wimlib

Under normal circumstances, the two files should be the same size. Because install.wim is through lzx:20 rebuild.

Your install.wim is larger than wimlib lzx:50, which is the default, but smaller than lzx:20. So probably it was compressed with DISM.

Note that even if you used wimlib-imagex to update or export the file, it may still contain DISM-compressed data. (Some wimlib-imagex commands accept a --recompress option to force recompression.)

After testing, I found that the image split from install_ESD.wim will have an error of "cannot find the license terms". The install.wim split does not have this problem. Is there some problem with wimlib WIM<->ESD?

I don't know what is going here, but one possibility is that Windows Setup only looks in the first WIM part for the license file. I tried those split commands myself, and I noticed that in the install_ESD.wim case some of the files in '/Windows/System32/Licenses' end up in the second WIM part instead of the first as they do in the install.wim case. If that's the case, then it only worked on install.wim by chance, and the problem is really that Windows Setup (at least in Windows 8) doesn't properly support split WIMs.

synchronicity wrote: Sun Jul 23, 2023 7:17 pm I don't know what is going here, but one possibility is that Windows Setup only looks in the first WIM part for the license file. I tried those split commands myself, and I noticed that in the install_ESD.wim case some of the files in '/Windows/System32/Licenses' end up in the second WIM part instead of the first as they do in the install.wim case. If that's the case, then it only worked on install.wim by chance, and the problem is really that Windows Setup (at least in Windows 8) doesn't properly support split WIMs.

After your reminder, I checked and it is indeed the case.
Sorry, I may be asking a bit too much. Does wimlib have a way to intervene and force Windows\system32\Licenses to be placed in the first part of WIM?

> Does wimlib have a way to intervene and force Windows\system32\Licenses to be placed in the first part of WIM?

No.

I think the answer here is just "don't use a split WIM".

All right. Thank you for your answer.

The fix for this issue (the original one, not the split WIM issue which isn't really wimlib's problem) was released in wimlib v1.14.2.