Windows Imaging Format

Latest revision as of 05:14, 28 December 2023

The Windows Imaging Format is a file-based disk image format (as opposed to a sector-based one) used to preserve and distribute a complete copy of a set of files with all its MS-Windows filesystem structure and metadata. It is created with the ImageX command line tool, part of the free Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). The file name extension swm is used for images splited into multiple parts. The variant with the file name extension esd use LZMS compression. Reconstruct.WIM2 is generated as second disk image by Microsoft's recovery drive creating tool RecoveryDrive.exe, when the option to back up system files to the recovery drive is chosen. ^[2] The PPKG file extension is used for Microsoft Windows provisioning packages. ^[3]

[edit] Identification

WIM images begin with MSWIM\0\0\0 or WLPWM\0\0\0 for the wimlib pipable variant.^[4]

[edit] Software

• ImageX
• DISM part of the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit
• wimlib
• 7-Zip

[edit] Sample files

• dexvert samples — archive/wim

[edit] Links

• Wikipedia article
• Tech docs in Microsoft site
• White paper

[edit] References

1. ↑ https://reposcope.com/mimetype/application/x-ms-wim
2. ↑ https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4200-create-recovery-drive-windows-10-a.html
3. ↑ https://deploymentresearch.com/beyond-basic-windows-10-provisioning-packages/
4. ↑ https://wimlib.net/man1/wimcapture.html