Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

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supercilious
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:24 pm

Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by supercilious »

Hi,

Having spent most of yesterday and today researching and experimenting with WIM deployment and wimlib, I stumbled upon posts and discussions of people using the wofadk.sys driver from the Windows 10 ADK in Windows 8.1. They have used it to apply WIM images of Windows 10, but can it also be used to deploy Windows 8.1 itself. I have loaded the driver in Windows 8.1 Pro, and boot-logging confirms it loads very early in the boot sequence. Can I deploy a --compact Windows 8.1 image and boot it (so long as I have a wofadk.sys loaded and enabled).

As an experiment, I enabled the driver in a virtual machine with Windows 8.1 Pro x64 (regular install, unactivated) and confirmed it was loaded early via boot-logging. I then modified C:\Windows\System32\WimBootCompress.ini to pre-populate wofadk.sys and captured that image. However, wimapply.cmd does not allow me to deploy that image using --compress because (it thinks) the target OS does not support it. Can I do so anyway? or have a fundamentally misunderstood something?

Thanks
synchronicity
Site Admin
Posts: 472
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by synchronicity »

Is wofadk.sys loaded and attached to the volume to which you are applying the WIM image? A compact-mode application depends on the running operating system having wofadk.sys or wof.sys available, in addition to the target operating system.
supercilious
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Sep 03, 2015 9:24 pm

Re: Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by supercilious »

Despite my best efforts, I could not get a Windows 8.1 system (with wofadk.sys loaded) to apply a WIM with --compact. I don't know if this is my fault or an issue with wimlib.

I tried again using a Windows 10 host to apply an image of a Windows 8.1 system using --compact. This worked and wimapply did not complain any more, but the resulting image did not boot. I suspect the problem is simply that I have missed something in the C:\Windows\System32\WimBootCompress.ini file that is critical to boot.

I have now run out of time, but I will continue my experiments in a few days.
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synchronicity
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Re: Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by synchronicity »

Two things:

1. WOF is a filesystem filter driver which must be attached to a volume to actually be usable. You can use 'fltmc' to determine whether it is attached or not, and if not attach it. It might be the case that I need to add code in wimlib to do this automatically for compact-mode extractions. I was under the impression that this was no longer necessary as of Windows 10 but wofadk could very well be different.
2. In the Windows boot process, all files accessed before the kernel is up and running with WOF must be compressed with XPRESS4K if they are compressed at all. This was discussed in another forum thread: http://wimlib.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16. I probably will need to hard-code the file list in wimlib, if it is to support compact-mode extractions with any format other than XPRESS4K.
synchronicity
Site Admin
Posts: 472
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2015 10:31 pm

Re: Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by synchronicity »

wimlib v1.8.3-BETA2 will automatically attach wof.sys or wofadk.sys to the target volume (if needed) and will also automatically force XPRESS4K compression on selected files for compatibility with the Windows bootloader.
JFX
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 3:59 pm

Re: Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by JFX »

@supercilious

Have you correctly added wofadk.sys to the new Windows 8 system?

Also for Win8 you may need to also add these 3 exclusions.

Code: Select all

\Windows\Boot\DVD\*
\Windows\Boot\EFI\*
\Windows\bootstat.dat
Vallo
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:09 am

Re: Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by Vallo »

JFX wrote: Have you checked out best fat burners for women and correctly added wofadk.sys to the new Windows 8 system?
Hi JFX, how do you know if you've done this correctly?
Last edited by Vallo on Sat Jan 22, 2022 9:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
JFX
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 3:59 pm

Re: Windows 10 --compact deployment of Windows 8.1

Post by JFX »

Hi Vallo,

You need to put wofADK.sys (version 10.0,14393,0) into \Windows\system32\drivers\.
And add following registry keys:

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\services\WofAdk]
"DebugFlags"=dword:00000000
"DependOnService"=hex(7):46,00,6c,00,74,00,4d,00,67,00,72,00,00,00,00,00
"Discription"="WofAdk Mini-Filter Driver"
"DisplayName"="WofAdk"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"Group"="FSFilter Compression"
"AutoAttach"=dword:00000001
"Start"=dword:00000000
"SupportedFeatures"=dword:00000003
"Tag"=dword:00000002
"Type"=dword:00000002

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\services\WofAdk\Instances]
"DefaultInstance"="WofAdk Instance"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\services\WofAdk\Instances\WofAdk Instance]
"Altitude"="40730"
"Flags"=dword:00000000
If you have more than one controlset make the same for

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet002, .. and so on.
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