4 wimlib is free and open source software that is available on both UNIX and
5 Windows. This file provides additional information specifically about the
6 Windows version of wimlib and the command line tool "wimlib-imagex" that is
7 distributed with it. It does not obsolete the generic README.txt, which you
12 For the convenience of Windows users, the Windows distribution of wimlib is a
13 ZIP file containing the following items:
15 * wimlib-imagex.exe, a command-line tool to deal with WIM (.wim) files that is
16 similar to Microsoft's ImageX. This is a ready-to-run executable and not an
19 * The documentation, including this file, the generic README.txt, and
20 PDF documentation for wimlib-imagex in the 'doc' directory.
22 * Various DLL (.dll) files, including the wimlib library itself, which are of
23 little concern to you if you are not a developer.
25 * License files for all software included. These are all free software
30 wimlib-imagex is intended to provide a usable Windows-native equivalent to
31 Microsoft's ImageX. The main limitations of wimlib-imagex compared to
32 Microsoft's ImageX are the following:
34 * Mounting WIM files is not supported on Windows.
36 * The LZX ("maximum") compression ratio is several percent worse that
37 Microsoft's implementation.
39 However, wimlib-imagex provides a number of advantages compared to Microsoft's
42 * wimlib-imagex provides "extract" and "update" commands that can be used to
43 work around the lack of mount support. These commands are very fast
44 compared to mounting and unmounting images with Microsoft's ImageX, so you
45 may prefer them anyway.
47 * wimlib-imagex offers fast multithreaded compression, so making WIM images
50 * wimlib-imagex provides a better XPRESS ("fast", or default compression)
51 compression ratio than Microsoft's ImageX.
53 * wimlib-imagex provides an easy-to-use "optimize" command to remove wasted
56 * Whenever possible I have included improved documentation and informational
57 output compared to Microsoft's software.
59 * wimlib can correctly save and restore some combinations of data that
60 Microsoft's ImageX runs into bugs on --- for example, uncompressed files in
61 compressed directories, or files with alternate data streams and multiple
64 * wimlib is free software, so you can modify and/or audit the source code.
68 Currently there is no graphical user interface available for wimlib or
69 wimlib-imagex and I do not plan to make one. It's recommended to use
70 wimlib-imagex in scripts to avoid having to interactively enter commands.