As requested by a couple of people, this guide will show you how to create a single DVD containing Windows 7 (all x86 and x64 editions) and Windows Server 2008 R2 (all editions). This one is slightly more difficult than the first guide I posted, but if you follow the instructions you’ll have no problems.
What you need to know (upgrade vs clean install):
It's important to appreciate the functionality of the DVD, particularly in relation to installation.
If you're doing a clean install, then this DVD will work fine.
But if you're doing an upgrade, you will probably recieve the following message when setup runs the compatibility check:
The reason for this is because we're going to use Windows 7 x86 as the base image and combine Windows 7 x64 and Server 2008 R2 x64 into this. For example, upgrading from Vista x86 to Windows 7 x86 should work fine using this DVD. But upgrading from Vista x64 to Windows 7 x64 will not work using this DVD because the base image is x86 (but a clean install of Windows 7 x64 from this DVD will work fine).
If upgrade functionality is important to you, then you should make 2 DVDs: DVD1 containing Windows 7 x86 and DVD2 containing Windows 7 x64 and Server 2008 R2 x64.
And lastly, the functionality of any operating system you install from this DVD will remain unaffected. Only installation methods are affected.
What you’ll need:
Instructions:
1. Create three folders in any location of your choice (I used the D: drive). Name each of them ‘x64’, ‘x86’ and ‘Server’ respectively.
2. Extract (or copy and paste the contents of) the Windows 7 (x86) ISO to the ‘x86’ folder using 7zip or WinRAR. Now extract or copy and paste the contents of the Windows 7 (x64) ISO to ‘x64’ folder. Finally, extract or copy and paste the contents of the Windows Server 2008 R2 ISO to the 'Server' folder.
3. Run command prompt with administrator privileges.
4. We’re going to use Windows 7 x86 as the base and merge everything into this. So, what we’re going to do now is:
But before that, some quick background info to help you understand the process. Inside any .wim file, there are "Image Index" numbers which refer to different editions (i.e. Home Basic has its own image index number, Home Premium has its own image index number etc.)
Using the following command, you can look up the Image Index numbers inside the Windows 7 x64 install.wim file:
For Windows 7 x64:
Image Index 1 = Home Basic
Image Index 2 = Home Premium
Image Index 3 = Professional
Image Index 4 = Ultimate
Another example:
For Windows Server 2008 R2:
Image Index 1 = Standard (Full Installation)
Image Index 2 = Standard (Core Installation)
Image Index 3 = Enterprise (Full Installation)
Image Index 4 = Enterprise (Core Installation)
Image Index 5 = Datacenter (Full Installation)
Image Index 6 = Datacenter (Core Installation)
Image Index 7 = Web Server (Full Installation)
Image Index 8 = Web Server (Core Installation)
First we’ll start by merging the Windows 7 x64 install.wim file into the Windows 7 x86 install.wim file. We need ImageX to do this.
The command is as follows:
"imagex.exe" /export "[Source install.wim file]" [Index Image number] "[Destination install.wim file]" "[Name of this edition]"
So, here are the commands that I used (you may need to adjust file paths):
Now we’re going to merge the Windows Server 2008 R2 install.wim file into the Windows 7 x86 install.wim file.
Here are the commands that I used (you may need to adjust file paths):
5A. This is where it gets slightly more technical, so read and digest this step carefully. The purpose of this step is to copy the EULA files from the Windows Server 2008 R2 boot.wim file and then paste them into the Windows 7 x86 boot.wim file. Without doing this, you will not be able to install any of the Server products even though they are listed on the installation page.
To carry out this copy and paste task, we’re going to “Mount” both of the boot.wim files, copy and paste, and then “Unmount” the files. As before, we’ll be using ImageX to do this.
Before we start: if you downloaded ImageX directly, you will need to right click on the wimmount.inf file inside the amd64 or x86 folder and then click install and restart. If you installed WAIK, you don’t need to do this.
Firstly, create two new folders called ‘Mount_7’ and ‘Mount_Server’ in any location of your choice (again, I used the D:\ drive).
Now we will mount both the Windows Server 2008 R2 ‘boot.wim’ file and the Windows 7 x86 ‘boot.wim’ file.
Here’s a quick explanation of the mount command:
" imagex.exe" /mountrw "[Location of .wim image]" [Image Index Number] "[Destination folder where you would like .wim image to be mounted]"
So, here are the commands that I used to mount both of the boot.wim files (you may need to adjust file paths):
We can now use Windows Explorer to copy and paste the files. To do this:
Now that we have edited the x86 boot.wim file, we need to save it. This is done by using the “Unmount” command in ImageX.
Run this command (if you still have the Mount_7 folder opened in Windows Explorer, close it first otherwise you will get an Unmount error):
Now run this command:
That’s it for this step! If you done this step correctly, the D:\x86\sources\boot.wim file should now be 139MB.
5B. The previous step copied the EULA files required when installing by booting from the DVD (hence boot.wim). But if you choose to run the installation within Windows, you will receive an error about images not found. To solve this, we need to copy the other EULA files that are used when installing within Windows.
6. Now open D:\Server\sources and copy these files:
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERDATACENTER.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERDATACENTERCORE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERENTERPRISE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERENTERPRISECORE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERSTANDARD.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERSTANDARDCORE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERWEB.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERWEBCORE.clg
Paste them in the D:\x86\sources folder.
Also delete the ei.cfg file from the D:\x86\sources folder.
7. All that’s left to do now is to make a new bootable ISO. We’ll use Oscdimg to do this.
MS have a good explanation of the switches here.
Here's the command you need:
Basically translates as: oscdimg, [options], [Path to source], [Target file]
Using the above command, your new ISO will be saved to the D:\ drive with the name of Windows7and2008R2AIO.
8. Now you can test your ISO in VirtualBox/VMWare. If all goes well it should look like this:
9. Now for some housekeeping. If your ISO is working as expected, you can delete the following folders:
D:\x86
D:\x64
D:\Server
D:\Mount_7
D:\Mount_Server
The DVD should be 4.35GB if you merged all editions. You can now burn your ISO to DVD using, for example, ImgBurn. Alternatively, you can write the ISO to a USB drive by following any of the guides available through google.
Enjoy your new all-in-one DVD!
P.S. You can also merge Windows 7 Enterprise into the DVD by editing the ImageX commands as appropriate. File size will probably go above a single DVD though, unless you avoid merging Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 editions that you don’t need.
What you need to know (upgrade vs clean install):
It's important to appreciate the functionality of the DVD, particularly in relation to installation.
If you're doing a clean install, then this DVD will work fine.
But if you're doing an upgrade, you will probably recieve the following message when setup runs the compatibility check:
The reason for this is because we're going to use Windows 7 x86 as the base image and combine Windows 7 x64 and Server 2008 R2 x64 into this. For example, upgrading from Vista x86 to Windows 7 x86 should work fine using this DVD. But upgrading from Vista x64 to Windows 7 x64 will not work using this DVD because the base image is x86 (but a clean install of Windows 7 x64 from this DVD will work fine).
If upgrade functionality is important to you, then you should make 2 DVDs: DVD1 containing Windows 7 x86 and DVD2 containing Windows 7 x64 and Server 2008 R2 x64.
And lastly, the functionality of any operating system you install from this DVD will remain unaffected. Only installation methods are affected.
What you’ll need:
- Windows 7 x86 ISO, Windows 7 x64 ISO, Windows Server 2008 R2 ISO
- ImageX and Oscdimg. These are both part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 (available from here). To save some bandwidth, you can download the ImageX tool directly from here or here.
If you use the direct download, you will also need to install wimfltr.sys, download from here or here (right click on wimfltr.inf then click install).
Instructions:
1. Create three folders in any location of your choice (I used the D: drive). Name each of them ‘x64’, ‘x86’ and ‘Server’ respectively.
2. Extract (or copy and paste the contents of) the Windows 7 (x86) ISO to the ‘x86’ folder using 7zip or WinRAR. Now extract or copy and paste the contents of the Windows 7 (x64) ISO to ‘x64’ folder. Finally, extract or copy and paste the contents of the Windows Server 2008 R2 ISO to the 'Server' folder.
3. Run command prompt with administrator privileges.
4. We’re going to use Windows 7 x86 as the base and merge everything into this. So, what we’re going to do now is:
- extract all the editions from the Windows 7 x64 install.wim file and merge these into the Windows 7 x86 install.wim file; and then
- extract all the editions from the Windows Server 2008 R2 install.wim and merge these into the Windows 7 x86 install.wim file.
But before that, some quick background info to help you understand the process. Inside any .wim file, there are "Image Index" numbers which refer to different editions (i.e. Home Basic has its own image index number, Home Premium has its own image index number etc.)
Using the following command, you can look up the Image Index numbers inside the Windows 7 x64 install.wim file:
For Windows 7 x64:
Image Index 1 = Home Basic
Image Index 2 = Home Premium
Image Index 3 = Professional
Image Index 4 = Ultimate
Another example:
For Windows Server 2008 R2:
Image Index 1 = Standard (Full Installation)
Image Index 2 = Standard (Core Installation)
Image Index 3 = Enterprise (Full Installation)
Image Index 4 = Enterprise (Core Installation)
Image Index 5 = Datacenter (Full Installation)
Image Index 6 = Datacenter (Core Installation)
Image Index 7 = Web Server (Full Installation)
Image Index 8 = Web Server (Core Installation)
First we’ll start by merging the Windows 7 x64 install.wim file into the Windows 7 x86 install.wim file. We need ImageX to do this.
The command is as follows:
"imagex.exe" /export "[Source install.wim file]" [Index Image number] "[Destination install.wim file]" "[Name of this edition]"
So, here are the commands that I used (you may need to adjust file paths):
Now we’re going to merge the Windows Server 2008 R2 install.wim file into the Windows 7 x86 install.wim file.
Here are the commands that I used (you may need to adjust file paths):
5A. This is where it gets slightly more technical, so read and digest this step carefully. The purpose of this step is to copy the EULA files from the Windows Server 2008 R2 boot.wim file and then paste them into the Windows 7 x86 boot.wim file. Without doing this, you will not be able to install any of the Server products even though they are listed on the installation page.
To carry out this copy and paste task, we’re going to “Mount” both of the boot.wim files, copy and paste, and then “Unmount” the files. As before, we’ll be using ImageX to do this.
Before we start: if you downloaded ImageX directly, you will need to right click on the wimmount.inf file inside the amd64 or x86 folder and then click install and restart. If you installed WAIK, you don’t need to do this.
Firstly, create two new folders called ‘Mount_7’ and ‘Mount_Server’ in any location of your choice (again, I used the D:\ drive).
Now we will mount both the Windows Server 2008 R2 ‘boot.wim’ file and the Windows 7 x86 ‘boot.wim’ file.
Here’s a quick explanation of the mount command:
" imagex.exe" /mountrw "[Location of .wim image]" [Image Index Number] "[Destination folder where you would like .wim image to be mounted]"
So, here are the commands that I used to mount both of the boot.wim files (you may need to adjust file paths):
We can now use Windows Explorer to copy and paste the files. To do this:
- Open the ‘D:\Mount_Server\sources’ folder
- Right click and copy the ‘Licence’ folder
- Open the ‘D:\Mount_7\sources’ folder
- Now paste (and click yes when prompted to merge with existing Licence folder).
Now that we have edited the x86 boot.wim file, we need to save it. This is done by using the “Unmount” command in ImageX.
Run this command (if you still have the Mount_7 folder opened in Windows Explorer, close it first otherwise you will get an Unmount error):
Now run this command:
That’s it for this step! If you done this step correctly, the D:\x86\sources\boot.wim file should now be 139MB.
5B. The previous step copied the EULA files required when installing by booting from the DVD (hence boot.wim). But if you choose to run the installation within Windows, you will receive an error about images not found. To solve this, we need to copy the other EULA files that are used when installing within Windows.
- Open D:\Server\sources
- Right click on ‘licence’ folder and copy
- Open D:\x86\sources and paste
- Press yes to merge with existing folder. You will receive two further prompts asking whether you wish to merge. Press yes for both. You will then receive four prompts regarding lipeula.rtf and lpeula.rtf (‘there is already a file with the same name in this location’). I selected ‘Copy but keep both files’.
6. Now open D:\Server\sources and copy these files:
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERDATACENTER.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERDATACENTERCORE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERENTERPRISE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERENTERPRISECORE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERSTANDARD.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERSTANDARDCORE.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERWEB.clg
install_Windows Server 2008 R2 SERVERWEBCORE.clg
Paste them in the D:\x86\sources folder.
Also delete the ei.cfg file from the D:\x86\sources folder.
7. All that’s left to do now is to make a new bootable ISO. We’ll use Oscdimg to do this.
MS have a good explanation of the switches here.
Here's the command you need:
Basically translates as: oscdimg, [options], [Path to source], [Target file]
Using the above command, your new ISO will be saved to the D:\ drive with the name of Windows7and2008R2AIO.
8. Now you can test your ISO in VirtualBox/VMWare. If all goes well it should look like this:
9. Now for some housekeeping. If your ISO is working as expected, you can delete the following folders:
D:\x86
D:\x64
D:\Server
D:\Mount_7
D:\Mount_Server
The DVD should be 4.35GB if you merged all editions. You can now burn your ISO to DVD using, for example, ImgBurn. Alternatively, you can write the ISO to a USB drive by following any of the guides available through google.
Enjoy your new all-in-one DVD!
P.S. You can also merge Windows 7 Enterprise into the DVD by editing the ImageX commands as appropriate. File size will probably go above a single DVD though, unless you avoid merging Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 editions that you don’t need.
Last edited:
) to have everything on one DVD compared to three.
