Image made with compress maximum is not a esd files its just a extension change.... ESD is only supported\created with /Compress:recovery...
Strange, can't get to page 15 on this thread. Lets see what happens when I post this. edit -Now it gets me there.
Mine was 100% fine for installation. In fact, im using it right now. I even backed up a phone activated RTM 8.1 and restored it to the GA wim i made and it worked fine. Try setting the flags in yours like i did.
I am pretty sure I set the flags. Will have another go. I stopped mine earlier than you did - so there might be something missing. I can only get to this page if I reply to something on the previous page.
Yes that was my understanding as well - the former does not need to be .esd they can be .wim (albeit compressed) but the recovery must be .esd
Posting a reply again just to get to this last page. Very weird. Yes, I had set the flags. Did it again to be sure. Same deal it won't recognise the product key. Halikus, does your image work if you apply it with imagex to a different partition - not using setup.exe? I expect it won't.
Since I can't use dism to apply install.esd, does anyone know a way to force winre to auto apply the image? Years ago I had a play with ReAgent.xml that seemed to parse commands to winre. ie, For a Reset, Code: <ScheduledOperation state="8"/>
I've been thinking about this project for a while and I'm not sure the install.esd files are exactly transferrable as-is. I believe that the first chunk, which is downloadable, contains neutral information. I also believe that it connects with microsoft website to download a 2nd chunk with personalized information such as: C:\ProgramData\regid.1991-06.com.microsoft\regid.1991-06.com.microsoft_Windows-8.1-Pro-with-Media-Center.swidtag So, even if we were to get an install.esd extraction, we'd have to remove personalized information and possibly some registry information. It's still a decent goal, but in the meantime, I'm going to be more concerned with methods of including the GA stuff in the non-GA iso via install.esd recovery compression exports and /resetbase commands
maybe someone can "work" with that Code: <CryptoKey>BwIAAACkAABSU0EyAAgAAAEAAQAbaSsIOhKb5MKu8gPu2jdd6KSNOmi1aZZYPdW8U2LlfifBMKpcliVrTw1aaNMFL22RkhbE4PzaLnsGhuyVRf4wE0k6R2Ij/flp2LlpxuQQ3TAj+i1xAkhbDd1revRxrpxQ3+MEF+aRTulkXitIFWwhaKSlcfKmEQ9zR0lA4iXGVJq8ecgSnVZrXLn2TgBNK/jYRWy0WEASkSV/NQPK7EG04XwHU7r73wzXVLUK64tsAv+bM5N1zNUm3ue5bvopMtLCb9M+gqp7kbh3qCDAeTSx+FXJAHVP7Y4YCO2YPOeu05rnE2pztk2gfZi6GeILylaiViqqQI5B8oQ0+0JH2pHkCUWbeHLtNCPxY7FCjv5ffTnuvxV58UYO/h9YByh/YhoR7n2bGomhv5h/xKkNDIUVfRRXroTXo3k/VD/htuPlKEHwwLfQLMv1dzz5zFks4uXlksRG0riLBXfHnEJAQ5h7T7tDv7U7c4QmwGRnOI91oU62BfUWO0MzpVSXKK87mP8DSn2Pvbz5rZ08p/2jvh2ma1BbVUO3aPfXQvP9hzGJLCPDocRodvIOfXmBtzjhZkwLq1pnhKfBFScIj9TXwDzy5j1kFnlJSTOacnvPbgG9vzZKd3OZNFicJGuOeV74q1Y1URb9zLwpJCpgXTS83f1hsR24B0sW4Vpf2kkA26Xu5Em1OmYcSMduVrPnDcetXRq8eioGk9uXAaDOmJD8UNdi/LiR6UQrXnCxgqbtBK+WYUFfFrR/H8dk77vIU7j31EkCmEDEgzzO8cZkq7pQNr0XKeRGFHMYEHoCmXLaes2k7fFiby+WBQcXitXG78MhTl9RoRTm99rbtii4t/HwNPgo5bsqAUOALWgltrFcP0TqIyVWfFLan6Mb5pRUL2g5NIeJIGkw/KQ2e0JB3AV5LH1G8G5wql4YPDABLW+WEhdbxcGH5IVtTQAqPucSsqfqSO58xRUoXKKpX5RfDtIJvcKug2GXp5qWQ5ujquahcdwn4Wp69RPQhrv4/QJ1v9I618tdVhkrGDn5mGZvLHIuK4By5d54T0SAPO0SoNK1H9UrWy/1zQ1uSePGYSqky9ZlrDzfkRFthRqIUiX6lKEGKJknsbdBS9J8HUk9obg2deTNYM8rHirCLL0jgbkRuMS8p3gSsBBkLMTzuIIyqfcA9IXVLK/SY1ki2RSOS0VI4Q61SIHAAT9Vt6keLKbpoYr5TuU2P0+wCnd5GVAuFbYkmJTQyvCotJ2k6Ub9uyTw4ylRFiXdUQAj+DudlVpFg0IyXP0YF42GJfdb6Oj4lxuDy/IiQo6xq20CgOzZmmtW3C2fj9ymq8LhsO9ia2frEvwxQAQgInWLcLy6XZFnwPSv3qYdxFgGGPXICbauYNClf99t83G/2xHe25RybXdtfBPh2jcXcXzuJRREcTsD65xm++lf9CGMnsBmzSaNiE3qnFSI2o7vhX3cK0dEevc2kuiH6XqefpM+X6iH30Z+Ij+Cd8QNoKPxDwd4G2FOAR0LgDs5dQ5+aonA5xX+9/teVLbv2FQ=</CryptoKey>
install.esd is decrypted file, it's not the same downloaded esd file unfortunately no. I tried to download it with BITS-Transfer, no luck the url require store authentication.
install.esd files are indeed transferrable and neutral i monitored network usage (http urls) during store upgrade, it downloads only esd file + WindowsStoreSetupBox.exe then after the installation process begins, it downloads the refreshed contents (dynamic updates, drivers updates, regular updates)
Concerning private information, I downloaded the Winiso with WindowsSetupBox on different machines, also with different keys. The boot.wim was always different, whilst the install.esd's had only few different bytes. The downloaded install.esd thru the store however is quite different in size and bytes.