Sure they are. You are talking about the hard linked files, but in such case the number wouldn't be 11GB, would be, as in the screenshots above, 14GB or so Don't confuse the miscalculation done by Explorer with the real space taken at block level BTW you can reach the same conclusion, just looking at the size of the MFP package, it's in the range of 120/150MB when compressed, once it's expanded you are back in the 400/500MB range. No matter how you put it, math don't lie.
You'd be surprised how small it can be. A lot of the files on the winsxs stuff stay compressed and if they are similar enough and in the same package, they can be very small on the disk. I don't have a vm installed at the moment but if you really want to get the actual number it would be interesting to know the difference in raw vhd disk size.
It's not just matter of codecs, they are small, but there are also many video files used to benchmark the system (the thing used to give a rating in w7), there is the whole windows media player (which is not just the exe alone) and so on. No need to waste your time applying the image to a vhd you'll get what dism/imagex are telling. BTW just download the MFP yourself and unpack it with 7zip. I have handy only the one for 10240 (which is smaller than following releases, as usual) and unpacked is 316 MB, the newer W10 is the larger the mfp will be. For sure it's not 50MB (the video files alone are about 20MB)
Does that mean that without WinSAT media files and Media Player, establishing a WEI (Windows Experience Index) does always fail on N versions?
Not tested personally, so I'm not sure if WEI does fail only some tests or is not available at all, for sure if the media components are included in MFP it's because they are missing from N images.
So, what would any sane man do? Installing Windows 10 N and checking! Result: WinSAT still runs on Windows 10 N, it seems to just skip over the media tests (runtime of 0:00:00).
You're suggesting that uncompressing files that normally are compressed in your system are large? Help me follow this logic.
An interesting find - On reinstall attempt, when running setup from within Windows, there was no choice of LTSC / LTSC N. It just assumed I wanted to re-install LTSC N. This is unlike when I initially installed (both N and non-N options were available). I had to boot directly off the disc in order to be able to pick non-N version.
Come on! What's wrong in saying "sorry you were right?" We can discuss for a week about personal opinions or preferences or about politics, but I can't see any point about discussing about proven facts, about easily verifiable numbers. The image of N is 460MB smaller of the non N. Period! Who cares if files are compressed or not? (they aren't, obviously). They take 460MB Verify that by yourself instead of arguing just for the sake of arguing.
To do an in place upgrade you had to edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion N and non N are considered different OSes just like Pro v.s. Enterprise, so w/o that mod even if you had the initial choice you couldn't keep your apps and settings.
It very well could be more than 50mb, but I doubt it's very much more than that. You'd be surprised how small the footprint of an entire install is. They clock in under 5gb. Changing one package in that install does not reduce the size a whole lot.
It depends on C:\Windows\servicing\Editions\UpgradeMatrix.xml. Easy workarounds : a. modify EditionID (as you mentioned). b. modify UpgradeMatrix.xml.
Have we not discussed this a long time ago and the UpgradeMatrix.xml was a no-go? Maybe changing it on the wim indexes, but certainly not the one in live os - so not easy
Well, that is one of my three solutions that are working for me. (after all I did not take part in the discussion.)
Well, I've been relying on EditionID ping-pong in my auto.cmd - part of MediaCreationTool.bat to facilitate upgrade keeping files and apps My "matrix" is simple and I do deploy minimal safeguards for interrupted setups (to restore original EditionID), but it still kinda clumsy and I would venture using a better alternative. Code: ::# get requested edition in EI.cfg or PID.txt or OPTIONS if exist product.ini for /f "tokens=1,2 delims==" %%O in (product.ini) do if not "%%P" equ "" (set pid_%%O=%%P& set pn_%%P=%%O) set EI=& set Name=& set nID=& set reg=& set "cfg_filter=EditionID Channel OEM Retail Volume _Default VL 0 1 ^$" if exist EI.cfg for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('findstr /v /i /r "%cfg_filter%" EI.cfg') do (set EI=%%i& set nID=%%i) if exist PID.txt for /f "delims=;" %%i in (PID.txt) do set %%i 2>nul if not defined Value for %%s in (%OPTIONS%) do if defined pn_%%s (set Name=!pn_%%s!& set Name=!Name:gvlk=!) if defined Value if not defined Name for %%s in (%Value%) do (set Name=!pn_%%s!& set Name=!Name:gvlk=!) if defined EDITION_SWITCH (set nID=%EDITION_SWITCH%) else if defined Name for %%s in (%Name%) do (set nID=%Name%) if not defined nID set nID=%EditionID%& if not defined EditionID set nID=Professional& set EditionID=Professional if /i "%EditionID%" equ "%nID%" (set changed=) else set changed=1 ::# upgrade matrix to automatically fallback to an edition that would keep files and apps set HOME=Starter HomeBasic HomePremium CoreConnectedCountrySpecific CoreConnectedSingleLanguage CoreConnected Core set HOME_N=StarterN HomeBasicN HomePremiumN CoreConnectedN CoreN & set HOME_S=CoreSingleLanguage CoreCountrySpecific set ULT=Ultimate ProfessionalStudent ProfessionalCountrySpecific ProfessionalSingleLanguage& set CLOUD=Cloud set ULT_N=UltimateN ProfessionalStudentN& set CLOUD_N=CloudN set EDU=Education& set ENT=Enterprise& set LTS=EnterpriseG EnterpriseS IoTEnterpriseS Embedded& set IOT=IoTEnterprise set EDU_N=EducationN& set ENT_N=EnterpriseN& set LTS_N=EnterpriseGN EnterpriseSN set PRO=ProfessionalEducation ProfessionalWorkstation Professional& set MIX=%ENT% %EDU% !PRO! %CLOUD% set PRO_N=ProfessionalEducationN ProfessionalWorkstationN ProfessionalN& set MIX_N=%ENT_N% %EDU_N% !PRO_N! %CLOUD_N% for %%C in (%LTS_N%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=EnterpriseN) for %%C in (%LTS%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=Enterprise) for %%C in (%ULT_N%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=ProfessionalN) for %%C in (%ULT%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=Professional) for %%C in (%MIX_N%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=ProfessionalN& set reg=%%C& if defined i_%%C set nID=%%C) for %%C in (%MIX%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=Professional& set reg=%%C& if defined i_%%C set nID=%%C) for %%C in (%HOME_N%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=CoreN& set reg=CoreN& if not defined i_CoreN set nID=ProfessionalN) for %%C in (%HOME%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=Core& set reg=Core& if not defined i_Core set nID=Professional) for %%C in (%HOME_S%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=Core& set reg=%%C& if defined i_%%C set nID=%%C) for %%C in (%IOT%) do if /i %%C equ %nID% (set nID=Enterprise& set reg=%%C) set index=& for /l %%i in (1,1,%w_count%) do if /i !i_%%i! equ !nID! (set nID=!i_%%i!& set index=%%i) if not defined index set index=1& set nID=!i_1!& if defined i_Professional set index=!i_Professional!& set nID=Professional set Build=!b_%index%!& set OPTIONS=%OPTIONS% /ImageIndex %index%& if defined changed if not defined reg (set reg=!nID!) echo;Current edition: %EditionID% & echo;Regedit edition: %reg% & echo;Index: %index% Image: %nID%