, we need to package the boot and system images together into a single ISO (so we can burn it to a CD or USB).

oscdimg -n -bC:\winpe_x86\etfsboot.com C:\winpe_x86\ISO C:\winpe_x86\winpe_x86.iso

Don't put in your own newlines, obviously ...

And hooray -- we have our WinPE boot image!

Now we just need to push it onto a USB stick and make it bootable.

#2.1 -- Go On, Stick It In

I had a spare USB stick lying around, with a 2GB capacity (which is waaaaaay overkill, bee-tee-dubs). I decided to use that for my WinPE boot device.

To actually put the WinPE ISO on the USB stick, though, is not as straightforward as copy-paste. We need to work some minor arcana to let the computer know that the USB is bootable.

I love one-button solutions, so I used WiNToBootic. You don't even have to install the thing, just unzip and run!

Once WiNToBootic is running, just drag-and-drop the ISO we created into it. That ISO will be at C:\winpe_x86\.

A few moments of deep magic pass, and it's done.

So we've prepped Windows and created our minimal boot-Windows stick. Next we need to image our existing Windows DVD, clean the existing Windows system, boot into WinPE, ...

But that'll all have to wait til Part 3.