Add drivers to Windows 8 ISO Image

Windows 8 Logo

I already did a post how you can add drivers to you Windows 7 image with command line tools like dism and imagex. With Windows 8 you cannot use the command line tool imagex anymore but you have a new Windows PowerShell module for dism which allows you basically the same with. In this tutorial I will add drivers to a Windows 8 ISO image.

First I created three new folders:

  • Drivers – which includes all the extracted drivers for Windows 8
  • ISO – This includes the extracted Windows 8 ISO image
  • Mount – This is a empty folder which will be used to mount the WIM files

PowerShell Dism Folders

First we have to check in which Windows edition we want to add drivers. We can do this by using the Get-WindowsImage cmdlet:

 Get-WindowsImage -ImagePath .\ISO\sources\install.wim 

Get-WindowsImage

This will show you all the Images which are included in this WIM file.

After we have seen the Index numbers we can now mount the Windows Image our Mount folder. In my example I use Image Index 3 which is the Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Core Edition. If you use Windows 8 you see other editions.

 Mount-WindowsImage -Path .\Mount -ImagePath .\ISO\sources\install.wim -Index 3 

Mount-WindowsImage

After the image is mounted we can now add the drivers from the Drivers folder.

 Add-WindowsDriver -Path .\Mount -Driver .\Drivers -Recurse 

When all drivers are added to the Image you can dismount the image and save it.

 Dismount-WindowsImage -Path .\Mount -Save 

Dismount-WindowsImage

We have now added the drivers to the Install image, you should also added the drivers to your boot image. To do this just do the same steps to the .\ISO\sources\boot.wim.

After that you can create a ISO file


oscdimg -n -m -bc:\temp\ISO\boot\etfsboot.com C:\temp\ISO C:\temp\mynew.iso 

Vizio is doing it right

Vizio Ultrabook

Some years ago I moved from Apple products to PC products from mayor vendors like HP, Lenovo or Dell. I really love Windows and the way it works, don’t get me wrong OS X is a good operating system and some years ago (between Windows XP and Windows Vista/7) it had some advantages, but as I think in the last years the company who did the most and major innovation was Microsoft. Now what I always missed was really cool hardware. I know there are some machines out there which are okay but it does just not feel as good as Apple hardware.

vizio-thin-and-light

Some months ago I saw some articles on the web about a small American company which was know for his TVs is starting to build PCs… Crazy? Sure I would think you have to be a little crazy to enter the PC market at all but when you see the products they make, you realize this could work. They make really clean and beautiful Apple like designs and they focus and building good hardware and not just selling some plastic.

Today I found a great article (Vizio reboots the PC: a quiet American success story takes on sleeping giants) about this company called Vizio on theverge.com.

I really love their products and would love to get them here in Switzerland together with Windows 8. Checkout http://www.vizio.com/

The new SkyDrive rocks…

Microsoft SkyDrive

Today Microsoft released some new SkyDrive Apps for Windows and Mac and alos offers 25GB of free online storage. I really love SkyDrive to keep my files in sync and access them everywhere. With the new apps the integration is much better, easier and 25GB of free storage is a fair deal.

Making personal cloud storage for Windows available anywhere, with the new SkyDrive

With the new Apps, SkyDrive is integrated in your operating system. If you need some online Storage, Cloud Sync or you are already using a service like Dropbox or GDrive you should have a closer look at Microsoft SkyDrive.

SkyDrive Explorer

 

New features:

  • SkyDrive for the Windows desktop (preview available now). View and manage your personal SkyDrive directly from Windows Explorer on Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista with this new preview app available in 106 languages worldwide.
  • Fetching files through SkyDrive.com. Easily access, browse, and stream files from a remote PC running the preview app to just about anywhere by simply fetching them via SkyDrive.com.
  • SkyDrive storage updates. A new, more flexible approach to personal cloud storage that allows power users to get additional paid storage as their needs grow.
  • SkyDrive for other devices. We’ve updated the SkyDrive apps on Windows Phone and iOS devices, bringing better management features and sharing options to those devices. We’re also releasing a new preview client for Mac OS X Lion, letting you manage your SkyDrive right from the Finder.

 

Checkout more about SkyDrive

Windows Management Framework 3.0 Community Technology Preview

 

Powershell

Some days ago the Microsoft Powershell Team released the Community Technology Preview of the Windows Management Framework 3.0 which includes Windows PowerShell v3. You can download the the CTP1 here and it requires Windows 7 SP1 or Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1.

You can use very easy both PowerShell versions sie by site.

powershell.exe -Version 3.0

powershell.exe -Version 2.0

But the Windows Management Framework 3.0 CTP1 does not only includes PowerShell 3, it also contains new versions of WMI, WinRM and the new Windows PowerShell Webservice.

Windows PowerShell 3.0

  • Workflows
    Workflows that run long-running activities (in sequence or in parallel) to perform complex, larger management tasks, such as multi-machine application provisioning. Using the Windows Workflow Foundation at the command line, Windows PowerShell workflows are repeatable, parallelizable, interruptible, and recoverable.
  • Robust Sessions
    Robust sessions that automatically recover from network failures and interruptions and allow you to disconnect from the session, shut down the computer, and reconnect from a different computer without interrupting the task.
  • Scheduled Jobs
    Scheduled jobs that run regularly or in response to an event.
  • Delegated Administration
    Commands that can be executed with a delegated set of credentials so users with limited permissions can run critical jobs
  • Simplified Language Syntax
    Simplified language syntax that make commands and scripts look a lot less like code and a lot more like natural language.
  • Cmdlet Discovery
    Improved cmdlet discovery and automatic module loading that make it easier to find and run any of the cmdlets installed on your computer.
  • Show-Command
    Show-Command, a cmdlet and ISE Add-On that helps users find the right cmdlet, view its parameters in a dialog box, and run it.

WMI

  • A new provider development model
    This new model brings down the cost of provider development and removes the dependency on COM.
  • A new MI Client API to perform standard CIM operations.
    The API can be used to interact with any standard WsMan + CIMOM implementation, allowing management applications on Windows to manage non-Windows computers.
  • The ability to write Windows PowerShell cmdlets in native code
    The new WMI Provider APIs supports an extended Windows PowerShell semantics API allowing you to provide rich Windows PowerShell semantics. e.g., Verbose, Error, Warning, WhatIf, Confirm, Progress

WinRM

  • Connections are more robust
    Session disconnect and reconnect, with or without client session reconstruction, allows long-running tasks to continue even when the session in which they were started is closed and the client computer is shut down. This feature also allows administrators to reconnect from different computers to check the status of remote running tasks and get results.
  • Connections are more resilient
    In Windows PowerShell 3.0 CTP1, connections can survive short-term network failures; the client-server connection is not severed at the first sign of trouble. If network problems persist, the client is safely disconnected and can reconnect by using the Connect-PSSession or Receive-PSSession cmdlets.

Windows PowerShell Web Service

Windows PowerShell Web Service enables an administrator to expose a set of PowerShell cmdlets as a RESTful web endpoint accessible via the Open Data Protocol (OData). This provides remote access to invoke cmdlets from both Windows and non-Windows clients.

You can get more Information about the Windows Management Framework 3.0 Community Technology Preview on the Windows PowerShell Team Blog.

Windows 8: Client Hyper-V and boot from VHD

Windows 8 Client Hyper-V

Some days before the BUILD conference, Microsoft released a video about Hyper-V in Windows 8. Now after some days of testing I am already a big fan of the client Hyper-V. It lets me create a perfect lab at work or a development VM and Linux VM’s for KTSI.

It’s a great solution for me. Sure there were other solutions like Virtual PC, Virtual Box and VMware Workstation before, but using the built-in Hyper-V has some advantages which make my life a little easier.

  • PowerShell support – it lets me start up a whole lab environment within seconds. I can really quick import Virtual Machines and start them up. And also do some other cool scripted solutions.
  • Performance – it offers great performance.
  • VHD and VHDX – it’s great to work with one virtual disk format and not have to convert virtual disks. It’s also great together with the boot from VHD feature.
  • Dynamic Memory
  • Remote Management for Hyper-V Servers (like the RSAT)
  • Live Storage Migration – Move a running Virtual Machine from local disk to another local disk, USB or network share and back

Microsoft made also the boot from VHD feature a little simpler.

  1. First Mount the VHD you want to boot. (right click on the VHD and “Mount”)
    mount vhd
  2. Now check the new drive letter of the VHD in my case this is G:
  3. Open the command prompt and type bcdboot G:\windows
    bcdboot
  4. Now your VHD will appear in the boot menu. You can check that by typing bcdedit
  5. and as you can see no sysprep or generalize needed

Here a small list of Hyper-V client features:

  • 32 Virtual CPUs
  • NUMA in VM
  • 512 GB RAM
  • Sleep, Hibernate
  • Management console
  • Manage Hyper-V Server from this console
  • Snapshots
  • Up to 1024 running VM’s
  • VHD, and VHDX (up to 16TB)
  • Dynamic disks, Differencing disks, pass through disks, fixedsize disks
  • 4K sector size
  • DMTF comliant WMI
  • Networking offloads
  • Live Storage Migration
  • Native VHD boot
  • Dynamic Memory
  • Remote Management
  • PowerShell
  • Export snapshots
  • Resource Pools
  • External, Internal and Private Networks
  • Bi-Direction audio
  • Enlightened IDE & SCSI controllers
  • Hyper-V on SMB
  • up to256 virtual drives
  • up to 12 virtual NICs
  • VLAN support
  • 3D Graphics (Software)
  • Mutli Touch
  • USB redirection (with RDP)
  • Wireless NICs
  • Export & Import VMs
  • Hyper-V Extensible Switch
  • VHDX Resiliency

Supported Operating Systems:

  • Windows XP SP3
  • Windows Server 2003 SP2
  • Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2
  • Windows Vista
  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Storage Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Home Server 2011
  • Windows SBS 2011
  • Windows 8
  • Windows Server 8
  • CentOS 5.2-5.6
  • CentOS 6.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2-5.6, 6.0, 6.1
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, 11

In my opinion Client Hyper-V is a great solution and lab to go for Developers, IT Pros, Testers, Sales people and a lot more.

 

Microsoft’s Mouse Without Borders

Microsoft Mouse Without Borders

Microsoft released a free software called “Mouse Without Borders” which allows you running multiple computers with one keyboard and mouse like Synergy. But the “Mouse Without Borders” brings a lot of cool features and an easy setup.

  • Use your mouse seamlessly
  • Drag files across computers
  • Copy & paste across computers
  • Share one keyboard across computers
  • Lock or log into all of your PCs at one time and share screen captures from one PC to another