Manual Image Creation

It is possible to create and capture an image manually. The downside is it is labor-intensive and prone to human error; the upside is that building the system does not require you to predefine and automate every little detail. It also sidesteps some issues involving poorly packaged drivers or applications that are difficult or impossible to install in a silent or automated fashion. Manually configuring a reference system is well beyond the scope of this tutorial (and discouraged by the authors), and left to the expertise of the reader.

The best way to capture the system to an image is using an image capture CD and the following steps:

1. Install Windows: Manually install Windows, updates, and any desired applications and drivers, and apply every last tweak to a reference system. The system should also conform to the following rules:
   • Not joined to a domain.
   • Does not have the ConfigMgr client installed. This is not a strict requirement, but makes preparing the image easier.
   • Has a blank local Administrator password.
   • The system's security policy must not require strong passwords.
2. Create the capture media: Right-click the Task Sequences node under Operating System Deployment in the ConfigMgr console and choose Create Task Sequence Media . This launches the Task Sequence Media Wizard, which creates either a bootable USB drive or ISO image (which you can burn to CD or DVD) from a boot image.
3. Run Capture: Insert the capture media into the reference system, and from Windows autorun the media to initiate the capture wizard. This launches a wizard that copies WinPE to a hidden, bootable, file-based partition. It syspreps the system and then reboots into WinPE where it captures an image of the system.

The wizard also prompts for a target location, filename, and credentials.

The wizard checks for the existence of the proper sysprep folder and files on the target system. For Windows 7, this is not an issue because they are included with the OS; for Windows XP this means obtaining the proper set of sysprep files from the deploy.cab file and copying them into a new folder at the root of the C: drive named sysprep. Finally, the wizard prompts you for a UNC path to create the image at and credentials to access the UNC and then proceeds to capture the system.

It is also possible to boot into a custom version of WinPE and manually initiate ImageX. Follow these steps:

1. Create a bootable WinPE Image: See Microsoft's walkthrough at http://technet. microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc766385.aspx for complete details. Be sure to include ImageX in the image.
2. Install Windows: Install Windows according to the Install Windows step (step 1) in the previous procedure in this section.
3. Sysprep Windows: Run sysprep from the command line with the following options for Windows 7:
   sysprep /generalize /quiet /shutdown
   For Windows XP, run the following:
   sysprep /mini /quiet /reseal /shutdown
   You can also run the GUI version of sysprep by not specifying any command-line options and choose the options listed above in the resulting dialog box.
4. Boot PE: Boot the reference system into WinPE using the image you created.
5. Map Network Drive: From the PE command line, map a drive letter to the destination share (for example, net use Z: \\< computername >\< sharename >) and enter the proper credentials when prompted.
6. Run ImageX: From the same PE command prompt, run ImageX to capture the image using the following syntax: imagex /capture [image_path] [image_file] ["name"] <"description">. For example:
   imagex /capture c: z:\MyImage.wim "My Image Name"

Either method creates a WIM file containing an image of your reference system, fully compatible and usable by OSD. OSD also supports images created for use with WDS because they share the same WIM format. OSD does not support legacy RIS images.

After creation in the location you specified, import the WIM file containing the reference image into ConfigMgr using the steps outlined in the "Operating System Images" section. To use this, see the "Image Deployment" section.