v0.6.1_250112

This is the first preview release of DISMTools 0.6.1, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	4F38F5F43A271DDFCB134184DFA748895D8AD19AC385BADC0BAD508EC9F4D3AE
Portable	DISMTools.zip	4AA1D4FC89202F74196F9FB78D915523AA67053A198ED5E29A91F9A351D41E7B

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the program would sometimes throw an exception when saving settings (#205, thanks @Dretreyt for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where Windows 8 and 10 detection functions for background processes would sometimes throw exceptions (#206, thanks @arielsil for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where background processes would sometimes not start after mounting a Windows image, causing you to reload the projects (#208, #210, thanks @novice55 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when creating a new project from within the online and/or offline installation management modes (#209, thanks @webber3242 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when using keyboard combinations to access items in the recent projects list if there were no items. Now, the following message will appear:

New features

DynaLog

• DynaLog, which was initially introduced in DISMTools 0.6, has been applied to the whole codebase

Note

There are no options to configure the logger yet. Expect these to arrive in later preview releases

Tip

Expand the following section if you want to know how events are logged

Understanding DynaLog event logs:

DynaLog event logs are stored in the file DT_DynaLog.log, in the logs folder. When you open it, you will see events following this structure:

...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Getting mounted images...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Clearing lists...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Initializing API...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Calling API function to grab mounted images...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] 10 mounted image(s) have been detected on this system. Grabbing information...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Image information:
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Image file : C:\wims\install_23h2.wim
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Image index : 1
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount directory : C:\dtprojs\Win11-23H2\mount
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount status : 0 (OK)
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount mode : 0 (Write permissions enabled)
...

An event is divided into 3 parts:

1. The time at which it happened. This is a UTC timestamp
2. The name of the function/method that logged an event and, optionally, the name of its parent
3. The message

The logger can be temporarily disabled by the program, but this is only done in situations where logging causes a performance overhead. I want a balance between performance and logging capabilities.

Unattended answer file features

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• You can now tell the unattended answer file to use a configuration set or distribution share:

• Applying unattended answer files from within DISMTools is faster now

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• The PE Helper now supports initiating OS installations from within full Windows environments, thanks to HotInstall

HotInstall prepares your computer to boot to the Preinstallation Environment, from which you will be able to install Windows. This is done by configuring the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) to add a boot entry to the Windows PE image.

You can start the installation process with HotInstall by either running setup.exe in the disc image or by using AutoRun:

Next, follow these screens:

After your computer has restarted, choose "DISMTools Operating System Installation" in BOOTMGR, or wait for 3 seconds, and continue with OS installation as you would if you booted to the ISO file.

Until you install the operating system with the PE Helper, nothing will happen to your computer and you can still boot to the full Windows environment in case you need to back up files or export its installed drivers to a folder (if needed). You can remove the newly created BCD entry by using bcdedit /delete {<BCD entry GUID>} /f (grab the GUID first by running bcdedit) from an administrative command prompt session.

Note

• Ventoy drives are not supported due to the way they work, such that ISO files are never inserted - only the Ventoy USB
• HotInstall is not included with test projects created by the Test Environment creator
• HotInstall will not upgrade your installation of Windows. It will perform a clean installation
• HotInstall is supported on these platforms, with a requirement for .NET 4.8:
  • Client: Windows 8.1 and later, excluding Windows 10 versions 1507 and 1511
  • Server: Windows Server 2012 and later, excluding Server Core
• If you run into a problem or want to suggest a new feature for HotInstall, report feedback in its repository, not this one. If you report HotInstall feedback in this repository, it will be transferred to the HotInstall repository

Miscellaneous

• The following components have been updated to their latest versions:

Component	Version in last release	New version
Managed DISM API	3.2.0	3.3.0
Markdig	0.38.0	0.40.0
Scintilla.NET	5.6.4	5.6.5

• You can now press Alt + U to restart background processes on demand. This is useful if the image was loaded into DISMTools and serviced by an external program. This will update the information grabbed by the program so that you have the latest information to work with
• Operation logs can now be opened with the editor of your choosing if the operations have failed:

Note

Support is experimental and no configurations can be done from the Options window for now - only in the settings files themselves (settings.ini and the registry). Some editors may not be able to open the file if they rely on command-line flags to open files.

These things will be tackled for Preview 2

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6.1 Preview 1 by @CodingWonders in #212

Full Changelog: v0.6_stable...v0.6.1_pre_2511

v0.6

DISMTools 0.6 is now available as a stable release, with new features and enhancements:

This release is a gift from me. Merry Christmas!

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	1F70DC25B72DA0C193FC2DC6FAF34B0E21EF27093DA433299DBDF147F9160969
Portable	DISMTools.zip	3BEC62A87502D9675FAF7A0479A599269D147BD51B68F3C0E90C72928264CD6E

Changes made since last preview

Bugfixes

• Fixed some visual issues in the testing environment creator

New features

• The unattended answer file features have seen several improvements, mainly in the user accounts department:

  • UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version. This now requires .NET 9 to function, but you can always pick the self-contained package:

  

  • Duplicate user account detection has been added
  • User validation errors are more meaningful (see screenshot in overall changes)
  • Invalid characters are automatically trimmed from user names
  • Account checks have been added to block those that match the custom computer name

  

  • Windows 11 settings in the Basic System Configuration page are now disabled when you select x86 in the architecture list
  • You can now use your computer name as the computer name of the answer file more easily

  

  • You can now choose the Enterprise edition as part of the generic product key list

Note

Use this setting only if you want to use your computer as the one on which you want to use the unattended answer file. Computer names and descriptions help identify a computer on the network, so there will be a conflict if you use the answer file on a computer different than the one that created it

• The custom system restart application, seen in the OS installer, has been added to the testing environment creator
• The App Installer downloader has received cancel functionality

Overall changes

Bugfixes

Note

This will show the bugfixes of all preview versions. To view them, expand a section

Preview 1

• Fixed an issue where some properties for image information reports were not obtained

Preview 2

• The image application task and the image file information dialog are more reliable
• Fixed an issue where all images would be remounted, but the first mounted image would never show in the automatic reload panel
• Fixed an issue where the mounted image list in the mounted image manager would not be cleared if an external program unmounted all images
• Fixed an issue where clicking the "Access directory" option of the "Mount directory" tree view item would always load the project's mount directory, even if the image was mounted elsewhere (thanks @Procstas for spotting)
• Fixed a parser issue in the App Installer downloader
• Fixed attribute filter issues for AppX package directories when they are dropped

Preview 3

• Fixed an issue that happened when adding and removing capabilities where capability display names would be misclassified as capability identities

Preview 4

• Fixed an issue where the program would continue running without having .NET Framework 4.8
• Fixed an issue where the program would randomly freeze, even though it was still responding

Preview 5

• Fixed an issue where the program would sometimes throw an exception at startup

Preview 6

• The image name and description fields of the new design no longer use mnemonics, to prevent ampersands from showing as underscores

Preview 7

• The image information report results dialog no longer mentions a text box
• Italian translations have been slightly fixed (thanks @bovirus for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the following log path warning would be triggered during serviceability tests with the OS installer. This would happen with Selenium-based builds of Windows 11:

• Fixed an exception that would sometimes happen when launching the AppX package addition dialog

Preview 8

• Fixed an issue where operations would no longer start sometimes
• Fixed a visual issue with the image file information list view of the ISO creation wizard
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an IO exception when getting information about AppX packages, such as Intel Graphics Experience or MSI Center, in some cases (#199, #200, thanks @yyg1208 for spotting)
• Fixed a startup exception related to the mounted image detector (#201, thanks @Oldsch00lpunk for spotting)
• The DynaLog logging system has seen some fixes in the log maintenance functions

New features

New tools

• The image registry control panel has been introduced, allowing you to quickly load and unload the hives of the image or installation you are servicing:

Preinstallation Environment Helper/ISO Creation Tools

• You can now press B on the partition selection screen to go back to the disk selection screen if you chose the wrong disk
• The Operating System installer now shows a cleaner progress output for DiskPart and DISM:

• Compatibility with PowerShell based on the new, open-source .NET (e.g., PowerShell 7) has been improved
• Output for CopyPE and OSCDIMG is now shown more cleanly
• To avoid bloating the program directory, the Windows PE image is now mounted to the %TEMP% ($env:TEMP) folder
• A custom title is now used for both the PE generator and the OS installer
• PowerShell is now called without loading any existing profiles in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell, to speed up script launch
• The testing environment portion of the Preinstallation Environment Helper is now loaded without loading profiles
• The output of OSCDIMG has been improved for the Extensibility Suite
• CODE: the indentation of the PE Helper is now consistent
• The computer restart popup of the OS installer has been improved:

• The time taken for the unattended answer file to be applied by the OS installer has been reduced
• Image file information in the ISO creation wizard is now shown in a list view:

Image information dialogs

• You can now filter features and capabilities based on their state by using the state: keyword, followed by the state:

Tip

State filters available to you:

• State filters for features: enabled, disabled, enablepending, or disablepending
• State filters for capabilities: installed, notpresent, or installpending

Unattended answer file features

• For fully unattended installations (including setup), unattended answer files are now named autounattend
• Panels in the disk configuration, user accounts, and wireless configuration pages are now properly resized when you resize the window, and the window can now be resized
• Exit codes for the unattended answer file generator (UnattendGen) are now shown in Hex
• Fixed some XML writer issues for the UnattendGen parser (thanks David Retzloff on the MDL forums for spotting)
• The unattended answer file manager and the application task have received translations
• You can now specify placeholders of the system components to add to your unattended answer file:

Note

• The link at the bottom of the page will open the system component reference from Microsoft online documentation
• You will have to fill in the details for the components and passes you configure
• To continue creating your unattended answer file without configuring additional components, skip this page

• After you have created your unattended answer file using the wizard, you can now open it in the Windows System Image Manager (SIM), or load it in the Editor mode to fill in placeholder passes:

v0.6_241208

This is the eighth and final preview release (Beta 4) of DISMTools 0.6, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	9AF42312206CAD4085378C3C0A4471946C91265E10536A79E261C44A27ABF95D
Portable	DISMTools.zip	1CC6B99D28E1A02A056768BFAC89A1A2B82099B552C28C20ED5EB8E26E6DACDA

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where operations would no longer start sometimes
• Fixed a visual issue with the image file information list view of the ISO creation wizard
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an IO exception when getting information about AppX packages, such as Intel Graphics Experience or MSI Center, in some cases (#199, #200, thanks @yyg1208 for spotting)
• Fixed a startup exception related to the mounted image detector (#201, thanks @Oldsch00lpunk for spotting)
• The DynaLog logging system has seen some fixes in the log maintenance functions

New features

• The Scintilla.NET component has been updated to version 5.6.3
• 7-Zip has been updated to version 24.09

Unattended answer file features

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• User passwords are now encoded (obscured) with Base64 by default, for increased security

Note

This is the only measure of security you can apply to user accounts in unattended answer files, according to Microsoft.

Yes, I know this is not the best idea.

• The default window size has been increased
• You can now make the target system ask for a Microsoft account interactively:

• More account checks have been added. Now, you need at least one user in the Administrators group before continuing with the creation of your answer file

Note

These checks aren't performed when you want to use a Microsoft account or want the system to ask for user information

• After creating an answer file, if you want to create another one, you can now decide whether or not to reuse what you used for the answer file

• More user name checks have been added, keeping you from using more system user names and groups (such as Guest or SYSTEM):

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6 Preview 8 by @CodingWonders in #202

Full Changelog: v0.6_pre_24112...v0.6_pre_24121

v0.5.1 Update 3

This is an update to DISMTools 0.5.1, with bugfixes and improvements from preview releases of version 0.6:

If everything goes according to plan, this will be the final update to version 0.5.1. What will follow will be the release of version 0.6

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	990F01268FBF60E14E2EEE03CD6289A4F077189D93C7048EF93653E909590A09
Portable	DISMTools.zip	11D9A22B8D0C1D3BE828CFB7F7FDE60146F8BDA70C65098C39488F4643C8E742

Bugfixes

• The image name and description fields of the new design no longer use mnemonics, to prevent ampersands from showing as underscores
• Italian translations have been slightly fixed (thanks @bovirus for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the following log path warning would be triggered during serviceability tests with the OS installer. This would happen with Selenium-based builds of Windows 11:

• Fixed an exception that would sometimes happen when launching the AppX package addition dialog

New features

• The program installer is now built with a new version of Inno Setup (v6.3.3)
• Improvements have been made to the installers (#192, thanks @bovirus). With these improvements, preview and stable releases are now shown separately:

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• Exception reporting now includes information about whether or not a copy is portable

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.5.1 Update 3 by @CodingWonders in #195

Full Changelog: v0.5.1_upd2...v0.5.1_upd3

v0.6_241124

This is the seventh preview release of DISMTools 0.6, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	F89CC2ABB0F4269378C338D83403F6E080F34735B6691349878244E87AA488B5
Portable	DISMTools.zip	338A3DC436C47F984E7FFF117CFCA1133F09653CC53D9D90ABF5481B79F98694

Bugfixes

• The image information report results dialog no longer mentions a text box
• Italian translations have been slightly fixed (thanks @bovirus for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the following log path warning would be triggered during serviceability tests with the OS installer. This would happen with Selenium-based builds of Windows 11:

• Fixed an exception that would sometimes happen when launching the AppX package addition dialog

New features

• The DynaLog logging system has received log cleanup functionality
• Improvements have been made to the installers (#192, thanks @bovirus). With these improvements, preview and stable releases are now shown separately:

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• Exception reporting now includes information about whether or not a copy is portable
• During ISO creation, the taskbar button will now show a progress bar
• The mask character of password fields in the unattended answer file generation wizard has been updated

• Image file information in the ISO creation wizard is now shown in a list view:

• The program now detects verified AME Playbooks (AtlasOS, Revision, and AME 10/11) and logs results with DynaLog. This is done to help isolate issues more

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6 Preview 7 by @CodingWonders in #196

Full Changelog: v0.6_pre_24111...v0.6_pre_24112

v0.6_241110

This is the sixth preview release (Beta 3) of DISMTools 0.6, with new features and enhancements:

Note

This release is dedicated to those affected by the floods in Spain. My condolences to all the victims and everyone who might have lost everything.

Esta versión está dedicada a aquellos afectados por la DANA en España. Mis condolencias a todas las víctimas y a cualquiera que lo haya podido perder todo.

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	8043328C27EB6BDBB5E8501CE4D8C93C0DDB27B95B10F1E6ADCA8B8400C8BE17
Portable	DISMTools.zip	DDD3446F3B7470E3D3D6FC69D62BD67D1A52EA3C84B0E09EBA924C700D03ECF5

Bugfixes

• The image name and description fields of the new design no longer use mnemonics, to prevent ampersands from showing as underscores

New features

• The menu items of Web Resources are now translated
• Markdig has been updated to version 0.38.0
• The program installer is now built with a new version of Inno Setup (v6.3.3)
• When appending changes of an image to another index, you can now grab the name of the last index:

• The time taken for the unattended answer file to be applied by the OS installer has been reduced
• You will now see progress indication in the taskbar for certain tasks:

• CODE: work on a unified logging infrastructure (DynaLog) has started. Its logging capabilities will be used in the entire codebase in the future

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6 Preview 6 by @CodingWonders in #187

Full Changelog: v0.6_pre_24102...v0.6_pre_24111

v0.5.1 Update 2

This is an update to DISMTools 0.5.1, with bugfixes and enhancements from preview releases of version 0.6:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	66345F8046B341CB632F6132C6B01A5A80594395A15F8F861D4398F74B8D6784
Portable	DISMTools.zip	936091896F77CE3A179031D2B7FF19C14CFBAB6B042EE0810DC9517015E49300

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the program would continue running without having .NET Framework 4.8
• Fixed an issue where the program would randomly freeze, even though it was still responding

New features

• Output of OSCDIMG has been improved for the Extensibility Suite
• CODE: the indentation of the PE Helper is now consistent
• The computer restart popup of the OS installer has been improved:

• Exception reporting now includes some basic information about the image you are servicing. This does not occur when managing active installations
• The Scintilla.NET component has been updated to version 5.6.2

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.5.1 Update 2 by @CodingWonders in #182

Full Changelog: v0.5.1_upd1...v0.5.1_upd2

v0.6_241027

This is the fifth preview release of DISMTools 0.6, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	435746CCBB950E4E62CC5975D863D1A902B85FEFA273783306ADB0F96BAF8B8D
Portable	DISMTools.zip	D6D02B6B33283718A24E45734FAA19ECB0AFCBDC8B4FC91F7FDEBAC7EF76C29A

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the program would sometimes throw an exception at startup

New features

• CODE: the functionality for changing menu item colors has been refactored
• You can now download Windows 10 languages and FOD discs:

Note

You can still download the Windows 11 counterparts from Tools > Web Resources

• The Scintilla.NET component has been updated to version 5.6.2

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• The computer restart popup of the OS installer has been improved:

Registry control panel

• More situations now require the registry control panel to be closed, such as loading projects or performing tasks
• The registry control panel will now close hives that are in a different location and that you have mounted
• The registry control panel has received translations

Removed features

• The old project view (used by default in versions from 0.1 to 0.3.3) has been fully removed

Note

Setting migration will be performed after updating an existing preview installation to this version. Affected settings:

Setting	New status
Personalization > Use the new project view design	Removed

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6 Preview 5 by @CodingWonders in #181

Full Changelog: v0.6_pre_24101...v0.6_pre_24102

v0.6_241013

This is the fourth preview release (Beta 2) of DISMTools 0.6, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	F1DFAD94632D983FD39FE2CFFD29FAEAAC35A937AC3E546FD8F5A8B44C48384B
Portable	DISMTools.zip	B3516E6CFD8EB712E373111CBF3B7303A1B6E8A77F0633EE4809CC1F75842813

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the program would continue running without having .NET Framework 4.8
• Fixed an issue where the program would randomly freeze, even though it was still responding

New features

• Exception reporting now includes some basic information about the image you are servicing. This does not occur when managing active installations
• A new tool has been introduced that lets you manage the registry hives of the image:

Note

When closing this manager, all registry hives loaded will be unloaded. Make sure you make the necessary registry changes before unloading the hives. Also, when unloading the hives, all changes to a hive will be saved

• You can now download Windows 11 Languages and Optional Features ISOs more easily:

Note

Support for the Windows 10 ISO counterparts will be added in a future version

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• Output of OSCDIMG has been improved for the Extensibility Suite
• CODE: the indentation of the PE Helper is now consistent

Image information reports

• HTML versions of Markdown reports now force UTF-8 encoding
• Fixed an issue where external links would be opened in the HTML report preview browser

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6 Preview 4 (Beta 2) by @CodingWonders in #175

Full Changelog: v0.6_pre_2493...v0.6_pre_24101

v0.5.1 Update 1

This is an update to DISMTools 0.5.1, with bugfixes and enhancements from preview releases of version 0.6:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	DAFF8E4152ADB09F713C72AA19FA0B084A6C31E5765CC775B4CBB8D3A6D9FE0F
Portable	DISMTools.zip	93211B6573A862BBD4ACCAB21CC25F8A20CF485AAC87DDF8FF0BB9593787360C

Changes

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• You can now press B on the partition selection screen to go back to the disk selection screen if you chose the wrong disk
• The Operating System installer now shows a cleaner progress output for DiskPart and DISM:

• Compatibility with PowerShell 7 has been improved
• Output for CopyPE and OSCDIMG is now shown more cleanly
• The Windows PE image is now mounted to the %TEMP% ($env:TEMP) folder
• A custom title is now used for both the PE generator and the OS installer
• PowerShell is now called without loading any existing profiles in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell, to speed up script launch

Image information reports

• Preposterous dates are now classified as such when getting information about packages

Unattended answer file features

• The unattended answer file creation wizard can now be resized
• For fully unattended installations (including setup), unattended answer files are now named autounattend
• Exit codes for the unattended answer file generator are now shown in Hex
• Fixed some XML writer issues for the UnattendGen parser (thanks David Retzloff on the MDL forums for spotting)
• After you have created your unattended answer file using the wizard, you can now open it in the Windows System Image Manager (SIM), or load it in the Editor mode

Note

The program will detect the presence of the Windows SIM. If it is not detected in its standard location, the action will be disabled. The Windows SIM is installed alongside the deployment tools, from the Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK)

Miscellaneous

• The link to report program exceptions has changed to point to its new issue template (#160)
• Validating images for Trusted Desktop when applying them now requires Windows PE 4.0 or later
• The image application task and the image file information dialog are more reliable
• Fixed an issue where all images would be remounted, but the first mounted image would never be shown in the automatic reload panel
• Fixed a parser issue in the App Installer downloader
• Added feature update detection for Selenium builds of Windows
• Fixed an issue where the mounted image list in the mounted image manager would not be cleared if an external program had unmounted all images
• The exception dialog has seen a major redesign to show more information and feature details on how to report problems. Program version reporting is now included as well
• Fixed an issue where clicking the "Access directory" option of the "Mount directory" tree view item would always load the project's mount directory, even if the image was mounted elsewhere (thanks @Procstas for spotting)
• Fixed attribute filter issues for AppX package directories when they are dropped

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.5.1 Update 1 by @CodingWonders in #170

Full Changelog: v0.5.1_stable...v0.5.1_upd1