Create a H.I.D image in several minutes :)

Create a Sysprepped vhd image from Windows 7 (Vista/8?) sources using CMD and restore it to a PC!

First download:

AIK 7: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5753

and

AIK 7 SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=5188

Then download WIM2VHD.WSF script from:

http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/wim2vhd/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=2603

and put it in C:\

After you have installed AIK, go to C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools and copy imagex.exe to C:\

Note: There is different version of imagex.exe in the folders amd64, ia64 and x86 so choose depending on your cpu.

Extract or mount and copy windows 7 iso to C:\WinSetup

Then open a elevated CMD and type:

cd C:\

cscript wim2vhd.wsf /wim:c:\WinSetup\sources\install.wim /sku:ultimate

Note: "sku" is the version of windows you want to use, so change it if you dont want ultimate.

After several mintes it will finish and you will have a VHD file that is a 5gb but is expandable to 40 gb. You can boot your VHD natively or in a VM.

Now you can use "Image for windows" or another imaging software to create an image of that VHD and then restore it to a PC. So you have a hardware Independent image that will boot into OOBE when restored (After restore it will install drivers, reboot, let you change language settings / username and it will reboot once more before booting into windows).

It took me 3-4 min to create the vhd, 2 min to image it with IFW and 3 minutes to restore it my PC with IFW WinPE on USB stick. Alot faster then installing windows, doing sysprep. Also you can integrate hotfixes and other stuff to the extracted windows 7 source, like you do normally and then use the script to create a VHD.

Note: If you use IFW you should be able to mount the VHD directly and then restore it to your HDD.

Credits to: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/StepByStepTurningAWindows7DVDOrISOIntoABootableVHDVirtualMachine.aspx