How to edit a Windows Imaging Format file on a Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computer that is running Windows Deployment Services

This article describes how to edit a Windows Imaging Format (WIM) file on a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computer that is running Windows Deployment Services (WDS).

The following files are associated with the operating system images that are captured by using WDS:

• Res.rwm
  This file contains the file streams that are associated with the images. Each image group has an associated Res.rwm file.
• Image_Name.wim
  This file contains the image metadata that describes the files, the folders, and the permission structures that make up the image.

The actual file resources for the image reside in the Res.rwm file. The .rwm file is a .wim file. The extension .rwm (Resource WIM) is used to do the following:

• Differentiate the resource-only .wim file from the metadata.
• Speed up the image enumeration process. Because image enumeration works only on .wim files, the Res.rwm file is not used. The data in the Res.rwm file and in the Image_name.wim file is single-instanced and compressed.

By default, an image group that is named "ImageGroup1" is created when you upload the first image to the WDS server.

To edit the Image_Name.wim file, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, click Administrative Tools, and then click Windows Deployment Services.
2. In the WDS Management Console, right-click the image that you want to change, and then click Disable.
   
   Note When you disable the image, new clients cannot view the image, and the image is not enumerated by any clients. Existing clients that are already installing the image can continue to install the image. However, you cannot replace the image until all existing installations are completed.
3. Right-click the image, and then click Export to export the image to a single .wim file.
4. In the Export As dialog box, specify a location for the single .wim file.
5. Click Start, point to All Programs, click Microsoft Windows AIK, and then click Windows PE Tools Command Prompt.
   
   Note For more information about how to create the Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) build environment, see the "Windows PE Build Environment" section in The Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) User's Guide.
6. At the command prompt, type the following command to create the Windows PE build environment:
   copype.cmd x86 destination_folder_name
   Note destination_folder_name is the folder to which you want to extract the image.
   
   This command creates a build environment in the folder that you specify. The command also updates the build path to include the path of the following tools:
   • Peimg.exe
   • Oscdimg.exe
   • Imagex.exe
7. At the command prompt, type the following command to mount the exported image:
   imagex /mountrw image_file_pathimage_numbermounted_image_file_path
   Note To change the Image_Name.wim image file, you must have Mounting Read and Write (mountrw) permissions for the mounted image.
8. After the image is successfully mounted, you can make the changes that you want. For example, you can add, remove, or replace any files that exist in the mounted image.
9. After you have made changes, you must unmount the image, and then you must commit the changes. To do this, type the following command at the command prompt:
   ImageX /unmount /commit mounted_image_file_path
10. In the WDS Management Console, select one of the following options:
    1. Right-click the image, and then click Replace to replace the existing image with the updated copy.
    2. Right-click the image group, and then click Add to add the image as a new image.

Note To free disk space, you can safely delete the extracted image that resides in the destination_folder_name folder after you complete these steps.