Guide 📘

This guide explains how to capture a custom Windows image from a reference PC, prepare the installer files, and create a bootable ISO image.

1. Requirements ✅

Connect the first USB stick to the PC 🔌
Open Rufus 🚀
Select the correct USB stick
Select the Windows 11 ISO
Set the correct BIOS/boot partition format
If the target PC uses UEFI, the partition table must be GPT.
Check that the file system is NTFS
Other options that you can set for the Windows ISO image:

Turn off the target PC (if it is on)
Connect both USB sticks 💾💾
Turn on the PC and enter the BIOS ⚙️
Set the first USB stick as the boot device
At the end of the guide, it may be necessary to set Windows Boot Manager as the default boot option 🔁

Press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt (cmd) ⌨️
Type the following command and press Enter to open the partition tool:
```
diskpart
```
Inside diskpart, list all storage volumes:
```
list vol
```
Write down the output (for example on the sheet of paper) for the next steps 📝
Exit diskpart:
```
exit
```
Now type the following command (all on one line), customizing the values in angle brackets <...>:
```
dism /capture-image /imagefile:<drive_letter_of_second_USB>:\install.wim /capturedir:<drive_letter_where_Windows_is_installed>:\ /scratchdir:<same_drive_as_imagefile>:\ /name:<image_name_without_spaces> /compress:maximum /checkintegrity /verify /bootable
```
- <drive_letter_of_second_USB> → the drive letter of the second USB stick (use the notes from list vol)
- <drive_letter_where_Windows_is_installed> → the drive letter where Windows is installed (for example C)
- <same_drive_as_imagefile> → usually the same as <drive_letter_of_second_USB>
- <image_name_without_spaces> → the name you want to give to the image (no spaces)
At the end of the process, you can turn off the PC by typing:
```
wpeutil shutdown
```
and pressing Enter 📴
The system image will be saved on the second USB stick with the name you chose! 🎉💾

Connect both USB sticks to the working PC 💾💻
Create a working directory on the PC (for example: C:\WinISO_Workdir) 📁
Copy all the content from the Windows installer USB stick into the working directory.
In the working directory, go to the sources folder and replace the existing install.wim file with the install.wim from the second USB stick (the one created with dism).
- Original file path: <working_directory>\sources\install.wim
- New file path (from second USB): <second_USB_drive_letter>:\install.wim

Install the Windows ADK (Assessment and Deployment Kit):
- Using Chocolatey:
```
choco install windows-adk
```
- Or by using the official installer: Windows ADK installer
Open Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment as Administrator.
Once you are inside the working directory, run the following command (all on one line), replacing the values in <...> with your paths:
```
oscdimg.exe -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -bootdata:2#p0,e,b<Source Path>\boot\etfsboot.com#pEF,e,b<Source Path>\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin <Source Path> <Saving path and name of file>
```
Where:
- <Source Path> → the full path of the working directory (for example C:\WinISO_Workdir)
- <Saving path and name of file> → the full path and file name of the ISO you want to create (for example D:\ISOs\Custom_Windows11.iso)
When the command finishes successfully, your custom ISO image will be available at: <Saving path and name of file> 🎉💾