How to understand and design images in Windows 7

Images are used to deploy Windows 7 to PCs. All of the images are derived from the basic Windows Imaging (.wim) file type in Windows 7. This is the same .wim file type used in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008 R2. These images share many similarities no matter how they are deployed. You can deploy images using the following methods:

DVD installation
ImageX deployment
Windows deployment services deployment
System Center Configuration Manager deployment

Two primary image types are used:

Boot images

A boot image installs the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE, or WinPE). WinPE is used to provide a basic environment where a full installation can start. In installations before Windows Vista, installations began with a command-prompt mode, but now WinPE is used instead. The Windows 7 installation DVD includes a boot image.

Install images

An install image includes a full OS. The Windows 7 installation DVD includes the Windows 7 install images in the install.wim file. You can also create custom install images. A custom install image would include the OS, applications, settings, and configuration.

Windows imaging files can contain more than one image. The Windows 7 installation DVD I have has four images contained within the install.wim file: the Home Basic edition, the Home Premium edition, the Professional edition, and the Ultimate edition. You can use ImageX with the /Info switch to identify the images contained in a Windows image file.

It's important to realize the distinction between a .wim file and an image. An image is a full image of a bootable OS, but it must be contained within a .wim file. Any .wim file can contain one or more images. Images are stored in image files using compression and single-file technologies. Compression is easy enough to understand: The files are zipped or shrunk and can be uncompressed when needed.

Single-file technologies may be new to you, though. Files that are in more than one image are stored only once in the image file. For example, the Windows folder holds the regedit.exe file.

If your .wim file includes four Windows 7 images, the regedit.exe file is stored only once as a resource that is available to each of the images. Space is saved by storing it once instead of four times.

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