INTRODUCTION wimlib is free and open source software that is available on both UNIX-like systems and Windows. This file provides additional information specifically about the Windows version of wimlib and the command line tool "wimlib-imagex" that is distributed with it. It does not obsolete the generic README.txt, which you should read too. WINDOWS DISTRIBUTION The Windows distribution of wimlib is a ZIP file containing the following items: * wimlib-imagex.exe, a command-line tool to deal with WIM (.wim), split WIM (.swm), and ESD (.esd) files that is inspired by Microsoft's ImageX and DISM. This is a ready-to-run executable and not an installer. * Very short batch scripts (e.g. wimapply.cmd) which are shortcuts to the corresponding wimlib-imagex commands (e.g. `wimlib-imagex apply'). * The documentation, including this file, the generic README.txt, and PDF documentation for wimlib-imagex in the 'doc' directory. * The library itself (libwim-15.dll). The C header wimlib.h is not included; download the source if you want it. * License files for all software included. These are all free software licenses. Note that there are separate ZIP files for 32-bit (i686) and 64-bit (x86_64) binaries. They are both fully supported, but you should prefer the 64-bit binaries when possible as they can be noticably faster. WIMLIB-IMAGEX wimlib-imagex supports most features of Microsoft's ImageX as well as some features that are supported by DISM but not by ImageX. wimlib-imagex also supports some features that neither ImageX nor DISM support. Some of the advantages of wimlib-imagex compared to ImageX and DISM are: * wimlib-imagex provides "extract" and "update" commands which allow you to quickly work with WIM images without mounting them. * wimlib-imagex provides an easy-to-use "optimize" command which removes wasted space from a WIM file and optionally recompresses it with stronger compression. * wimlib includes advanced implementations of all compression algorithms used in WIM files. They usually outperform and outcompress their Microsoft equivalents. * wimlib-imagex supports solid WIM files and LZMS compression, for example as used in ESD (.esd) files. (These are partially supported by recent DISM versions but not by ImageX.) * In many cases, wimlib-imagex has simpler command-line syntax than either ImageX or DISM. * Whenever possible, wimlib-imagex includes improved documentation and informational output compared to Microsoft's software. * wimlib and wimlib-imagex are free software, so you can modify and/or audit the source code. However, some limitations of wimlib-imagex compared to ImageX and DISM are: * On Windows, wimlib-imagex does not support mounting WIM images. * wimlib-imagex has no awareness of Windows "packages". ADDITIONAL NOTES It's recommended to use wimlib-imagex in scripts to avoid having to interactively enter commands. However, note that wimlib-imagex is largely just a command-line front-end for wimlib, and it's possible to use wimlib's API in other front-ends or applications. Currently there is no official graphical user interface available for wimlib or wimlib-imagex. However, an unofficial, beta, Windows-only graphical user interface that provides a thin wrapper around wimlib-imagex can be downloaded at http://reboot.pro/files/file/485-wimlib-imagex-command-line-compiler/. If you want to build your own Windows binaries from source, MinGW-w64 is required. Configure with --host=i686-w64-mingw32 or --host=x86_64-w64-mingw32. You will need to satisfy the third-party dependencies (libxml2, winpthreads, and win-iconv), which in the official releases are statically linked into the DLL.