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Pre-Install Instructions

Table of Contents

Configure Partitions

Configure a dual-boot to separate environments for work/bloatware and your real-time application. This way you will not be forced to install bloatware on the same partition where you will be using your real-time application. You can do this by shrinking a volume in Disk Management which will create unallocated space for installing the new operating system.

What Version of Windows Should You Use?

  • Earlier versions of Windows lack anti-cheat (due to lack of security updates), driver support (commonly GPU, NIC) and application support in general, so some users are forced to use newer builds. See the table below of the minimum version required to install drivers for a given GPU as of November 2023

    GPU Minimum Windows Version
    NVIDIA 10 series and lower Supported by almost all Windows versions
    NVIDIA 16, 20 series Win7, Win8, Win10 1709+
    NVIDIA 30 series Win7, Win10 1803+
    NVIDIA 40 series Win10 1803+
    AMD Refer to driver support page

  • Windows Server lacks support for a lot of consumer NICs. Workaround tends such as this tend to interfere with anti-cheats

  • NVIDIA DCH drivers are supported on Windows 10 1803+ (1)

  • During media playback exclusively on Windows 10 1709, the Multimedia Class Scheduler Service raises the timer resolution to 0.5ms. As explained in the article below, this resolution is suboptimal for many people in terms of precision hence it would be appropriate to avoid this Windows version

  • Windows 10 1809+ is required for Ray Tracing on NVIDIA GPUs

  • Microsoft implemented a fixed 10MHz QueryPerformanceFrequency on Windows 10 1809+ which was intended to make developing applications easier, but many users across the internet reported worse performance

  • Windows 10 1903+ has an updated scheduler for multi CCX Ryzen CPUs (1)

  • DirectStorage requires Windows 10 1909+ but according to an article, games running on Windows 11 benefit further from new storage stack optimizations (1)

  • Windows 10 2004+ is required for Hardware Accelerated GPU Scheduling which is necessary for DLSS Frame Generation (1)

  • Windows 11+ has an updated scheduler for Intel 12th Gen CPUs and above but the behavior can easily be replicated manually on any Windows version (1). See the Per-CPU Scheduling section for more information

  • The behavior of processes that are affected by a single process raising the clock interrupt frequency significantly changed in Windows 10 2004+ and was further developed in Windows 11 to increase power efficiency but consequently breaks real-time applications and causes incredibly imprecise timing across the operating system (1). However, the old implementation can be restored in server 2022+ and Windows 11+ with a registry entry (1). For this reason, it would be appropriate to avoid builds starting from Windows 10 2004 which aren't Windows 11+ or Server 2022+

  • As of May 2023, Windows 11 limits the window message rate of background processes (1)

  • Windows 11 is a minimum requirement for Cross Adapter Scan-Out (1)

  • AllowTelemetry can be set to 0 on Windows Server editions (1)

Build Requirements

Download Stock ISOs

Ensure to cross-check the hashes for the ISO to verify that it is genuine and not corrupted (not required when building an ISO from UUP dump). Use the command certutil -hashfile <file> to get the hash of the ISO.

  • Recommended ISOs:

    • Windows 7: en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939.iso - Adguard hashes

    • Windows 8: en_windows_8_1_x64_dvd_2707217.iso - Adguard hashes

    • Windows 10+: Try to obtain an ISO with minimal updates as we will be integrating those of our choice. ISOs built with UUP dump typically ship with the latest updates which is fine

      How to check integrated updates

      • Extract and mount the ISO by following the steps from Prepare the Build Environment to Mount the ISO

      • View installed updates

        DISM /Image:"%MOUNT_DIR%" /Get-Packages

      • If you are satisfied with the update list, you can continue and proceed to the next steps. Otherwise, unmount with the command below to discard the ISO

        DISM /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"%MOUNT_DIR%" /Discard && rd /s /q "%MOUNT_DIR%"

  • ISO Sources:

Prepare the Build Environment

  • If Windows Defender is enabled, then consider disabling real-time protection as it can slow the mounting and unmounting process or cause issues in some cases

  • On the host machine, is highly recommended using a servicing stack greater than or equal to the servicing stack version of the ISO that you are servicing. Windows Update should handle this for you

  • Open CMD as administrator and do not close the window as we will be setting temporary environment variables which will be unbound when the session is ended

  • Run the command below. If an error occurs, re-open CMD with administrator privileges however if nothing is shown in the output, continue as normal

    DISM > nul 2>&1 || echo error: administrator privileges required

  • Extract the contents of the ISO to a directory of your choice then assign it to the EXTRACTED_ISO variable. In the example below, I'm using C:\en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939

    set "EXTRACTED_ISO=C:\en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939"

  • Set the path where the ISO will be mounted for servicing to the MOUNT_DIR variable. Changing the value below isn't necessary

    set "MOUNT_DIR=%temp%\MOUNT_DIR"

  • Set the path to the oscdimg.exe binary to the OSCDIMG variable. Unless you installed deployment tools to a location other than the default, changing the value below isn't necessary

    set "OSCDIMG=C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\amd64\Oscdimg\oscdimg.exe"

  • Prepare the MOUNT_DIR directory for mounting

    > nul 2>&1 (DISM /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"%MOUNT_DIR%" /Discard & rd /s /q "%MOUNT_DIR%" & mkdir "%MOUNT_DIR%")

  • If the environment variables are configured correctly, the commands below should display true

    if exist "%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\install.wim" (echo true) else (echo false)
if exist "%MOUNT_DIR%" (echo true) else (echo false)
if exist "%OSCDIMG%" (echo true) else (echo false)

Remove Non-Essential Editions

Remove every edition except the desired edition by retrieving the indexes of every other edition and removing them with the commands below. Once completed, the only edition to exist should be the desired edition at index 1. Ensure that the chosen edition has group policy support as several policies are configured in later steps.

  • Recommended editions:

    • Client editions: Professional

    • Server editions: Standard (Desktop Experience)

  • Get all available editions and their corresponding indexes

    DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\install.wim"

  • Remove edition by index. Replace <index> with the index number

    DISM /Delete-Image /ImageFile:"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\install.wim" /Index:<index>

Mount the ISO

Mount the ISO with the command below.

DISM /Mount-Wim /WimFile:"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\install.wim" /Index:1 /MountDir:"%MOUNT_DIR%"

Replace Wallpapers (Optional)

To replace all backgrounds and user profile pictures with solid black images, download win-wallpaper and place the binary in PATH (e.g. C:\Windows) then run the command below. Append --win7 if you are building a Windows 7 ISO.

win-wallpaper.exe --dir "%MOUNT_DIR%" --rgb #000000 --offline

Integrate and Obtain Drivers (Windows 7)

This step is only required for users configuring Windows 7 so that typically only NVMe and USB drivers can be integrated into the ISO to enable us to even physically boot into the ISO. If you are unable to find a USB driver for your HWID, try to integrate the generic USB driver. Ensure to integrate KB2864202 into the ISO if you use this driver.

You can find drivers by searching for drivers that are compatible with your device's HWID. See media/device-hwid-example.png in regard to finding your HWID in Device Manager for a given device.

Once you have obtained the relevant drivers, place all the drivers to be integrated in a folder such as C:\drivers and use the command below to integrate them into the mounted ISO.

DISM /Image:"%MOUNT_DIR%" /Add-Driver /Driver:"C:\drivers" /Recurse /ForceUnsigned

Integrate Updates

  • Windows 7 recommended updates:

    KB4490628 - Servicing Stack Update
KB4474419 - SHA-2 Code Signing Update
KB2670838 - Platform Update and DirectX 11.1
KB2990941 - NVMe Support (https://files.soupcan.tech/KB2990941-NVMe-Hotfix/Windows6.1-KB2990941-x64.msu)
KB3087873 - NVMe Support and Language Pack Hotfix
KB2864202 - KMDF Update (required for USB 3/XHCI driver stack)
KB4534314 - Easy Anti-Cheat Support
KB3191566 - WMF 5.1 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54616)

  • Windows 8 recommended updates:

    KB2919442 - Servicing Stack Update
KB2999226 - Universal C Runtime
KB2919355 - Cumulative Update
KB3191566 - WMF 5.1 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54616)

  • Windows 10+ recommended updates:

    • ISOs built with UUP dump already contain the latest updates (assuming the latest version was built) so this step (integrating updates) can be skipped

    • Download the latest update along with the servicing stack for that specific update which is specified in the update page. On Windows 11+, the SSU is included with the .msu package which can be extracted with 7-Zip as it is not offered separately. Use the official update history page (Windows 10, Windows 11). Search for the Windows Server update history manually. If using an unsupported Windows version, use the update in which support for the desired edition was dropped as Microsoft still release updates for enterprise editions which are not meant to be installed on client editions as an example

  • Download the updates from the Microsoft update catalog by searching for the KB identifier. Ensure to download the correct variant that corresponds to the correct edition (server/client) and architecture

  • Integrate the updates into the mounted ISO with the command below. The servicing stack must be installed before installing the cumulative updates

    DISM /Image:"%MOUNT_DIR%" /Add-Package /PackagePath=<path\to\update>

Enable .NET 3.5 (Windows 8+)

DISM /Image:"%MOUNT_DIR%" /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All /LimitAccess /Source:"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\sxs"

Integrating Required Files

Clone the repository and place the bin folder in the mounted directory. Open the directory with the command below.

explorer "%MOUNT_DIR%"

Unmount and Commit

Run the command below to commit our changes to the ISO. If you get an error, check if the directory is empty to ensure the ISO is unmounted by typing explorer "%MOUNT_DIR%". If it is empty, you can likely ignore the error, otherwise try closing all open folders and running the command again.

DISM /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:"%MOUNT_DIR%" /Commit && rd /s /q "%MOUNT_DIR%"

Replace Windows 7 Boot Wim (Windows 7)

Note

This step isn't required if you are installing using DISM Apply-Image (without a USB storage device).

As you are aware, Windows 7 lacks driver support for modern hardware, and you should have already integrated drivers into the install.wim. However, we haven't yet touched the boot.wim (installer). We could integrate the same drivers into the boot.wim as we did before. However, this may still lead to a problematic installation. Instead, we can use the Windows 10 boot.wim which already has modern hardware support to install our Windows 7 install.wim. For this to work properly, you should only have one edition of Windows 7 in your install.wim which should already be done in the Remove Non-Essential Editions section.

  • Download the latest Windows 10 ISO that matches your Windows 7 ISO's language and extract it, It is recommended to rename the extracted folder to avoid confusion. In the examples below, it is extracted it to C:\Win10_ISO

  • Replace sources\install.wim or sources\install.esd in the extracted Windows 10 ISO with the Windows 7 install.wim

  • We need to update a variable since our extracted directory has changed. Enter the path of your new extracted directory, mine is C:\Win10_ISO

    set "EXTRACTED_ISO=C:\Win10_ISO"

ISO Compression

Compressing has no advantage other than reducing the size. Keep in mind that Windows setup must decompress the ISO upon installation which takes time. Use the command below to compress the ISO.

DISM /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\install.wim" /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\install.esd" /Compress:recovery /CheckIntegrity && del /f /q "%EXTRACTED_ISO%\sources\install.wim"

Convert to ISO

Note

This step isn't required if you are installing using DISM Apply-Image (without a USB storage device).

Use the command below to pack the extracted contents back to a single ISO which will be created in the C:\ drive.

"%OSCDIMG%" -m -o -u2 -udfver102 -l"Final" -bootdata:2#p0,e,b"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\boot\etfsboot.com"#pEF,e,b"%EXTRACTED_ISO%\efi\microsoft\boot\efisys.bin" "%EXTRACTED_ISO%" "C:\Final.iso"

Boot Into the ISO

For the next steps, you are required to disconnect the Ethernet cable and not be connected to the internet. This will allow us to bypass the forced Microsoft login during OOBE and will prevent Windows from installing unwanted updates and drivers.

As a reminder, your NIC driver may not be packaged with Windows so either download them now and store it offline on the USB or be prepared to download them from another device or dual-boot.

Install using a USB storage device

  • Download Ventoy and launch Ventoy2Disk.exe. Navigate to the option menu and select the correct partition style and disable secure boot support, then select your USB storage and click install

  • Move your Windows ISO into the USB storage in File Explorer

  • If Secure Boot is enabled, temporarily disable it for the installation process. Boot into Ventoy on your USB in BIOS and select your Windows ISO. Continue with setup as per usual. Once setup has finished, Secure Boot can be re-enabled if you temporarily disabled it

  • When installing Windows 8 with a USB, you may be required to enter a key. Use the generic key GCRJD-8NW9H-F2CDX-CCM8D-9D6T9 to bypass this step (this does not activate Windows)

  • When installing Win11 with a USB, you may encounter system requirement issues. To bypass the checks, press Shift+F10 to open CMD then type regedit and add the relevant registry keys listed below

    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig]
"BypassTPMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassRAMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassSecureBootCheck"=dword:00000001

Install using DISM Apply-Image (without a USB storage device)

  • Create a new partition by shrinking a volume if you haven't already, then assign the newly created unallocated space a drive letter

  • Extract the ISO if required then run the command below to apply the image. Replace <path\to\wim> with the path to the install.wim or install.esd

    • Get all available editions and their corresponding indexes

      DISM /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:<path\to\wim>

    • Apply image. Replace <index> with the index of the desired edition and <drive letter> with the drive letter you assigned in the previous step for the image to be mounted on (e.g. 1 and D:)

      DISM /Apply-Image /ImageFile:<path\to\wim> /Index:<index> /ApplyDir:<drive letter>

  • Create the boot entry with the command below. Replace <windir> with the path to the mounted Windows directory (e.g. D:\Windows)

    bcdboot <windir>

  • The installation process will begin after a system restart

Continue to docs/post-install.md.