WIM2VHD Release Candidate now available!

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That’s right, folks.  In celebration of the release of the Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate, I’ve updated WIM2VHD with bugfixes and new features!

What’s new?  BUGFIXES!  All of the bugs (except for one) on the Code Gallery issue tracker have been fixed in this release, as well as bugs that we found during testing, or that were found by other Microsoft employees.  The one issue that hasn’t been fixed yet came in too late to be included with our RC release, but it’s being considered for our RTW.

There are some new features, too

  • “Single Image Shortcut”
    If you specify a .WIM file that only contains one image, that image is automatically selected for you.  You don’t even need to use the /SKU switch – we’ll figure it out for you.  (The side-effect here is that we’ll select that image even if you specify a different image.  For example, if you have a .WIM that only has ULTIMATE in it, and you specify /SKU:SERVERSTANDARDCORE, we’re going to ignore your command and just install Ultimate.)

  • /COPYLOCAL switch
    Instead of installing the AIK on every computer you want to run WIM2VHD on, you can now install it once and then use the CopyLocal switch to create a folder that contains all of the files you need to run WIM2VHD.  To do this, use the following command:

    WIM2VHD.WSF /WIM:x:\sources\install.wim /COPYLOCAL:c:\wim2vhd

    This will copy WIM2VHD and the required binaries to the folder c:\wim2vhd.  Just run WIM2VHD from that folder, and you can move it anywhere.

  • /SIGNDISK switch
    You can now specify whether or not you want WIM2VHD to leave a signature file (<vhd>:\windows\wim2vhd.txt) on your VHD.  By default, the value is TRUE, so the signature file will be created.  You can change this by specifying /SIGNDISK:FALSE on your command line.

  • /MERGEFOLDER switch
    During VHD creation, you can point WIM2VHD to a folder and have its contents (not the folder itself) copied to the root folder of the VHD. 

    For example, let’s say that you have a folder structure like this:
    C:\TestFolder\
    \SubFolder1
    \SubFolder2
    \Something.DOCX
    \UNATTEND.XML

    If you want this structure copied into the VHD, you would add /MERGEFOLDER:C:\TestFolder to your command line.  If you do that, the root folder of your VHD would look something like this:
    VHD:\
    \…
    \Windows
    \SubFolder1
    \SubFolder2
    \Something.DOCX
    \UNATTEND.XML
    \Program Files
    \…

    Please note: /MERGEFOLDER is the last thing that happens in the VHD creation process. If you have files in your folder structure that already exist on the VHD, they will be overwritten without warning.

Head on over to the WIM2VHD website to download your copy today.  And make sure to get the RC release of the Windows 7 AIK!

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