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Win7 slipstreaming, a better way?
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Author:  Doddie [ Sat Feb 25, 2017 6:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Win7 slipstreaming, a better way?

After my relatively recent format and re-install of Windows 7 i found, as others know through their own experience, that it isn't as straight forward as inserting the Windows 7 disc and hitting Setup any more, for a start Windows Update no longer works 'out the box' and to get it working takes hours!... and then there's the further multitude of updates that are required when Windows Update is eventually in a working state.

With that in mind I've been thinking that there MUST be a way to make re-installing Windows 7 faster and easier.

Ideally Microsoft would have long ago released a Service Pack 2 for Windows 7 for download that after the initial installation would help things, but they haven't.

That said, they have made available a "Convenience Rollup" that should help speed things up as far as updates are concerned because it includes all updates up to April 2016, but sadly it still doesn't fix the problem of Windows Update not working after a fresh install of Windows 7.

Anyway, i decided the only way to make this process easier and faster would be to slipstream the Convenience Rollup and any other updates that i think are necessary onto a Win7 SP1 disc...
Problem 1: There are huge numbers of returns when searching how to slipstream a Win7 disc and prudence dictates not to trust any of them.
Problem 2: There is nothing by way of a definitive answer that i could find about how to make a Win7 disc that will work "out of the box", heck, even Paul Thurrott experienced and tested this last year but sadly afaict he didn't find an answer either...perhaps that was his point? <rhetorical>
https://www.thurrott.com/windows/67305/ ... ill-broken

So last night i set about following the instructions on the following page (when in doubt i prefer to follow instructions that supply lines of code, i may not understand a lot of it but I'll hopefully recognise something that shouldn't be there) rather than risk 3rd party software that I'd likely have no idea where or what it's doing:
http://pureinfotech.com/convenience-rol ... lipstream/

This went well with every step being confirmed at the command prompt... that is, when i finally realised that the spelling of professional that i copy & pasted in step 3 was wrong!! [I'm so glad my wife couldn't hear the language that was happening in my mind at that point!! LOL]
Renaming the source path at every stage was also a bit of a pain but it did remind me a lot of the old days of DOS and actually became fun when i was getting it right :lol: ... F3, where would i be without you :)

In addition to the above i also slipstreamed KB3172605 which is the last of the KB articles I've found are needed to install after a fresh install of Win7 to get Windows Update working, the other two KB's, 3020369 & 3125574 were slipstreamed as part of the process above already.

I had hoped to pull all my drives from my motherboard today and test my new "slipstreamed DVD" on an old HDD that I've got lying around but i didn't get the chance and it's too late in the day now to try so i'll get back to you on that... that said, i can't help wondering if there's a simpler way to slipstream a Win7 disc than the method i used, it was certainly if memory serves me right a lot faster and easier when i slipstreamed XP but that was a long time ago.

Fwiw, KB3125574 that takes hours to install on a Windows 7 system also took hours to slipstream into the Windows image i was creating and that surprised me.

Thoughts?

Author:  jaylach [ Sat Feb 25, 2017 8:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Win7 slipstreaming, a better way?

First off my Win 7 Ultimate is slipstreamed but only with SP1.

The issue you experienced with getting Updates is probably the fact that Win 7 shipped with IE8 which is no longer compatible with Updates. You could have saved yourself a lot of time by upgrading IE before going to Updates. That is what I did with a system I'm re-doing and Updates was fine as soon as I upgraded IE.

Author:  dvair [ Sat Feb 25, 2017 8:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Win7 slipstreaming, a better way?

I use this site to get started:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/home

At least you can get a version of 7 with SP1 already included.

Author:  jaylach [ Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Win7 slipstreaming, a better way?

That looks similar to where I got my slipstreamed Win 7 install David. The difference is that it seems that MS now does this in house where I got mine from Digital Rivers. Digital Rivers is the outfit that MS used to use for downloads. I'm sure that the results would be the same.

A question for you David... What is your opinion on adding other KB's to a slipstream? Personally I THINK I'm sort of against doing so but have never really made up my mind on this.

With as cheap as storage is I still think the best method is to do the install of any Windows version clean and do all updates. Then add any installs that are going to always be included. In this aspect I would not include such software as Office as you may change versions. I would include favorite games that are not going to change and such. Now make a system image on an external and stash the drive somewhere safe. If needed restore the 'core' install from the image and go from there.

Author:  dvair [ Sat Feb 25, 2017 10:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Win7 slipstreaming, a better way?

I haven't done slipstreaming in many years. That and I haven't had to do a reinstall in a long time either. With broadband speeds, the updates don't take that long.

I also downloaded from Digital Rivers in the past as it was before Microsoft set up the download site.

Author:  Doddie [ Sun Feb 26, 2017 4:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Win7 slipstreaming, a better way?

@Jaylach, i probably didn't make it clear but i have a Windows 7 64bit Professional disc that that came with SP1 already slipstreamed, i don't know if the Pro instead of Ultimate version makes a difference when doing a fresh Win7 install but in my case 3 times i re-installed Win7 in a short period of time and on each occasion i couldn't get Windows Update to work until i installed KB's 3020369, 3125574 & 3172605 and on each occasion i had already updated Internet Explorer to IE11.

I guess it's possible that Microsoft have improved WU since i last formatted so that Windows 7 will once again work when freshly installed... when i get around to testing the "new" slipstreamed disc I've created I'll first test my 'standard' Win7SP1 disc to confirm whether or not the issue still remains.

Fwiw(i): The main reason i used the purinfotech page as a guideline is that all the links on it lead to Microsoft including the MS Software Download page that dvair supplied (not always directly, but when not directly, then via another page on the pureinfotech website which then gives a direct link) with the exception of the final step for the "Windows USB/DVD Download Tool" which afact has nothing to with Microsoft, i didn't use that to burn the final ISO file to DVD, instead i used ImgBurn.

Fwiw(ii): Other than slipstreaming SP3 onto an XP disc years ago I've never tried slipstreaming but after my recent experiences with Win7 i do hope to speed up the installation process by at least slipstreaming KB3125574 which is the Windows 7 SP1 Convenience Rollup, it takes almost 2 hours to install on my PC, downloading it isn't an issue even though the x64 version weighs in at 476MB, it's the time it takes to install... slipstreaming KB3172605 was just an after thought that i thought I'd try slipstreaming to further speed up the installation & updating process.

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