There are a lot of different versions of Windows, but you probably didn’t know that short of the Enterprise edition, the disc or image that you own contains all versions for that architecture. Read on to see how we can use them to make a universal Windows 8 install disc.

Things You Will Need

• A x86 Version of Windows 8
• A x64 Version of Windows 8
• A x86 Version of Windows 8 Enterprise
• A x64 Version of Windows 8 Enterprise
• A Windows 8 PC

Note: While we will use all the images above you don’t really need the Enterprise Edition. You could always leave out parts of the tutorial if you know what you are doing, if you are not comfortable with that and still want to follow through you could always grab the Enterprise evaluation images that are available for free to the public, on MSDN.

Getting Started

To get started you will need to Download the Windows 8 ADK from Microsoft.

Once downloaded go ahead and install it, you will only need the Deployment tools so be sure to uncheck the rest of the options.

Lastly you will also need to create the following folder structure on the root of your C:\ drive to make things a bit easier.

• C:\Windows8Root
• C:\Windows8Root\x86
• C:\Windows8Root\x64
• C:\Windows8Root\Enterprisex86
• C:\Windows8Root\Enterprisex64
• C:\Windows8Root\Temp
• C:\Windows8Root\Final

OK lets get started.

Making The Image

The first thing we need to do is create a base image, so mount the x86 version of Windows 8 and copy its files to:

C:\Windows8Root\Final

Now move the install.wim file from:

C:\Windows8Root\Final\sources

To:

C:\Windows8Root\x86

Next go ahead and copy the install.wim file from the other 3 images, Windows 8 x64, Windows 8 Enterprise x86 and Windows 8 Enterprise x64 to the respective folders in Windows8Root, the install.wim file can be located at:

D:\sources\install.wim

Note: The above assumes that the images are always mounted at drive D.

Remember that each install.wim is different so don’t copy them to the wrong directories or the rest of the tutorial wont work.

Next switch to the Metro Start Screen and open the Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment.

Note: If you are not a local administrator on your PC, you will need to right-click on it and choose to run it as an administrator.

Now run the following commands:

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\x86\install.wim /SourceIndex:2 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8″ /compress:maximum

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\x86\install.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8 Pro” /compress:maximum

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\x86\install.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8 Pro with Media Center” /compress:maximum

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Enterprisex86\install.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8 Enterprise” /compress:maximum

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\x64\install.wim /SourceIndex:2 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8″ /compress:maximum

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\x64\install.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8 Pro” /compress:maximum

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\x64\install.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8 Pro with Media Center” /compress:maximum

Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Enterprisex64\install.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:c:\Windows8Root\Final\sources\install.wim /DestinationName:”Windows 8 Enterprise” /compress:maximum

Next navigate to:

C:\Windows8Root\sources\

And create a new text file.

You will need to call it:

EI.cfg

Then edit it to look like the following:

The last thing we need to do is work some magic to get Windows Media Center added to the WMC editions of Windows 8. For that I have written a little script to make it easier for everybody, you can grab it here. Once you have downloaded it extract it.

In order to use it right-click in the bottom left hand corner of the screen, and open an elevated command prompt.

Then go ahead and paste the following into the command prompt window.

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -File C:\Users\Taylor\Documents\HTGWindows8Converter.ps1

Note: You will need to replace the path to the script, another thing to note is that if the path you replace it with has spaces you will need to enclose the path in quotes.

The script should kick off straight away and has some progress bars you can watch while it does its thing.

Half way through another Window will pop open, which will start creating your final ISO image.

When its complete, close the command prompt and you should have an ISO image on the root of your C drive called:

HTGWindows8.iso

That’s all there is to it.

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