Mass deploy images that contain UWF (Industry 8.1)

7/8/2014

Learn how to deploy a Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry (Industry 8.1) image with Unified Write Filter (UWF) to more than one device at a time.

You can deploy a Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry (Industry 8.1) image from a reference device to multiple devices. To deploy devices without Unified Write Filter (UWF), follow the instruction in Deploy to a device. However, to deploy an image that contains UWF to more than one device, you must perform additional actions to disable write filter protection and to reapply the write filter settings after deployment. These steps are described below.

To make sure that UWF always protects the correct volume (as identified by the user during initial setup), UWF translates non-persistent volume identifiers to persistent identifiers on each device at run time. Examples of persistent identifiers include a drive letter or {disk number, partition number} pair. Because the persistent-volume identifiers for each device are unique, write filter settings will be lost after mass deployment onto different devices if UWF is not disabled.

You will use Sysprep, a preinstalled utility in the %WINDIR%\System32\Sysprep directory, to orchestrate execution of all other executable files that help in preparing the system for deployment. However, Sysprep invokes several features that modify the system during generalization and specialization; these features make special demands that are incompatible with UWF. Therefore, you must disable UWF protection before running Sysprep. You must run Sysprep.exe in the context of the installed directory, and you must have administrator rights to correctly generalize or specialize the image for later deployment.

We recommend that you deploy your image, including any custom applications, to a test device in field conditions so that you can adjust it as needed before you deploy to multiple devices.

Mass deploy an image from a reference device

Each deployment process performs several verifications, which rely on the target device's date and time settings. For optimal performance, confirm before deployment that each target device is set to the correct date and time.

Prerequisites

• Development system

  • The Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK) is downloaded. For more information, see Windows Deployment with the Windows ADK on MSDN.
  • You have access to Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM). For information about DISM, see Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) Command-Line Options on MSDN.
  • Windows Preinstallaton Environment 4.0 (Windows PE 4.0) is installed. For more information, see Step 1 in the Basic Windows Deployment Step-by-Step Guide on TechNet.

• Reference device

  • A USB port.
  • Is configured to start from a USB device.
  • Your master image includes the features needed to meet your device requirements, including UWF. For more information, see Edit an answer file.

• Test device

  • Your test device matches the reference device hardware. Any hardware deviations may cause problems.

• Other devices

  • An empty USB flash drive that has at least 4 gigabytes (GB) of free space. You will load Windows PE 4.0 on this USB drive.

  • An external storage device that uses the NTFS file system and has at least 8 GB of free space. This can be a second USB flash drive, an external hard drive, or a network location. These instructions assume that the external storage device is an external hard drive.
    To use a network location as the external storage device, type the following command to map a drive to the network location before you perform each step that uses the external drive:

    net use e: \\server\share
    

Install Windows PE and the image on the USB

1. Connect the USB flash drive to your development system.

2. To install Windows PE 4.0, at a command prompt, type the following command, where F is the drive letter for the USB flash drive:

   Copy MakeWinPEMedia /UFD C:\winpe_amd64 F:
   

Capture the image from the reference device

1. To disable Unified Write Filter (UWF), at an administrator command prompt, type the following command:

   uwfmgr.exe filter disable
   

2. To restart the device, type the following command:

   uwfmgr.exe restart
   

3. Connect the USB flash drive to the reference device and then restart the device in Windows PE 4.0.

4. Connect the external hard drive to the reference device.

5. Prepare the image for mass deployment by using Sysprep to remove system-specific settings such as the computer security identifier (SID):

   Sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown
   

   When you deploy the image to different devices, the system regenerates the device-specific settings that were removed by Sysprep so that customizations to write filters are retained. For more information about Sysprep, see Sysprep Command-Line Settings on MSDN.

6. To capture your master image using DISM, type the following command, where D refers to the drive that contains your image and E is the drive letter for the external hard drive:

   dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:E:\MyImage.wim /CaptureDir:D:\ /Name:”Contoso" 
   

   The Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool captures the Windows partition in a new image file.

Deploy and test the image

1. On the test device, connect the external hard drive and then start the device in Windows PE 4.0.

2. To apply your custom image by using DISM, type the following command, where E refers to the USB flash drive that contains your image and D is the drive on the test device:

   Dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:E:\MyImage.wim /ApplyDir:D:\ /Name:”Contoso"
   

3. To configure the device to start the OS, use the BCDBoot tool to update the BCD store:

   bcdboot E:\Windows /l en-US
   

4. Restart the system.

5. Verify that your image is on the device and that it works as expected.

6. To enable Unified Write Filter (UWF), at an administrator command prompt, type the following command:

   uwfmgr.exe filter enable
   

7. To restart the device, type the following command:

   uwfmgr.exe restart
   

8. Follow these same steps to deploy the image to multiple devices.

Mass deployment logs

Sysprep uses the Panther logging engine to capture useful debugging information that you can use to help resolve installation or deployment-related issues. For more information about Windows Setup Log files, see Windows Setup Log Files on TechNet.

Additional reading for image setup and mass deployment

• For more information about Windows PE, see Windows PE Technical Reference.
• For more information about automated installation, see Unattend Windows Setup Reference.
• For information about Sysprep, see Sysprep Command-Line Settings on MSDN.

See Also

Concepts

Deploy to multiple devices
Configure and deploy an image