Create your own windows 7 x86 or x64 step by step guide

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Create your own windows 7 x86 or x64 step by step guide


Hi everyone)

In this tutorial I will explain to you how I do my windows 7 custom builds set by step so that you can try and make your own custom work



First we will start with the tools required to make you custom windows 7

Waik for windows 7 can be found here

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=60A07E71-0ACB-453A-8035-D30EAD27EF72&displaylang=en

Windows 7 tool kit

https://www.wincert.net/forum/topic/9578-win-toolkit-v140x/

Restorator this app is much better than any other resource editior out there as to change icons and images all you have to do is drag and drop
the new icons or images into the places you would like to set them then just click file at the top and save you don't have to go through 5 or 6
steps to edit each thing, it is also the only resource editor that will edit x64 files.


Vlite

https://www.vlite.net/download.html

Once you have the tools we will start now with building your own custom windows 7



First thing you need to do is to create a folder on your C drive or any drive of your choosing and name it Work

Inside that folder create 2 more folders called DVD and another called mount


Now we need to open up the iso you have of windows 7 using your prefered iso program I use ultra iso

Open the iso in ultra iso and then extract the entire contents of the Win 7 dvd to the DVD folder inside your work folder.



Once you have the DVD extracted open the windows 7 tool kit app as we will be using this first.

Now during the tut we are going to be mounting and unmounting the build to edit it, with mounting and unmounting you will need to use numbers
for the different wim's as windows 7 when you get it you will see lets say if you have the ultimate version which is what I will be using in this tutorial
You will also find on the disc wim's for home basic, home premium, professional and if x86 starter as well. To avoid having to go though checking wim
numbers as each one has it's own number 1,2,3,4,5 we will use the windows 7 tool kit to delete the other wim's home basic home premium and so
forth so we are just left with the one wim that is ultimate and it will always be wim 1.

So open windows 7 tool kit and after it loads click on the top left hand side tools manager now a new window opens and in the list click wim manager.


once the wim manager opens click the browse button on the far right and navigate to your work folder, then inside to the DVD folder and inside
there to the sources folder. Once inside the sources folder select the install.wim. wait a few mins for it toal load once its loaded you will see this
in the window



Now click on home basic so its highlighted and on the bottom left click delete image do this one by one untill all you have left is ultimate,
then close the program totally it will save the image and your all done



Next we will want to integrate updates you will want to do this first because some of the updates will replace dll files and the explorer.exe
so you want to update first as if you do it later some of the edits you will make will be lost when the files are replaced.

For the next part of this tut we are going to be using waik to integrate the updates this is taken from buster67's vista tuts as you integrate
updates the same way.

Now first you will want to get your update pack from here either the x86 update pack or the x64 pack depending on what build you are going
to be doing.

https://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?/topic/6624-windows-7-rtm-updates-packs-1-1-0/

After you have downloaded your pack extract it to a folder any folder so we can convert the msu files to cab files

Once you have the pack extracted open up the windows tool kit again and click the top left tools manager then in the list click msu to cab converter



At the top click add updates and navigate to the folder where you have extracted the update pack and select all the update you want, after you
have selected all the updates click convert and save them to the same folder once done you can delete the msu files.


Now we will use waik to integrate the updates


Step 1: Create 2 folders in the root of your C drive. The first should be named Distribution and the second should be named Work. Inside Distribution, create these folders:
$OEM$
Out-of-Box Drivers
Packages

Inside the Work folder, create these folders: (you will already have the DVD folder and mount folder in the work folder from the previous
step when using the wim manager)

DVD
Logs
Mount
Sandbox
Updates

Inside the Updates folder, create a folder named Temp.

Step 2: copy all the cabinet files from the update pack to C:\Work\Updates\Temp.

Step 3: Open up Windows System Image Manager (in the start menu under Microsoft Windows AIK). Click File and Select Distribution Share and navigate to C:\Distribution. Now click File and New Answer File. You will be warned and asked if you would like to open a Windows Image now. Select yes and navigate to C:\Work\DVD\sources\install.wim and select the version you want.
You'll be asked to catalog the image. Select yes and wait. Now click Tools and Import Package(s). Here's the kicker. Waik has a bug that only allows you to select 4 or so hotfixes at once so this gets tedious. Navigate to C:\Work\Updates\Temp and select 4 at a time until you're finished. Now under Distribution (the left side top pane) expand it and expand packages and
right click each package and select add to answer file until all are added. Now under file, select Save Answer File as and name it Integrate.xml (the xml file extension is actually automatically added) save this file to the Temp folder.



Step 4: go back to your start menu and Microsoft Windows AIK and open up Deployment Tools Command Prompt.

We need to mount the image use this command to mount it


imagex /mountrw C:\Work\DVD\sources\install.wim 1 C:\Work\Mount



Step 6: To integrate the hotfixes use this command and wait until it finishes:
Code:
START "PMgr" /WAIT "%Programfiles%\Windows AIK\Tools\Servicing\pkgmgr.exe" /o:C:\Work\Mount;C:\Work\Mount\Windows /n:C:\Work\Updates\Temp\integrate.xml /s:C:\Work\Sandbox /l:C:\Work\Logs\integrate_updates.log

Step 7: Check for errors. It should show error level 0. Use this command:

ECHO %Errorlevel%

Step 8: Save the image using this command:

imagex /unmount /commit C:\Work\Mount



We've now integrated the updates into the image.


Now your image is all ready to edit


First We need to mount the image use this command to mount it

open start/All programs/ Microsoft Windows AIK/ Deployment Tools Command Prompt use this command to mount it

imagex /mountrw C:\Work\DVD\sources\install.wim 1 C:\Work\Mount


Now we will begin to edit the files go to your work folder then into the mount folder

For windows start orb in system comtrol panel and windows branding images (where it says windows 7 ultimate and such) you will find those in

Windows folder branding folder shellbrd folder - shellbrd.dll

Icons to edit in windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64 for x64 builds you need to edit the same files in both folders
system32 and syswow64 folder as in x64 version there is doubles of all files )

DDORES.dll





Icons to edit in windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

desk.cpl




Images and icons for display properties in windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

Display.dll





In the windows folder and in the syswow64 folder for icons and start button

explorer.exe





For images as the back and forward buttons at the top of open windows in windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

exploereframe.dll



For most icons in the system and logon images in windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

imageres.dll





icons in the system in windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

shell32.dll



the volume icons in the task bar windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

sndvol.exe
sndvolsso.dll



For os install setup images spwizimg.dll windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)
image numbers 516,517 and 518





For the windows genuine advantage image in system properties panel

systemcpl.dll



For more icons and images in display properties windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

themecpl.dll





For the clock that shows in time properties windows folder system 32 (and syswow64 folder as well if you doing x64)

timedate.cpl



To patch your themes for 3rd party use you will need to replace 3 files in your system32 folder they are

themeservice.dll
themeui.dll
uxtheme.dll



Now for the setup install pictures


change in folder Windows/ system32 / oobe / background.bmp make sure to keep the same size as the one in there 1024x768



For install txt if you would like to put custom txt - Windows/ system32 / oobe / en-us / W32UIRES.dll.mui dialog 112



This next part here requires you to mount a small file from inside windows its for the final setup image where windows is checking your video
and the last few things before it boots to desktop so you need to go to your Work folder and make a new folder called first

in Windows/ system32 / oobe / firstuxres.dll

now we need to open start/All programs/ Microsoft Windows AIK/ Deployment Tools Command Prompt

in open window put this cmd

imagex /mountrw C:\Work\Mount\Windows\System32\oobe\FirstUXRes.wim 1 C:\Work\First



now open the first folder in your work folder an go to image its the last one in the folder

firstUXbackground.bmp and change this to what you like keep same size 1024x768

then open up again start/All programs/ Microsoft Windows AIK/Deployment Tools Command Prompt

and unmount the firstuxres using this cmd

imagex /unmount /commit C:\Work\First




to change your user account pictures go into the mount folder ProgramData / Microsoft / User Account Pictures



To change you default wallpaper go to Windows / Web/ / Wallpaper / Windows / img0.jpg and replace with your own



to change you default theme go to Windows / resources / themes while in the folder place any themes you want in there
including your default theme that you would like to use. Now open in notepad aero.theme to edit it scroll down to
line 51




change where it says theme/aero the aero to the name of the folder your theme is in like this theme\dark7 ultimate\ then change the aero.msstyle
of the msstyle you want to use so it looks like theme\dark7 ultimate\dark7 ultimate.msstyle

and now save this it will install your default theme on install

this is all you need to do for the install wim so now we will unmount it


open start/All programs/ Microsoft Windows AIK/ Deployment Tools Command Prompt use this cmd to unmount


imagex /unmount /commit C:\Work\Mount

This will take a few mins to unmount so just wait till it's completed






Now we need to mount our boot wim to change images for the setup as well

so to start we need to mount our boot image to do that


open start/All programs/ Microsoft Windows AIK/ Deployment Tools Command Prompt use this cmd to mount

imagex /mountrw C:\Work\DVD\sources\boot.wim 2 C:\Work\Mount





Now first go to the mount folder in your work folder and the go to sources

replace background.bmp remember to make it the same size 1024x768




In the same folder sources go to the spwizimg.dll open with restorator and edit the 516,517 and 518 images




for the install txt go to Sources\en-us\ w32uires.dll.mui and edit dialog 112


Now go to Windows/ System32 / setup.bmp and change that to what you like make sure to keep the same size 1024x768



The go to Windows/ system32 / winpe.bmp and change that to what you like remember to keep it the same size 1024x768





thats it for the boot wim so we can unmount it to do that

open start/All programs/ Microsoft Windows AIK/ Deployment Tools Command Prompt use this cmd to unmount

imagex /unmount /commit C:\Work\Mount

Now there is just a few changes left to make in the DVD folder

for the install txt go to Sources\en-us\ w32uires.dll.mui and edit dialog 112



Go to Sources\ background_cli.bmp and change that to what you would like make sure to keep the same size 1024x768

The go to sources\ spwizimg.dll and change images 516,517,518 using restorator



You are now finished editing windows 7


Now we will use windows 7 toolkit to add any addons we would like to include

you can find addons here

https://www.wincert.net/forum/index.php?/forum/180-w7-toolkit-addons/page__s__34dd0e05e2e03fa9ebe183ca3169afcb

Now open windows 7 tool kit and click tools manager at the top left

In the new windows at the top click addon Integrator

Click the browse button and navigate to your DVD folder and select the install.wim it will take a min to load the wim

in the window select the image u want to integrate addons into by clicking on the wim image in the windows and clicking select at the bottom


In the new window click add addons at the to and navigate to the folder your addons are in and select them

Then at the top click start integrate to integrate your addons




Now we will use vlite to finalize the image

So open vlite


click browse on the far right navigate to your work folder then to the DVD folder and select it

wait for vlite to load it



Now click next at the bottom

Put checks in tweaks and bootable iso



Then click next

in the windows you will see different sections

security
system
explorer
internet explorer
services

Click each of these one by one and edit the properties and services as u wish


Once you have done all you tweaks click apply at this point a new window opens and asks you to pick one of 3 choices rebuild image,save image with one other option the tic will be in the rebuild image leave it in there always use the rebuild image so vlite will redo the whole image this will all make the image smaller, if you just use save image you might get errrors on install and the image will end up being larger

You are now at the create iso section in label enter a name for your iso

then click make iso at the far right bottom

and again enter the name for you iso and save it to the place you would like to save it to




You are now done making your custom windows 7 os enjoy