CodingWonders Software

What's Next for "Discovery": Driver Packs

Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What's Next for "Discovery": Driver Packs

Adding drivers in bulk for a computer just got a lot easier.

When working on Windows images, one of the tasks you are most likely going to perform is add drivers to make it work on a device or several units of a single device. Tracking down and keeping drivers organized is an ordeal, but what if it can be easier and well integrated?

Meet Driver Packs. Driver Packs allow you to pack multiple driver files into a single file. The thing that sets DISMTools Driver Packs apart is that drivers can be associated to one or more computers. So, by selecting a computer from a Driver Pack, you can add a set of drivers in bulk as if you were working at the computer manufacturer company.

For example, imagine you have the following computers:

Dell XPS 15 9510
Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 3 (21KS)
Dell Precision 5680
Custom PC with ASUS H610M-D D4 motherboard

And the following drivers:

Intel Arc Pro Graphics
Intel SST OED
Intel Serial I/O
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
Intel AX211
Intel H610 Chipset

What if you can map them like this?

Dell XPS 15 9510
- Intel SST OED
- Intel AX211
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU
Lenovo 21KS
- Intel SST OED
- Intel Arc Pro Graphics
- Intel AX211
Dell Precision 5680
- Intel SST OED
- Intel AX211
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
H610M-D D4
- Intel Serial I/O
- Intel H610 Chipset

By selecting the Lenovo 21KS computer preset, you will be able to add all the drivers that provide full functionality for a ThinkPad P16s Gen 3. This works in both operating system and image modes, and allows for quick imports and reusability.

Creating Driver Packs

In the works is a Driver Pack Creator that allows you to easily plan everything a driver pack will have.

Managing Computers

Computers can be given one or more drivers. From the computer addition wizard, adding a computer is easy and it takes no time to associate drivers to it.

Computer information can be changed at any time. Its purpose is to more easily identify a computer from other computers in your Driver Pack. For example, we want to modify the OS the ThinkPad P16s Gen 3 is using. We can change it by going to the Software tab of this dialog:

The Driver Pack Creator will see support for downloading driver files from Manufacturer Device Model Catalogs and adding them to your Driver Pack alongside the computer. Right now, the supported brands are HP, Dell, and Lenovo.

Here is how Model Catalog data parsing is laid out; this is more interesting information for developers who would like to extend model catalog parsing capabilities using additional computer manufacturers:

Here are some parts of the structure of a parsed model catalog, showing the SoftPAQ for a HP Limited Edition Scuderia Ferrari Notebook Next Gen AI PC (what a mouthful):

Here is one for a ThinkPad P16s Gen 3 (Types 21KS and 21KT):

And here is one for a Dell machine:

Right now, the HP bits have been fully assembled. Here is the computer addition process from model catalogs:

Lenovo and Dell model catalog integration is now in the works, but they are different cans of worms given their different structures. I'll see how I can integrate them as well as the HP integration.

Packing Driver Contents

After adding the drivers and computers, a Driver Pack Project must be built to create a Driver Pack. The format consists of a zipped structure (yes, it behaves like a ZIP file). By default, files inside the Driver Pack are stored with Deflate compression, though the feasibility of LZMA compression is being discussed.

The time it takes to build a driver pack varies on the amount of files and the speed of the computer's processor and disks during compression and decompression sessions.

Additionally, the Driver Pack Creator supports creating Driver Pack Projects from already built Driver Packs.

Working with Driver Packs

For Discovery, driver addition will let you use Driver Packs. No UI work has gone into the importer yet, but here is a mockup:

I'm sold! When do I begin?

Driver Packs are still being developed and they should be integrated by the first preview of DISMTools 0.9 "Discovery". You will see proper documentation once the format as a whole gets integrated into a DT release.

Stay tuned for more Sneak Peeks!

Setting up a custom logon wallpaper on NT 5.x and earlier

Thu, 15 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Setting up a custom logon wallpaper on NT 5.x and earlier

Giving your logon screen your personal touch.

You may know that, since Windows 8, you can change the lock screen wallpaper to give it your touch. On Windows Vista and 7 you could provide your own wallpaper like an OEM. But what about NT 5.x and prior versions? This includes:

Windows Server 2003
Windows XP*
Windows 2000
Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 3.x

*on Windows XP you need to disable the Welcome Screen and, effectively, Fast User Switching.

Let's do it!

Preparing and setting up the wallpaper

Put the wallpaper in a simple path that can be accessed by anyone in the system, like the root of the system volume. For these old versions of Windows, the logon screen must be a BMP file (even though Windows XP and Server 2003 support JPG files, they convert the wallpaper to a BMP; native JPG support didn't come until Vista). Then, do the following:

Open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe, or regedt32.exe on NT 3.x)
Go to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop and change the Wallpaper value to the location of your BMP file. For example:

Now, log off. You will see the custom logon wallpaper immediately. Here are some examples:

Windows 2000 with a logon wallpaper depicting an iconic French duo:

Windows NT 4.0 with a Windows Vista wallpaper:

Windows NT 3.51 with WINLOGO.BMP, tiled by setting TileWallpaper to 1:

Time to customize your logon screen! Your friends will be impressed with what you come up with.

What's Next for "Discovery"

Tue, 13 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What's Next for "Discovery"

Discovering new levels of system administration.

With DISMTools 0.8.2 getting closer to its release, we begin to wonder once again: "What's next?", "What will bring us closer to the future of system administration?", and "What will be the next big thing?". And thus, we begin to discover a new realm of possibilities.

The next DISMTools Series, the 0.9 Series, will be codenamed "Discovery" for 2 reasons:

It allows us to discover new ways to innovate in the system administration space
It is a direct reference to Daft Punk's "Discovery"

These features have been under consideration for a couple of months, and I want to make sure they are perfect for this Series. But, showing you everything when completed, given the magnitude of the content, can get overwhelming. As such, I have decided that I am going to publish a set of Sneak Peeks showing you what is planned for this new Series.

Stay tuned!

Removing JScript support for answer files

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Removing JScript support for answer files

A relic from the past of WSH is now gone. Am I worried about it? Not at its slightest.

Before we discuss the removal of JScript support, we have to talk about Microsoft's scripting capability history, which basically goes back to the 80s with MS-DOS.

MS-DOS was one of their first products. I'm not counting their actual first product, a BASIC interpreter, as that is more for making programs, not scripts (you could think differently about this, but let's not get bogged down with that). MS-DOS itself also has an interesting story, with origins on QDOS, but that's another topic.

MS-DOS introduced batch scripts. Basically, this would allow anyone to perform a batch of commands automatically, cutting down time to perform an action significantly, just like with any scripting technology. One of the most common batch scripts at the time was AUTOEXEC.BAT, which would launch at the beginning of the command interpreter, COMMAND.COM. Other script extensions associated to batch scripts were eventually added, such as .CMD. Batch scripts are still being used and written to this day, and has proven to be one of the easiest ways to perform tasks automatically.

In the late 90s, Microsoft introduced the Windows Scripting Host as a way to make scripting even more powerful not just at a computer level, but online too, accompanied by ActiveX. This resulted in the introduction of 2 scripting languages: VBScript and JScript (not to be confused with JavaScript), with VBS and JS extensions. Even though they were very popular back then (and even more popular to write malware), its use has diminished over the years. Nonetheless, more people wrote VBScript code than JScript code.

The problems with VBScript and JScript, however, were their barrier for entry.

Batch had the upside of being easy to work with, but felt lacking in other areas. Microsoft significantly improved CMD's internal commands with Windows 2000, but it still feels lacking in some areas to this day
VBScript/JScript had the upside of being more powerful, and more integrated (as Microsoft added WSH capabilities to their products); but felt quite cumbersome

In the 2000s, Jeffrey Snover proposed Monad as a way to bridge the gap between simplicity and power. This eventually became the PowerShell we know today. PowerShell has the advantage of leveraging the .NET framework, which allows script makers to do crazy things with it (for example, adding C# types that call Windows APIs via P/Invoke or creating windows with WinForms and WPF), and outputting most of its results in object form, which allows for easier data retrieval and manipulation.

Based on this, we have 4 good scripting languages with which you can make scripts for unattended answer files:

Batch
PowerShell
VBScript
JScript

So, why is JScript support being dropped?

UnattendGen, the component responsible for making answer files from DISMTools, uses Christoph Schneegans' answer generator library. It has removed JScript support for no (apparent) reason. This dictates all of the answer file components, so they were updated to reflect this change.

You could probably see why JScript support was removed. I think it was dropped because of lack of popularity. As such, UnattendGen, the unattended answer file creation wizard, and the Starter Script Editor have been updated to drop JScript support and you will begin to see this change with DISMTools 0.8.2 Preview 4.

For the Starter Script Editor, here's what will change:

You will not be able to import JScript scripts:

Document outline support for JScript has been removed:

So, what do I do if I have and/or rely on JScript files?

Well, at this point, I recommend that you spend some time rewriting your existing JScript files in PowerShell.

DISMTools 0.8.2 Preview 3 - Now available

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.2 Preview 3 - Now available

The third preview of DISMTools 0.8.2 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

Multiple image files can now be added to ISO files:
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Enable Clipboard History	When users log on for the first time	New

Step indicators in the creation wizard have been redesigned
Service information is now loaded asynchronously in the manager
7-Zip has been updated to version 26.04

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

If you want to help us with something else (like documentation or artwork), we also welcome your suggestions. The help documentation content pages are available on GitHub and we encourage you to contribute to them so that we can make DISMTools easier to use.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (October 25)

Revamping the news source

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Revamping the news source

You may have heard the news about Reddit shutting down its RSS service in mid-November 2026. If not, here I am to tell you that. According to the platform, RSS is a "common surface for large-scale scraping and automated abuse", which is obviously true (pick the sarcasm). This affects DISMTools in a large way. In this post I'll explain more about this shutdown.

So what is going on?

As stated before, the end of the RSS service affects DISMTools. The home screen is comprised of 2 areas: the project list, and a Start page (similar to how Visual Studio works). In the latter view, one half is comprised of news designed to inform you about the latest in DISMTools.

This entirely relies on the RSS service (which you could trigger on any subreddit by appending .rss). For example:

https://reddit.com/r/DISMTools.rss
https://reddit.com/r/Windows.rss

I say could because you may be reading this after the shutdown of the RSS service, planned to happen on November 13. After the shutdown, all DISMTools versions up to 0.8.2 Preview 3 will not be able to pull news from the RSS source, meaning everything down to version 0.4. They were also affected by Reddit's rate limits.

This is a worrying topic that needed to be solved quickly. And, it has been solved.

The new news source for all news CodingWonders Software

I am thrilled to announce the new CodingWonders Software website, the new source for everything I make. This is powered by GitHub Pages.

I decided to use GitHub Pages as it was the easiest to integrate my existing repositories with, and works with the static site generator I use, MkDocs. Plus, it gives me a free SSL certificate. I know GitHub is an unstable platform that has been in various outages in 2026, so you can consider this a bet. We'll see how it goes in the long run. Who knows what might happen in the future...

Anyway. On to the website. It uses the same style of the DISMTools Help Documentation, as I have enjoyed Material for MkDocs and its built-in blog capabilities. All posts since March 28 have been posted here, and this site will be where new blog entries will be posted.

MkDocs also offers RSS capabilities (via plugins), meaning that I am now in control of the RSS service (to an extent; we'll evaluate the reliability of GitHub). Integrating this new RSS service into DISMTools has been a very simple task, and the service issue has been resolved in 0.8.2 Preview 4 (in the works as of writing this) and any future versions of DISMTools.

It will no longer be just DISMTools

The new website allows me to blog about more than just DISMTools; it also allows me to talk about what I find most fascinating: technology. So, expect me to talk about my other projects too. I plan on bringing utterances support in the future so we can talk more about posts in the comments.

The cool thing about all of this is that the website is open-source and anyone can contribute to it. So, go ahead and enjoy the new site!

Releasing DISMTools 0.8.1 Update 1

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Releasing DISMTools 0.8.1 Update 1

The September 2026 update of DISMTools 0.8.1 has been released. This version includes some enhancements and fixes from the first 2 previews of DISMTools 0.8.2.

Download this release

What's changed?

Fixed an exception when launching the AppX package information dialog on Windows 8 systems
Fixed an issue where component store repair tasks would fail if no sources were specified
ISO file creation tasks in the ISO creator can now be double-clicked to load their settings
When scanning AppX packages, 7-Zip is now forced to use all your processors
The window layout has been improved on 1024x768 screens
7-Zip has been updated to version 26.03
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Previous version	New version
Markdig	`1.3.2`	`1.4.0`

How do I get started?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

This is the final release of DISMTools 0.8.1. The next stable release will be version 0.8.2, which will arrive later next month.

DISMTools 0.8.2 Preview 2 - Now available

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.2 Preview 2 - Now available

The second preview of DISMTools 0.8.2 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

The Sysprep Preparation Tool now clears BITS transfer queues during Windows Update cache cleanup
ISO file creation tasks in the ISO creator can now be double-clicked to load their settings
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Configure System Recovery Settings	During System Configuration	New

The Service Manager allows you to visualize dependencies in diagrams you can export to pictures or Mermaid diagrams
Configuring Safe Mode options for services can now carry changes over to dependencies and dependents
Services critical for core Windows components can no longer be configured
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Previous version	New version
Markdig	`1.3.2`	`1.4.0`

The language system has seen a major overhaul that makes it easier to translate the program to other languages. As a result of this change, German translations have been introduced

What's fixed?

Fixed an issue where component store repair tasks would fail if no sources were specified

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (October 11)

DISMTools 0.8.2 Preview 1 - Now available

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.2 Preview 1 - Now available

The first preview of DISMTools 0.8.2 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

HotInstall and the Sysprep Preparation Tool now create rollback environments to undo boot configuration changes and environment deployments
The Sysprep Preparation Tool now disables sleep mode when running preparation tasks
You can now query and set Safe Mode preferences for services
Getting information about items is now done asynchronously, making the UI responsive
When dropping AppX packages to the addition queue, you will now see a progress indicator
When scanning AppX packages, 7-Zip is now forced to use all your processors
When enabling features, sources can now be configured to be used only on features that require them
The window layout has been improved on 1024x768 screens
7-Zip has been updated to version 26.03
Keyboard shortcuts have been added to create, open, and save projects
DISMTools can now detect if the current network connection is metered and will warn you when attempting a download operation

What's fixed?

Fixed an exception when launching the AppX package information dialog on Windows 8 systems

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (September 27)

DISMTools 0.8.1 - Now available

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.1 - Now available

DISMTools 0.8.1 is now available as a stable release, and comes with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

Unattended answer file conflict resolution has been ported to the WDS Helper Client
You can now create multiple ISO files at the same time. The amount of concurrent ISO creation tasks can be configured up to 10
Tooling for BitLocker encrypted volumes has been introduced
The Sysprep Preparation Tool has been updated with BitLocker volume detection
A new policy has been added to configure image file scanning options in the operating system installer
When capturing a Windows image, a description can now be added
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Disable Windows Platform Binary Table	During System Configuration	New
Prevent companion device software installation	During System Configuration	New
Configure Windows Server processor scheduling	During System Configuration	New
Change Windows PowerShell Execution Policies	During System Configuration	Modified -- it now validates the selected execution policy
Control Remote Desktop parameters	During System Configuration	New
Empty Start Menu Pins	During System Configuration	New
Set a custom wallpaper	When the first user logs on	Modified -- Windows Spotlight is now disabled

The Starter Script Editor has seen many improvements:
- Bulk script conversion as a command-line argument, to convert starter scripts created for DISMTools 0.7.3 to the new format
- Upload capabilities to the Starter Script Library
- Rule-based Automated Inspection for script security
- Find and Replace capabilities
- Document Outline viewer
- Support for editing bigger scripts, up to 2 billion characters
You can now unlock BitLocker encrypted volumes from the offline installation management mode
You can now fillter AppX package information in an online system based on its registration status using the regto: filter:
- Type regto:anyone to show packages registered to, at least, 1 user
- Type regto:noone to show packages that aren't registered
- Type regto:me to show packages registered to, at least, your user
- Type regto:<name> or regto:<SID> to show packages registered to, at least, the user with that name or SID
When performing driver exports, multiple class names can now be selected
Target exported drivers can now be organized in folders named after their class names
Feature update detection support has been added for the Rubidium Windows as a Service semester
A search engine lookup link is now displayed next to a device's hardware ID in driver information reports
Driver filters now support multiple class names
The installer now uses Inno Setup 7.1
7-Zip has been updated to version 26.02
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Version in 0.8	New version
Managed DISM API	`6.0.0`	`6.0.1`
Markdig	`1.3.1`	`1.3.2`

What's fixed?

This will show the bugfixes in all the preview releases.

Fixed an issue where the WDS Helper Client would re-add essential drivers if selected
Fixed issues with feature enablement, capability addition and component store repair tasks if they pointed to sources in roots of volumes
Fixed an issue where saving image information of an image selected in the mounted image manager would make the program save information about the online/offline installation if in either mode
Fixed issues with some image tasks targeting rooted paths
Fixed some HiDPI issues
Fixed an issue that would cause HotInstall to throw an exception when performing disk space checks with certain directories
When getting information about drivers, drivers that can't be processed will now be skipped
Hardware targets for driver files no longer show up more than once per INF section
Fixed an issue where notifications would not be displayed
Fixed some exceptions

What changed since last preview release?

Fixed startup issues in Safe Mode
UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
File pickers in driver and package information dialogs now support multiple selections
Service information reports now contain sections for each service, to jump between them easily
Feature update detection support has been added for 26H2 images
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Configure Lock Screen Background	During System Configuration	New
Prevent automatic BitLocker drive encryption	During System Configuration	New
Disable Fast Startup	During System Configuration	New

How do I get started?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

Looking into the future

We're already working on the next version of DISMTools, 0.8.2. If you want to take a closer look at this release, be sure to check out the latest preview releases, starting around September 6.

Again, this version is expected to be released in about 2 months.

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 4 - Now available

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 4 - Now available

The fourth and final preview of DISMTools 0.8.1 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

A new policy has been added to configure image file scanning options in the operating system installer
Volume auto-unlock policies are now supported by BDE-GUI
When capturing a Windows image, a description can now be added
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Configure Windows Server processor scheduling	During System Configuration	New
Change Windows PowerShell Execution Policies	During System Configuration	Modified -- it now validates the selected execution policy
Control Remote Desktop parameters	During System Configuration	New
Empty Start Menu Pins	During System Configuration	New
Set a custom wallpaper	When the first user logs on	Modified -- Windows Spotlight is now disabled

The Starter Script Editor has seen the ability to find and replace text in script code, and to navigate the outline of code. It now allows you to type more script code, up to 2 billion characters
Feature update detection support has been added for the Rubidium WaaS semester
A search engine lookup link is now displayed next to a device's hardware ID in driver information reports
Driver filters now support multiple class names
The installer now uses Inno Setup 7.1
7-Zip has been updated to version 26.02
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Previous version	New version
Managed DISM API	`6.0.0`	`6.1.0`

What's fixed?

Fixed an issue that would cause HotInstall to throw an exception when performing disk space checks with certain directories
When getting information about drivers, drivers that can't be processed will now be skipped
Hardware targets for driver files no longer show up more than once per INF section
Fixed an issue where notifications would not be displayed
Fixed some exceptions

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

As this release is close to being published as a stable version, changes in the Preview branch will be merged into the Stable branch, in around a week.

What's next?

Once version 0.8.1 is released as a stable version, work will begin on version 0.8.2. Expect the first preview release to arrive in early September 2026.

The final set of changes and fixes are being worked on right now as you read. Check out the dt_prerel_2683_relcndid branch for more information. Keep in mind, however, that this branch will be deleted when version 0.8.1 releases.

Releasing DISMTools 0.8 Update 1

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Releasing DISMTools 0.8 Update 1

The July 2026 update of DISMTools 0.8 has been released. This version includes some enhancements and fixes from the first 3 previews of DISMTools 0.8.1.

Download this release

What's changed?

Fixed an issue where the WDS Helper Client would re-add essential drivers if selected
Fixed issues with feature enablement, capability addition and component store repair tasks if they pointed to sources in roots of volumes
Fixed an issue where saving image information of an image selected in the mounted image manager would make the program save information about the online/offline installation if in either mode
Fixed issues with some image tasks targeting rooted paths
Fixed some HiDPI issues
The set of wallpapers for the Preinstallation Environment has been updated to reflect the 4th anniversary of the project
Tooling for BitLocker encrypted volumes has been introduced in the Preinstallation Environment
Unattended answer file conflict resolution has been ported to the WDS Helper Client
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Disable Windows Platform Binary Table	During System Configuration	New
Prevent companion device software installation	During System Configuration	New

The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Version in 0.8	New version
Markdig	`1.3.1`	`1.3.2`

How do I get started?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

This is the final release of DISMTools 0.8. The next stable release will be version 0.8.1, which will arrive later next month.

DISMTools - 4 years of innovation

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools - 4 years of innovation

Today marks the 4th anniversary of the DISMTools project. As always, we celebrate such anniversaries. However, this time there won't be any of the usual stories.

It's not like there aren't any gifts, however, because I made something special for fans: wallpapers for both your desktop and your phone with black backgrounds, making these look stunning on OLED displays. Even if you don't have an OLED display, these will still look nice.

So, what are you waiting for? Grab the official 4th anniversary wallpaper pack today! As for stories, there will be some piled up for the next anniversary event. Stay tuned!

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 3 - Now available

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 3 - Now available

The third preview of DISMTools 0.8.1 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

This version was released earlier than anticipated, for obvious reasons. Today is July 30, and DISMTools celebrates its anniversary one more time.

What's new?

The maximum amount of concurrent ISO creation tasks can now be configured up to a value of 10
The Preinstallation Environment has received support for encrypting and decrypting, as well as getting information about, encryptable volumes
The Sysprep Preparation Tool has been updated with BitLocker volume detection
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Prevent companion device software installation	During System Configuration	New

When performing driver exports, multiple class names can now be selected
Target exported drivers can now be organized in folders named after their class names

What's fixed?

Fixed some HiDPI issues

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (August 16). Normal schedules have resumed.

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 2 - Now available

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 2 - Now available

The second preview of DISMTools 0.8.1 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

You can now create multiple ISO files at the same time
The set of wallpapers for the Preinstallation Environment has been updated to reflect the 4th anniversary of the project
Tooling for locking and unlocking BitLocker encrypted volumes has been introduced
You can now unlock BitLocker encrypted volumes from the offline installation management mode
You can now switch between offline installations more quickly
You can now fillter AppX package information in an online system based on its registration status using the regto: filter:
- Type regto:anyone to show packages registered to, at least, 1 user
- Type regto:noone to show packages that aren't registered
- Type regto:me to show packages registered to, at least, your user
- Type regto:<name> or regto:<SID> to show packages registered to, at least, the user with that name or SID
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Version in 0.8	New version
Markdig	`1.3.1`	`1.3.2`

What's fixed?

Fixed issues with some image tasks targeting rooted paths

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (August 2)

The ARM Future

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Recent announcements in the PC space have told us about the importance of ARM-based chips in devices that are not smartphones. In this post, I would like to talk about such news and where we're headed in the ARM world.

The history of ARM's presence

I have thought that the ARM platform could start getting a foothold on desktop computers since the early 2020s. Now, ARM in computers and laptops has been a thing for much longer (ever since the 2010s), though it didn't attract as many people as it does nowadays.

While single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi have embraced ARM-based chips in the 2010s, it wasn't until Apple released the M1 in 2020 that we started seeing a shift towards ARM by major computer companies.

The reason as to why they moved from Intel to their own silicon was the same as when they moved from PowerPC to Intel in 2006: performance per watt. In other words, getting more done with better efficiency. This resulted in their computers beating the competition, powered by x86. 6 years later, we saw the first version of their operating system that didn't support Intel platforms.

Enough Apple for today. What about Microsoft? They were already prepared with Windows on ARM, which began circa 2017 when they partnered with Qualcomm. They did have Windows RT, which debuted alongside Windows 8, but, unlike RT, Windows on ARM was exclusively a 64-bit system. With this project they addressed the major pitfall of Windows RT, its lack of application support, with translation layers, which are also used in projects such as Wine.

In 2019, Microsoft released the Surface Pro X: their first ARM-based device in 6 years. This device featured the Microsoft SQ1 chip, manufactured by Qualcomm. The SQ1 chip saw additional revisions leading to the SQ2 and SQ3. So, you could say Microsoft has also invested a lot in the success of ARM on Windows machines.

Source: Windows Central

Fast forward to late 2022. On the Surface subreddit, I saw a post asking people whether ARM had made progress because the Surface Pro 9 shipped with both Intel and SQ3 options. Even though I don't own a Surface device (unless you count my brother's Surface Go 3), I still wanted to provide my opinions on the subject, stating that Windows on ARM would become more mainstream after, at least, 2-3 years.

Even though I didn't have a Surface, I still had an ARM-based device: a Raspberry Pi. Thanks to the Windows on R project, I could run full-blown Windows on it, and test the features of Windows on ARM. So, my prediction was going a bit on the right track. Eventually, however, it happened.

Copilot+ PCs

As much as I hate some of their features, like Recall, I have to admit that, out of the 2 PC denominations Microsoft introduced in 2024 (AI PC and Copilot+ PC), the latter was announced around the time they had impressive improvements for Windows on ARM, the Prism compatibility layer being the big deal.

Source: Windows Central

Previously, 64-bit applications that weren't native to the ARM platform were not fully optimized. Prism changed that by introducing several optimizations. Another change was that now there were 2 versions of ARM software targets: regular ARM64 and ARM64EC, which allowed developers to port existing x64 applications more easily.

Add to that the fact that the first waves of Copilot+ PCs were ARM-based and you'll see the increase in popularity.

Around the time that Copilot+ PCs were introduced, I received a reply to my comment from 2 years prior stating that I was right. My prediction was right. And it would be even more right the older it became.

Around a year later I reflected on my prediction and, for DISMTools, I wanted the experience to be better for ARM-based devices. Now, the main executable and libraries were already compatible with ARM64 (because of the Any CPU target for .NET applications), but I wanted to improve the experience with Windows PE tooling for ARM platforms.

Remember the Windows on R project? Well, it helped make the perfect test bed for ARM software: a Raspberry Pi 3B running Windows PE. This became what I call the O.A.T., or Official ARM64 Tester. To make the C++ components work in this new environment (the most important one being the Driver Installation Module), I had to adapt the projects to be compiled with Visual Studio 2022 and Microsoft Visual C++ 19.3. Then, I had to add the ARM64 target. Building it was effortless, and so was testing it. The Driver Installation Module just worked. DISMTools 0.6.2 introduced this ARM64 version, and, even to this day, with the move to Visual Studio 2026 and Visual C++ 19.5, it just works on ARM64.

When I had the ARM64 version working, I started thinking that ARM was the future. It appears as though that's the case, thanks to the green player. Here's an internal sheet I made specifically for this, back in 2025.

Back when the 0.6 series was still the latest and greatest.

NVIDIA enters the chat

Rumors about NVIDIA's N1X chip were surfacing since, at least, 2025. They answered in late May 2026, around Computex. Alongside MediaTek and Microsoft, they talked about the future of the PC.

At Computex, NVIDIA revealed the RTX Spark, with up to 128 GB of unified memory, up to 6144 CUDA cores in its GPU, and impressive AI capabilities (not really interested in that). While I'm not necessarily a fan of unifying a processor and memory, I was still impressed by their processor, from the events I saw (mainly Build 2026).

This year's Microsoft Build event featured 2 new Surface devices: the Surface Laptop Ultra and the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box. We'll see how they work out once they are available to the general public but, in my opinion, they are quite promising. The RTX Spark is an ARM-based chip, so it makes me think about what will happen in a couple of years.

My prediction for ARM chips

With all the improvements we've seen for Windows on ARM, and the RTX Spark, what does the future entail?

Firstly, NVIDIA will be a huge player in the ARM processor scene with their RTX Spark chips. Not that they have already been a player with the Tegra chips ending in the Surface RT and Surface 2, but they will have a considerable market share when it comes to ARM-based devices.

Secondly, Qualcomm will continue to be relevant in making chips for computers and laptops and will be a competitor to NVIDIA's offerings. It's like the Intel vs AMD battle, only featuring NVIDIA and Qualcomm this time around.

Thirdly, ARM devices will continue to become even more popular, to the point of, potentially, surpassing Intel and AMD offerings in a couple of years. In other words, the trend will continue. Not just in the Windows side, but also on the Mac side with Apple Silicon and Linux improving support for Snapdragon X-series and, now, RTX Spark chips.

Finally, Intel and AMD devices will continue to be competitive, despite the increasing popularity of ARM. But, they will slowly fade away. I'm still passionate for what Intel and AMD offer though, so no hate towards them. But, I'm just pointing out the facts and trends.

Image Sources

PS: this was entirely written on my new phone, featuring an ARM chip.

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 1 - Now available

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 1 - Now available

The first preview of DISMTools 0.8.1 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

Unattended answer file conflict resolution has been ported to the WDS Helper Client
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State	Changes (if modified)
Disable Windows Platform Binary Table	During System Configuration	New

The Starter Script Editor has seen many improvements:
- Bulk script conversion as a command-line argument, to convert starter scripts created for DISMTools 0.7.3 to the new format
- Upload capabilities to the Starter Script Library
- Rule-based Automated Inspection for script security

What's fixed?

Fixed an issue where the WDS Helper Client would re-add essential drivers if selected
Fixed issues with feature enablement, capability addition and component store repair tasks if they pointed to sources in roots of volumes
Fixed an issue where saving image information of an image selected in the mounted image manager would make the program save information about the online/offline installation if in either mode

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (July 19)

Upload your Starter Scripts to the Library!

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Upload your Starter Scripts to the Library!

DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 1 introduces a new way of sharing starter scripts with the world with the Starter Script Library. Because sharing knowledge (and stories about why printers aren't working) unites IT admins, sharing starter scripts can help you, as well as everyone, get what you want out of your Windows image.

Count with my Starter Script!

To share your starter script with the community, you need a few things:

Version 0.8.1 of the Starter Script Editor, available in DISMTools 0.8.1 Preview 1 and later,
A GitHub account (create one if you don't have it), and
A GitHub API key

The API key is needed in order for the Starter Script Editor to automate as many things as possible when uploading your script to the Library. Anyway, let's begin.

With your Starter Script ready, click "Upload Script" on the toolbar. A window will appear telling you more about the process and what you need to do:

You will need to provide a GitHub API key. Any type of API key can work, whether it's a classic or a fine-grained token. You can create API keys regardless of your GitHub account's age. Click How do I get an API key? for a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to do this. Additional notes are provided later in this post, so KEEP READING.

Before uploading your starter script, it is a good idea to check if it contains information that can be used to identify people or network resources, as well as service tokens. To perform an automated inspection of your code, click Inspect my code. The code will be inspected using 100 rules covering most security violation patterns (API keys, hard-coded credentials...). If results show up, you will see an inspection results screen that you can pin to one of the corners of your primary monitor.

Even with automated inspection, it's advised to review script code manually for any security violations that might slip through.

Finally, accept the acknowledgements and click Upload to the Library. Wait a couple of moments, and you should see a pull request URL, as well as the pull request itself. Your script will be reviewed and, if valid, will be merged into the Library.

Viewing my creation

Use the unattended answer file creation wizard in DISMTools to view starter scripts from the Library.

When browsing starter scripts, expand the script type drop-down menu and select Scripts uploaded to the Library:

Then, select your script and click OK.

Notes regarding API keys

You don't need to create an API key every time you launch the Starter Script. Simply make a note of the API key that you had reserved for the Starter Script Editor and use it in subsequent runs until the API key expires.

When your API key expires, you will need to create a new one to be able to upload more scripts to the Library.

DISMTools 0.8 - Now available

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 - Now available

DISMTools 0.8 is now available as a stable release, and comes with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

The Sysprep Preparation Tool has seen support for CopyProfile and can now remove AppX packages from the reference system
Guards have been added to prevent running the PE Helper on a PXE environment, and to warn when running the PXE Helpers on a non-PXE environment
The autorun menu now has options to browse disc contents and copy the boot image to a WDS server
The DISMTools Preinstallation Environment can now be configured via policies
You can now view images and groups in a WDS server graphically
When launching the Driver Installation Module, the Preinstallation Environment can now tell you the hardware IDs of unknown devices
HotInstall can now export SCSI adapters to install them in the DTPE image
If a non-sysprepped volume is selected in the image capture script, it will now warn you. *Ignore the warning if you are capturing a volume containing a just-deployed Windows installation
A new task has been added to copy installation images to a Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server
From the Autorun application you can now specify the WDS image group to upload the image to
The Autorun application and HotInstall have seen HiDPI improvements
Partition table overrides can now be used when deploying images with the WDS Helper
PXE Helper Servers can now be started using a different port by holding down SHIFT and performing an action in the following places:
- From the Autorun application
- From the Tools > Start PXE Helper Server for... menu in the main program
The architecture for the WDS boot image is now picked graphically
The default set of DISMTools Preinstallation Environment backgrounds has been overhauled
The WDS Helper Client now detects the assigned volume letter for the image share more reliably
ISO file creation results are now displayed in a notification
You can now configure the keyboard layout in the Preinstallation Environment graphically
If the Sysprep Preparation Tool was invoked before capturing the image, temporary files and boot entries are now removed if the capture succeeds. The resulting Windows image will still not contain any of those items
The version reporter watermark in the DISMTools Preinstallation Environment can now detect when the environment has booted via a network
The PE Helper can now include your target system's essential drivers (storage controllers and network adapters) in the DISMTools Preinstallation Environment
The ISO creation wizard will let you specify a save location if you clicked OK without having specified one
You can now specify scripts written in VBScript and JScript
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State	Changes (if modified)
Enable Batch script file locks	During System Configuration	New
Remove MAX_PATH length limit	During System Configuration	New
Show and Hide System Desktop icons	When the first user logs on	New
Set File Explorer Launch Folder	When users log on for the first time	New
Disable Windows Admin Center/Azure Arc banner (Windows Server EXCLUSIVE)	During System Configuration	New
Disable Shutdown Event Tracker (Windows Server EXCLUSIVE)	During System Configuration	New
Refresh Windows Explorer	When the first user logs on¹	New
Configure Start Menu Appearance	When the first user logs on	New
Disable warnings for unsigned RDP files	During System Configuration	New
Configure PowerShell execution policy	During System Configuration	New
Configure Power Plan Values	During System Configuration	New
Invoke Windows Utility Configuration	When the first user logs on	Updated	Invoke command updated
Restore classic context menu in Windows 11	When users log on for the first time	New

¹ Use this script as many times as you want in any stage to allow changes to be noticeable without having to restart Windows Explorer. This is not a substitute of the "Restart Windows Explorer" option, however, and you should continue using it if the script does not make your changes noticeable

The Starter Script Editor has seen several improvements:
The Starter Script Editor has received dark mode support
The Starter Script Editor now detects read-only starter scripts and removes such attribute when saving them
Spacing in script code can now be normalized
Organizational units and users in OUs are now sorted alphabetically in the ADDS domain join wizard
The ADDS domain join wizard will now let you continue if you had selected an account that does not require a password (contains PASSWD_NOTREQD in its userAccountControl attribute)
A task has been added to copy a pre-configured answer file to an image so that it boots to Audit mode automatically
The ADDS domain join wizard has seen a couple of improvements:
- The wizard will no longer let you continue when you specify a domain account that does not exist
- You can now test domain name resolution by invoking nslookup
- You can now pick account objects from anywhere in your domain
- You can now choose a domain suffix from available DNS zones
When applying answer files you can now choose whether to copy them to the target image's Sysprep folder
You can now enlarge the preview area for starter script code
You can now configure account display names independently from account names
Post-installation scripts can now be reordered
Batch scripts with NT extensions are no longer supported
Service information can now be saved to a report, whether you manage a Windows image or an installation
Services can now be removed
The image information saver is now run asynchronously
When information about a package file can't be obtained, DISMTools will now continue processing the rest of the queue
Filter assistants have been added to the feature, capability, and driver information dialogs to allow you to build queries more easily
A new automatic image reload service is now included, to let you have all your images reloaded on system startup
You can now export drivers by class name
Image capture tasks will now warn you when source installations have not been prepared with Sysprep
A new task has been added to optimize Windows images
Support for Full Flash Utility (FFU) has been introduced. Variations of the image application, capture, split, and optimization have been introduced with FFU support
From the project view you can now perform commit operations to FFU files using a workaround
You can now get installed driver information from Windows 7 images
Projects and installation management modes now load and unload much faster
Removing provisioned AppX packages from the online installation management mode is much more reliable now
You can now access WIM and FFU variants of the image capture and application tasks much more easily
After extracting images from ISO files, the program will now let you select the most suitable installation image from it
You can now view information specific to FFU files when viewing mounted image properties
When downloading packages from App Installer files you can now copy the URLs to the main application package
When exporting drivers by class name or when filtering installed drivers by class name, you can now choose from third-party classes provided by third-party drivers in your Windows image or installation
You can now export drivers from Windows 7 images and installations
Saving service changes is much faster now
Questions asked by the image information saver are no longer asked in the background
FFU file commit operations are now carried out when saving changes to mounted FFU files after performing image tasks such as adding packages or enabling features
An option has been added to prevent the machine from sleeping while performing image operations
Help documentation has seen a major visual refresh
File associations are now set for the Starter Script Editor
The home panel has seen a visual overhaul
7-Zip has been updated to version 26.01
CODE: setting load and save functionality has been revamped
The Starter Script Editor and the theme designer can now be invoked from the Tools menu
In portable installations, file associations can now be toggled for the Starter Script Editor
The DynaLog log viewer has received support for event log filters
Date properties can now be displayed in a Windows-native format
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Version in 0.7.3	New version
Markdig	`0.45.0`	`1.3.1`
Scintilla.NET	`6.1.1`	`6.1.2`
Managed DISM API	`4.0.7`	`6.0.0`
Windows API Code Pack	`8.0.14`	`8.0.15.2`

What's fixed?

This will show the bugfixes in all the preview releases.

Fixed an issue where removed features would appear in the wrong place
Fixed a minor UI issue where the proper user principal name (UPN) would not be shown when selecting a user in the ADDS domain join wizard
Fixed a minor UI issue where the NT logon path of a domain user would not be shown when launching the ADDS domain join wizard for the first time
Fixed some HiDPI issues
Fixed an issue where, when managing the active installation, the version's revision number would sometimes not coincide with the actual revision number
Fixed an issue where information about a Windows image would be cleared after adding or removing packages
Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception if it couldn't create the logs directory (#344)
Fixed an issue where GraphoView would not display information about a selected Windows image if the WDS group it belongs to only has 1 image
Fixed an issue where capture compression type options were not being used when performing FFU captures
Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when performing multiple driver exports by class name
Fixed an exception (#350)
Registry hives that were unloaded externally no longer cause errors when unloading them from the image registry control panel
Non-PowerShell-based endpoints no longer throw CORS issues when calling WDS Helper Server APIs
Fixed an issue where App Installer download errors would not appear in the foreground
Fixed an issue where tutorial videos would not be playable
The WDS Helper client message for downloading unattended answer files no longer shows at all times
Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when saving Windows PE configuration of an offline Windows PE installation
Fixed an issue where the full date string was not displaying correctly when accessing image properties with Windows representations of dates turned off
When adding a boot image to the WDS server, the service start is now requested only when it is not running
Fixed an exception that would happen when adding certain AppX packages (#365, #366)

What's removed?

The WDS preparation script has been removed in favor of the WDS Helper

What changed since last preview release?

Fixed accuracy issues when performing Windows UEFI CA 2023 readiness checks on systems that were deployed using updated boot loaders
Fixed an issue where background processes would fail with "The parameter is incorrect" in some cases (#362)
UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version, now requiring .NET 10
The news feed previewer has seen several improvements
The Preinstallation Environment Helper now detects answer files created by Rufus, and lets you act on answer file conflicts

How do I get started?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

Looking into the future

We're already working on the next version of DISMTools, 0.8.1. If you want to take a closer look at this release, be sure to check out the latest preview releases, starting around July 5.

Again, this version is expected to be released in about 2 months.

The Recycle Bin issue

Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Recycle Bin issue

This post is not what you would see from this subreddit, but I thought about making it more of a Windows-related subreddit. You will still see DISMTools release notes once new versions come out.

After installing the June 2026 cumulative update for Windows 11, you will see this lovely file name when trying to permanently delete a file in the Recycle Bin:

An uninitiated user may probably think that the file is corrupted in some way. Microsoft has declared this a known issue and they state that this shows the internal name in the recycle bin. However, they don't go into much detail. That's why I decided to discuss this rather hilarious issue.

How the Recycle Bin has worked

I would like to talk about how the Recycle Bin has worked over the years, because it is important to understand this in order to understand the source of the issue.

The Recycle Bin was introduced in Windows 95. Ever since its introduction, it's always been a folder in the root of volumes. In the Windows 9x family of operating systems, this folder is called Recycled. But, you don't see this folder as Recycled. You see it as the Recycle Bin:

You have to show all files in the folder options dialog to view the folder itself. However, if you access this folder by double-clicking it, you will see the same results.

This is because inside this folder there is a desktop.ini file that dictates how to render this folder. Normally, this is done with associations to a CLSID. We'll discuss that later. Now, how do we view the internal names? With a command prompt, of course

Load command and go to this folder. Then, list the contents. Et voilà !

Back in 9x versions of Windows, this was the typical file structure:

DCn.ext were the files themselves
INFO (Windows 95/NT 4.0), INFO2 (Windows 98+/Windows 2000+) contained information about the deleted files, including their original locations and the date they were deleted. We'll look at INFO2

INFO2 is a binary file. If we load it in a hex editor, we can see that information:

While we're at it, let's view our desktop.ini file:

If we check this CLSID with the list of CLSIDs in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID, we can see that it indeed is the class ID for the recycle bin:

Windows NT inherited this system with version 4.0 (using INFO instead of INFO2 and a root folder name of RECYCLER) but, with NT being a proper multi-user system, there is a recycle bin for each user. The recycle bin folders are distinguished by user Security Identifiers (SIDs). This separation can also be seen on more recent versions of Windows.

Windows Vista and later

Windows Vista changed how the Recycle Bin works. The root folder is now called $Recycle.Bin. While user-based separation is still a thing, the files inside the recycle bin are now laid out differently.

Rather than having a single file with all the metadata, there are now metadata files for each file in the recycle bin. When you delete a file in the Recycle Bin, 2 files are stored:

$Innnnnn.ext: the metadata file
$Rnnnnnn.ext: the deleted file

nnnnnn is a random set of characters. Like in older versions of Windows, the metadata file contains the original file location and the deletion date.

You may notice that folders also follow this structure. However, items inside these folders are not renamed.

Anyway, here's the metadata file for one of the files in the recycle bin:

So, what's happening is that Windows is not reading this metadata file when showing the confirmation, despite showing the file correctly in the recycle bin.

What to do

Well, you have to wait until Microsoft fixes this. In the meantime, don't freak out. If someone you know stumbles upon this bug, tell them not to freak out.

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 8 - Now available

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 8 - Now available

The eighth and final preview of DISMTools 0.8 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

The Sysprep Preparation Tool has been updated to the latest version
If the Sysprep Preparation Tool was invoked before capturing the image, temporary files and boot entries are now removed if the capture succeeds. The resulting Windows image will still not contain any of those items
The version reporter watermark in the DISMTools Preinstallation Environment can now detect when the environment has booted via a network
The PE Helper can now include your target system's essential drivers (storage controllers and network adapters) in the DISMTools Preinstallation Environment
The ISO creation wizard will let you specify a save location if you clicked OK without having specified one
Starter scripts have received a new icon
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Invoke Windows Utility Configuration	When the first user logs on	Updated -- invoke command updated
Restore classic context menu in Windows 11	When users log on for the first time	New

Several updates were made to the home screen experience:
- News feed items now appear in "cards". News feed content is now shown in a built-in preview
- The time the feeds were updated now appears on the top-right
- Random Microsoft and Windows facts now appear on the bottom-left
- Information about the current system volume is reported more accurately
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Previous version	New version
Markdig	`1.2.0`	`1.3.1`

What's fixed?

Fixed an issue where the full date string was not displaying correctly when accessing image properties with Windows representations of dates turned off
When adding a boot image to the WDS server, the service start is now requested only when it is not running
Fixed an exception that would happen when adding certain AppX packages (#365, #366)

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

As this release is close to being published as a stable version, changes in the Preview branch will be merged into the Stable branch, in around a week.

What's next?

Once version 0.8 is released as a stable version, work will begin on version 0.8.1. Expect the first preview release to arrive in early July 2026.

The final set of changes and fixes are being worked on right now as you read. Check out the dt_prerel_2663_relcndid branch for more information. Keep in mind, however, that this branch will be deleted when version 0.8 releases.

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 7 - Now available

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 7 - Now available

The seventh preview of DISMTools 0.8 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

In portable installations, file associations can now be toggled for the Starter Script Editor
The DynaLog log viewer has received support for event log filters
Date properties can now be displayed in a Windows-native format

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (June 21).

Releasing DISMTools 0.7.3 Update 3

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Releasing DISMTools 0.7.3 Update 3

The May 2026 update of DISMTools 0.7.3 has been released. This version includes some enhancements and fixes from previews of DISMTools 0.8.

Download this release

What's changed?

Fixed an issue where tutorial videos would not be playable
The WDS Helper client message for downloading unattended answer files no longer shows at all times
Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when saving Windows PE configuration of an offline Windows PE installation
The WDS Helper Client now detects the assigned volume letter for the image share more reliably
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Configure PowerShell execution policy	During System Configuration	New
Configure Power Plan Values	During System Configuration	New

7-Zip has been updated to version 26.01
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Previous version	New version
Markdig	`1.1.3`	`1.2.0`
## How do I get started?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

This is the final release of DISMTools 0.7.3. The next stable release will be version 0.8, which will arrive later next month.

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 6 - Now available

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 6 - Now available

The sixth preview of DISMTools 0.8 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

The WDS Helper Client now detects the assigned volume letter for the image share more reliably
ISO file creation results are now displayed in a notification
You can now configure the keyboard layout in the Preinstallation Environment graphically
A keyboard layout override policy has been added
You can now save Preinstallation Environment policies for future sessions
When configuring a custom wallpaper for the Preinstallation Environment, it will pull backgrounds imposed by group policy, if defined
The Sysprep Preparation Tool has been updated to allow you to remove AppX packages that can cause Sysprep to fail
Batch scripts with NT extensions are no longer supported
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Configure PowerShell execution policy	During System Configuration	New
Configure Power Plan Values	During System Configuration	New

Questions asked by the image information saver are no longer asked in the background
FFU file commit operations are now carried out when saving changes to mounted FFU files after performing image tasks such as adding packages or enabling features
An option has been added to prevent the machine from sleeping while performing image operations
The home panel has seen a visual overhaul
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Previous version	New version
Markdig	`1.1.3`	`1.2.0`

What's fixed?

Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when saving Windows PE configuration of an offline Windows PE installation

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (June 7).

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 5 - Now available

Sat, 09 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 5 - Now available

The fifth preview of DISMTools 0.8 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

When configuring ports for PXE Helper Servers you can now check if they are in use
The architecture for the WDS boot image is now picked graphically
The default set of DISMTools Preinstallation Environment backgrounds has been overhauled
You can now configure account display names independently from account names
Post-installation scripts can now be reordered
The Starter Script editor has seen some improvements, such as script code normalization
You can now pick account objects from anywhere in your domain
When exporting drivers by class name or when filtering installed drivers by class name, you can now choose from third-party classes provided by third-party drivers in your Windows image or installation
You can now export drivers from Windows 7 images and installations
Saving service changes is much faster now
Help documentation is seeing a major visual refresh using the Material theme and now supports multiple new features
File associations are now set for the Starter Script Editor
7-Zip has been updated to version 26.01
CODE: setting load and save functionality has been revamped. Setting migration will take place to adapt the settings file to the new format. Once this is done, your settings file will no longer be usable on older DISMTools releases
The Starter Script Editor and the theme designer can now be invoked from the Tools menu

What's fixed?

Fixed an issue where tutorial videos would not be playable
The WDS Helper client message for downloading unattended answer files no longer shows at all times

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (May 24).

My thoughts on "Windows K2" and how the overall PC industry should change

Sun, 03 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My thoughts on "Windows K2" and how the overall PC industry should change

Recent news articles talked about leaked internal Microsoft plans to "revitalize Windows" with an initiative called "Windows K2" and how they could save the platform. People were also talking about said initiative and how it would make Windows better in the future. But, unlike many people, I think Microsoft, and the entire PC industry, needs to do more than just that. Here is what I think should happen for us to see noticeable changes for the better.

On Microsoft's side

In the past I talked about my thoughts on the future of Windows after 40 years of it being around. During these last months, however, a couple of things became more apparent: the lack of quality control and the lack of focus.

On the one hand, updates have gone from things that would improve the user experience and provide meaningful fixes to Russian roulette. That can be said not just for Windows, but for other kinds of software (in that case it's more because of supply chain attacks; look at what happened to Notepad++ and CPU-Z/HWMonitor). But, let's focus on Windows.

Windows Updates, in recent months, while they have fixed many security vulnerabilities, have also introduced bugs for which Microsoft released out-of-band updates that have also had bugs. One thing is experiencing a bug in an OS because of specific configurations. For example, if you have this specific set of hardware and this specific set of software, then something could be causing conflicts and that's why you're facing such an issue. However, another thing is bugs being more generalized. For instance, let's look at the October update for 25H2, which caused 2 known issues:

It infamously "broke localhost" due to some underlying issues with HTTP/2; fixed with a KIR (Known Issue Rollback)
It broke keyboard and mouse input in the Recovery Environment; fixed with an out-of-band update

Another update from January 2026 caused some built-in Windows applications to stop working due to some server-side Store app licensing issues. That same month they released an out-of-band update that caused some systems to stop booting. And, another one in April broke domain controllers for a third year in a row, if they had Privileged Access Management enabled. Those were all known issues that Microsoft fixed after some coverage.

That's the key word right there: known issues. We've gone from highly specific issues to issues that are more known and more likely to happen.

On the other hand is the lack of focus. In the past year we've seen Microsoft screw it up trying to cram in AI features to everything they work on. We've seen Office being renamed yet again to Microsoft 365 Copilot, and we've seen things such as a prominent Copilot button on the ribbon and, in the case of Excel, a COPILOT function. They've also turned Visual Studio CODE into an AI code editor after vibe-coding exploded in popularity and derivatives such as Cursor or Google's Antigravity were made. And, more basic tools have also had AI features, such as Notepad, which has also received tons of unnecessary features, in my opinion, for a standard text editor. It now supports Markdown and lets you insert tables, do I have to say more?

In that case, one thing is adding such functionality while the other thing is the execution and end-result of said functionality, and it's safe to say that, while Microsoft sees AI as a profitable business (which yes, in some cases it's both that and useful), pretty much everyone, including me, thinks otherwise. And, instead of focusing on the feedback users have been sending for months or even years, they focus on a thing that will not take off without backlash.

But, in 2026, there is hope that things will change for the better. Pavan Davuluri talked about the Windows team's commitment to quality, which features 3 core pillars: performance, reliability, and craft. Stuff, such as actually letting people move the taskbar or relying on more native technologies for core components, is either already implemented or in the works. So, it seems as though they are already doing the work to improve the system's public perception.

On manufacturers' side

It's clear that the problems with the current perception of the operating system are not just Microsoft's, but the PC manufacturers' too. For this, let's talk in depth about the other key pillars: performance and reliability. First, let's talk about performance.

2026 started out as a year of radical change for the PC industry, mainly due to RAM and storage price increases. Not only does it affect individual components, but it also affects their final form in pre-built machines. In general, pre-built machines have increased in price. But, I think the most impactful change was seen in the budget market, where budget computers with decent specs increased in value, whilst those that stayed in their previous price tags started packing worse features, such as 8 GB of memory and 128-512 GB of storage.

The thing is that, even though I was able to daily both Windows 10 and 11 on a laptop with 4 GB of RAM, Windows is unbearable to use with just 8 GB. 16 GB is starting to fall behind too, with Microsoft recommending at least 32 GB now. In my case, I no longer run into low memory issues because I have 64 GB. But what about other computers? For this we need to study how and why Windows is unbearable to use with low amounts of memory.

Picture this: we have a brand-new, budget HP laptop with 8 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage. The current memory recommendation for Windows 11 is 4 GB. Thanks to bloat and services from Microsoft we can safely say we're already using 4 of our 8 GB. Then, add in all the bloat and services from the manufacturer that include, for example, a third-party crappy antivirus and/or 50 other programs; and could well be using, at least, 2 GB. So, now we're looking at a memory usage of 6 GB, leaving us with only 2 GB free.

Then we add our favorite programs to the mix, which include additional services and programs, and we've just used all our RAM, and barely have memory for what we actually want to do.

In that case, the thing that can save the machine is uninstalling as much crap as possible. That way we can reduce RAM usage by a lot, maybe 2-3 GB. But, there's still not enough leg room if we want to do stuff just a bit more intensive, such as having 5 browser tabs while having a document and a spreadsheet open.

But, what if the laptop ships with known unreliable components? That's another thing that can hurt the experience, and the reason why Reliability goes hand in hand with performance.

I think that PC manufacturers in general should look at a specific product as a reference on how to build stuff right: the MacBook Neo. Even though I always talk smack about Apple. Even though I always say, and will continue saying, that macOS is the crappiest operating system ever. I think they did an amazing job with the MacBook Neo in telling the PC industry how to design an experience. Cramming an entire desktop operating system into a $600 laptop with a phone chip is surely a monumental task. But, if you know Apple, you probably know how they pulled this off. And it's because they control everything and, despite how limiting and limited it is, you get an optimized experience.

Let's talk about optimization and how it affects the user experience. For Apple, it's incredibly easy to deliver optimized experiences. They make the hardware. They only let the OS run on Macs, more so now with Apple Silicon. They deliver native applications first and mandate that application developers make native applications (unlike in Windows where anyone can use any technology and we have web applications as a result). Knowing that, you know the result.

Now let's talk about Windows. By default, a clean installation will feature the most basic set of devices. A basic graphics device. A basic audio device. Basic input devices. Basic storage and USB stacks. But, let's say that that does not offer the most complete experience and, for this, you need to add drivers. Assuming you have a 4090, you will need to download drivers from either NVIDIA or the graphics card subvendor, such as MSI. Also, your computer offers Dolby audio enhancements, for which you need to add APOs (audio processing objects). And, to top it all off, your computer features a smart card reader, for which you need to add another driver.

Let's assess the situation. Unlike macOS, where everything is tightly controlled and you are just relying on Apple to deliver on the optimized experience, on Windows, you have to rely on Microsoft and each and every hardware manufacturer involved in your computer to deliver on said optimized experience. Am I saying that Windows should become macOS? Hell no. Windows has way more advantages than macOS and I will always recommend Microsoft's OS over Apple's despite all its flaws. All I'm saying is that you have to rely on more factors on the Windows side.

When I get asked about OS optimization during conversations with friends, I always set the record straight. The more basic your hardware and software components are, the better, reliable, and more optimized your experience is. That's why my old laptop has seen no recurring crashes, and how my ThinkPad (my current laptop) hasn't either.

I also talk about software components because it's not just hardware and drivers that can deliver a poor experience. A badly-made piece of companion software can also mess up your day.

That's why I demand for more quality control when making any kind of hardware or software. One that involves more rigorous testing than just unit tests or an AI agent looking at the code and saying, LGTM!

How the industry as a whole should change

I think that, in order to see a noticeable change, we have to merge all the work Microsoft seems to be doing with Windows K2 with changes I want to see in the PC industry.

First, stop making cheap, plastic crap and selling that with a high price tag. It's disgusting. Also, stop delivering under-powered products for cheap if you are going to shove all your bloatware on them. Don't make the RAM and storage situation worse than it is now with your software, so either don't ship your crap with it or don't ship the system or lineup.

Second, for stuff that is a bit more expensive, start delivering more reliable components. Not only deliver on defect-proof hardware, but also defect-proof software and drivers. For this statement I also include Microsoft, because I want them to start understanding the current situation with their operating system and delivering fixes. Come on, guys. I want to stop seeing generalized bugs for once.

Last, don't get in the way of the user. For this, both the industry and Microsoft are involved. If the user says no to an AI or some other unnecessary feature, respect their choice. Don't wake up to a user telling them to "finish setting up their computer" just because they declined the use of Microsoft 365, Xbox Game Pass, OneDrive, or some other technology. Apart from a software developer and a system administrator, I'm also a user, so this also annoys me.

Hopefully we can see stuff change if everyone follows these guidelines.

Releasing DISMTools 0.7.3 Update 2

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Releasing DISMTools 0.7.3 Update 2

The April 2026 update of DISMTools 0.7.3 has been released. This version includes some enhancements and fixes from previews of DISMTools 0.8.

Download this release

What's changed?

Fixed an exception (#350)
Registry hives that were unloaded externally no longer cause errors when unloading them from the image registry control panel
The ADDS domain join wizard will warn you when you specify a domain account that does not exist
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Set File Explorer Launch Folder	When users log on for the first time	New
Disable Windows Admin Center/Azure Arc banner (Windows Server EXCLUSIVE)	During System Configuration	New
Disable Shutdown Event Tracker (Windows Server EXCLUSIVE)	During System Configuration	New
Refresh Windows Explorer	When the first user logs on	New
Configure Start Menu Appearance	When the first user logs on	New
Disable warnings for unsigned RDP files	During System Configuration	New

The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Previous version	New version
Markdig	`1.1.1`	`1.1.3`
Managed DISM API	`4.0.7`	`6.0.0`
Windows API Code Pack	`8.0.14`	`8.0.15.1`
- The WDS image preparation script has been removed in favor of the WDS Helper
## How do I get started?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 4 - Now available

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 4 - Now available

The fourth preview of DISMTools 0.8 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

When uploading a Windows image to a WDS server you can now create image groups
From the Autorun application you can now specify the WDS image group to upload the image to
The Autorun application and HotInstall have seen HiDPI improvements
Partition table overrides can now be used when deploying images with the WDS Helper
PXE Helper Servers can now be started using a different port by holding down SHIFT and performing an action in the following places:
- From the Autorun application
- From the Tools > Start PXE Helper Server for... menu in the main program
A new policy has been added to change the default port to use when connecting to a PXE Helper server
If a starter script offers customizable options you will now be notified
The Starter Script Editor now detects read-only starter scripts and removes such attribute when saving them
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Refresh Windows Explorer	When the first user logs on	New
Configure Start Menu Appearance	When the first user logs on	New
Disable warnings for unsigned RDP files	During System Configuration	New

When downloading packages from App Installer files you can now copy the URLs to the main application package
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Version in latest preview	New version
Markdig	`1.1.2`	`1.1.3`
Managed DISM API	`5.0.0`	`6.0.0`
Windows API Code Pack	`8.0.14`	`8.0.15.1`
## What's fixed?

Fixed an exception (#350)
Registry hives that were unloaded externally no longer cause errors when unloading them from the image registry control panel
Non-PowerShell-based endpoints no longer throw CORS issues when calling WDS Helper Server APIs
Fixed an issue where App Installer download errors would not appear in the foreground

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (May 10).

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 3 - Now available, and guaranteed not to freeze in outer space

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 3 - Now available, and guaranteed not to freeze in outer space

The third preview of DISMTools 0.8 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

The PE Helper is no longer responsible for removing custom policies; that is now done by the ISO creator wizard when it's closed
A new DISMTools Preinstallation Environment policy has been added to let you configure whether you want to copy unattended answer files in your ISO to the target installation's Sysprep folder
The WDS image upload wizard has seen several improvements:
- The wizard now starts up the WDS Server service if not previously started
- The wizard can now be accessed from the mounted image manager
- The wizard now warns when a boot image is used
- The wizard no longer launches on client Windows installations, or Windows Server installations without the WDS role
The ADDS domain join wizard has seen a couple of improvements:
- The wizard will no longer let you continue when you specify a domain account that does not exist
- You can now test domain name resolution by invoking nslookup
The following starter scripts are affected by this version:

Starter Script	Stage	State
Set File Explorer Launch Folder	When users log on for the first time	New
Disable Windows Admin Center/Azure Arc banner (Windows Server EXCLUSIVE)	During System Configuration	New
Disable Shutdown Event Tracker (Windows Server EXCLUSIVE)	During System Configuration	New

The Starter Script Editor has received dark mode support
When applying answer files you can now choose whether to copy them to the target image's Sysprep folder
You can now enlarge the preview area for starter script code
The Theme Designer has received dark mode support
The DynaLog log viewer has seen some improvements:
- Logs are now loaded much faster
- Dark mode is now supported
From the project view you can now perform commit operations to FFU files using a workaround
You can now get installed driver information from Windows 7 images
Projects and installation management modes now load and unload much faster
Removing provisioned AppX packages from the online installation management mode is much more reliable now
You can now access WIM and FFU variants of the image capture and application tasks much more easily
After extracting images from ISO files, the program will now select the most suitable installation image from it
You can now view information specific to FFU files when viewing mounted image properties
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Version in latest preview	New version
Markdig	`1.1.1`	`1.1.2`
Managed DISM API	`4.0.7`	`5.0.0`
## What's fixed?

Fixed an issue where GraphoView would not display information about a selected Windows image if the WDS group it belongs to only has 1 image
Fixed an issue where capture compression type options were not being used when performing FFU captures
Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when performing multiple driver exports by class name

What's removed?

The WDS image preparation script has been removed in favor of the WDS Helper

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (April 26). The second update to DISMTools 0.7.3 is also expected to be released around that day.

Releasing DISMTools 0.7.3 Update 1

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Releasing DISMTools 0.7.3 Update 1

The March 2026 update of DISMTools 0.7.3 has been released. This version includes some enhancements and fixes from the first 2 previews of DISMTools 0.8.

Download this release

What's changed?

Fixed an issue where removed features would appear in the wrong place
Fixed a minor UI issue where the proper user principal name (UPN) would not be shown when selecting a user in the ADDS domain join wizard
Fixed some HiDPI issues
Fixed an issue where, when managing the active installation, the version's revision number would sometimes not coincide with the actual revision number
Fixed an issue where information about a Windows image would be cleared after adding or removing packages
Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception if it couldn't create the logs directory (#344)
Guards have been added to prevent running the PE Helper on a PXE environment, and to warn when running the PXE Helpers on a non-PXE environment
The autorun menu now has options to browse disc contents and copy the boot image to a WDS server
When information about a package file can't be obtained, DISMTools will now continue processing the rest of the queue
HotInstall can now export SCSI adapters to install them in the DTPE image
Organizational units and users in OUs are now sorted alphabetically in the ADDS domain join wizard
The ADDS domain join wizard will now let you continue if you had selected an account that does not require a password (contains PASSWD_NOTREQD in its userAccountControl attribute)
The following libraries and components have been updated:

Component	Version in 0.7.3	New version
Markdig	`0.45.0`	`1.1.1`
Scintilla.NET	`6.1.1`	`6.1.2`

How do I get started?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 2 - Now available

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

DISMTools 0.8 Preview 2 - Now available

The second preview of DISMTools 0.8 is now available, with new features and enhancements.

Download this release

What's new?

If a non-sysprepped volume is selected in the image capture script, it will now warn you
A new task has been added to copy installation images to a Windows Deployment Services (WDS) server
Organizational units and users in OUs are now sorted alphabetically in the ADDS domain join wizard
The ADDS domain join wizard will now let you continue if you had selected an account that does not require a password (contains PASSWD_NOTREQD in its userAccountControl attribute)
A task has been added to copy a pre-configured answer file to an image so that it boots to Audit mode automatically
Image capture tasks will now warn you when source installations have not been prepared with Sysprep
A new task has been added to optimize Windows images
Support for Full Flash Utility (FFU) has been introduced. Variations of the image application, capture, split, and optimization have been introduced with FFU support

What's fixed?

Fixed a minor UI issue where the NT logon path of a domain user would not be shown when launching the ADDS domain join wizard for the first time
Fixed some HiDPI issues
Fixed an issue where, when managing the active installation, the version's revision number would sometimes not coincide with the actual revision number
Fixed an issue where information about a Windows image would be cleared after adding or removing packages
Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception if it couldn't create the logs directory (#344)

How do I begin?

As always, you can begin contributing to the project by downloading this version today and reporting feedback to us.

Feedback is very crucial for the success of this project.

We're also working on the next preview release of DISMTools, so expect more enhancements and goodies in around 2 weeks (April 12)