How Windows ESD image files are used

The ISO image file was used to install the system, but during the Windows 10 upgrade, it is not always necessary to provide an ISO image download, only an ESD image file is left in the temporary directory of the hard disk. An ESD file can be used to implement a rollback of the system version, but it is not directly intended to install the system. It is imperative that you fully understand the ESD files and extract or transform the WIM or ISO files that we need.

1. Understanding ESD Files

Prior to installing Windows, use the installation disk, ISO files, or the Install.wim files in them. After Windows 8, Microsoft began to use a new installation image file format for ESD, which allows for a smaller volume of installation files because it uses a higher compression rate. During the test and upgrade of Windows 10, it is not difficult to find that the system automatically pushes the upgrade file to use this format. The install.esd file is visible from the system Partition Recoveryimage folder (Figure 1).

There are many ways to obtain ESD files. In addition to the Windows 10 automatic upgrades above, you can obtain an ESD image file for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 through Microsoft's official upgrade assistant, download the image with the upgrade assistant, and get the decrypted ESD image file after downloading. If you upgraded Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 update through an application store, you can also find an encrypted ESD image file in the system partition's $Windows. ~BT folder before restarting the system.

2. Play the ESD image

ESD files are not convenient for direct use, extract the required WIM file, or convert to ISO file, we can be used in the traditional way.

(1) Manual conversion

Starting with the Windows 8.1 Update build 6.3.9600.16610, the system has its own tool DISM for managing and processing an ESD image file. Using this tool, you can manually process the ESD files, not only to view the information, but also to extract the familiar Wim format files.

If you want to view the system disk E:recoveryimageinstall. The content contained in the ESD image file can be executed in the Administrator's Command Prompt window (Figure 2):

Dism/get-wiminfo/wimfile:e:recoveryimageinstall. Esd

You can see that the file consists of 4 parts, including installation media, Windows PE, Setup, professional Technology Preview, and so on.

Small tip:

If you use the above command in a system version that is lower than Windows 8.1 Update, you will need to install the version 8.1 ADK component before you can execute the command.

A decrypted or unencrypted ESD file that captures the images contained in the VHD virtual disk into a traditional WIM format. We know that the VHD virtual disks can be created and mounted through Disk Manager. Assuming the virtual letter is G:, after entering the command prompt window as a system administrator, execute the "dism/apply-image/imagefile:install.esd/index:4/applydir:g:" Command, Extract the 4th image file from the ESD to the VHD virtual partition (Figure 3). After that, then use "Dism/capture-image/imagefile:d:install.wim/capturedir:g:/description:" Windows ten Pro/name: "Windows ten Pro"/ Compress:max/verify/checkintegrity, capture the system image in the VHD virtual partition as a Install.wim file and save it in the D disk (Figure 4).

(2) Tool conversion

If you think the method of command conversion is troublesome, you can also use the dism++ tool to convert the ESD files. Dism++ is the GUI version of DISM, the interface is graphical and intuitive, but it is not a simple shell of DISM, and operations are completely independent of the DISM itself. dism++ liberated Microsoft's deliberately hidden functions, such as ESD capture, ESD Wim, and so on.

Take the example of converting the official ESD image for Windows 10. Download the Windows 10 official ESD image and download the dism++10.0.1.4 version of the conversion tool.

Small tip:

The dism++ tool is also divided into 64-bit or 32-bit versions, depending on the version of your current system to choose to use the corresponding version. Download the latest version and also support the conversion of encrypted ESD files.

Open dism++, select Format conversion on the File tab, select Esd->iso (Figure 5), and then in the pop-up window, select the path of the source file where the ESD is located and the location of the target file ISO, name the ISO file name to be generated, and click "Finish" to start the transformation (Figure 6 )。 After the conversion is complete, the resulting ISO image file can be used as before.

(3) ISO substitution

Although Microsoft does not directly provide some of the Windows version of the ISO file download, can only be updated online, but after the new version of the automatic upgrade, some computer enthusiasts will be the first time through the upgraded ESD file into the ISO version and provide downloads. If you can download such an ISO file, it is obviously more convenient than the conversion. However, the problem is that such a document does not rule out the possibility of being built in, used as a test, if it is to be formally used, or through Microsoft's official ESD file conversion more reassuring. WINDOWS10 Tutorial