Understanding ImageX and the .wim File Format
Imagex.exe is a
command-line tool that enables you to manage Windows Imaging (.wim)
files to perform image-based deployment of Windows onto bare-metal
hardware. In the past, many system administrators deployed earlier
versions of Windows by using third-party disk-imaging software. Such
software typically used sector-based imaging to copy or “clone” Windows
installation disks on a sector-by-sector basis to newly formatted
volumes on disks in target systems. ImageX is designed to provide
greater flexibility than sector-based imaging; to speed deployment
by reducing the size of the image; and to enable offline servicing of
images by adding, removing, or deleting files from the image.
ImageX works together with three other Windows imaging technologies, as shown in Figure 5.
Windows Imaging (.wim) files
These are collections of image files that contain one or more Windows
operating systems and their components and added packages. WIM is a
compressed, file-based disk image format first introduced with Windows
Vista.
WIM File System Filter
This enables you to browse and edit the contents of a .wim file to
perform offline servicing on it after mounting the file to a directory.
WIM API set
These APIs provide the underlying capabilities for the WIM FS Filter
driver and the ImageX command. The APIs also enable third-party
independent software vendors (ISVs) to develop deployment tools
compatible with WIM.
To use ImageX, you typically
type the command with one of its command options plus additional
information as needed. For example, typing the imagex /capture image_path image_file “name” command will capture the image_path volume image from a drive to image_file.wim with name name.
Following are high-level descriptions of each ImageX command option. For the detailed syntax of these command options, type imagex /? at the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt on a computer on which the Windows AIK has been installed.
/append Appends a volume image to an existing.wim file
/apply Applies a volume image to a specified drive
/capture Captures a volume image from a drive to a new .wim file
/delete Deletes the specified volume image from a .wim file with multiple volume images
/dir Displays a list of the files and folders within a specified volume image
/export Exports a copy of the specified .wim file to another .wim file
/info
Returns the total file size, the image index number, the directory
count, file count, description, and other stored XML descriptions for
the specified .wim file
/split Splits an existing .wim file into multiple read-only .wim files
/mount
Mounts a .wim file with read-only permission to a specified directory,
enabling you to view but not modify all the information contained in the
directory
/mountrw
Mounts a .wim file with read/write permission to a specified directory,
enabling you to view and modify all the information contained in the
directory
/unmount Unmounts the mounted image from a specified directory
