You may have used a non-standard/genuine ISO or may have installed applications you should'nt have. Some applications may cause Sysprep to fail
@KFeri Try it with untouched ISO. Then you will see it work without issues, then use NTLite on that ISO and then do removals one by one. You probably removed something that is needed in this process.
I thought if I post the setting, you might be able to look and see the error... Instead: I'll look at it one by one and try it one by one. Well, I could have done that myself, but the very reason I asked for help was to avoid having to do that. But I get it: everyone is pressed for time. I'm not holding anyone up. Have a nice day. Spoiler
I'm facing a bit of an issue(more like an inconvenience, rather than an issue). This needs a bit of explanation tho. I make windows 7 updated isos with simplix updatepack7r2. They are english isos and they have one language integrated via W7MUI by abbodi. I put the iso and updatepack7r2.exe in one folder and I just drag the iso over to the .exe, it does the rest. Updatepack7r2 does integrate some updates in the boot.wim(nvme support). Given that the resulting install.wim is over 5.5GB in size, I'd like to be able to compress it into an .esd and have the windows 7 iso be able to read it. I don't want to just shove the .esd into a windows 8/8.1/10 iso. So here's where I decided to use POWIS. Keep the actual windows 7 boot.wim, just upgrade it to support .esd format. Nothing else from POWIS functionality is needed, just the .esd support. I made two folders inside POWIS folder - 7x64(my updated iso) and 10x64(my 19041.1 base iso), respectively for the two distributions. Now, considering my windows 7 iso has 2 languages, I assumed I need a windows 10 iso with the same two languages(which I also have). In the 7x64\sources folder I just copy-paste the boot.wim and rename it to install.wim(making a dummy file so esd compression doesn't take 50 years, I already have the install.esd ready). Here's the Config.ini: Code: UPDATES=No DYNAMICDRIVERS=No DRIVERPACKS=No THEMES=No WALLPAPERS=No SETUPS=No OFFICE=No WINRE=No SKIPEULAKEY=No UNATTENDEDS=No ACTIVATION=No ICONPATCH=No BUILDISO=No ISOLABEL=POWIS ISONAME=POWIS UNATTENDEDTYPE=Select UNATTENDEDFILE=AutoUnattend.xml INSTALLRECOMPRESS=Yes INSTALLFORMAT=ESD ESDSUPPORT=Yes POWIS runs and finishes fine, I make the iso with the upgraded 7x64 distribution and also put in my actual install.esd file. Iso boots fine, it loads as it should and it has both languages available, BUT, the UI is scaled in a weird way: The usual smaller windows with a bigger background behind it is now stretched to basically full screen and there's some graphical glitches. Granted, all the buttons that can be/need to be pressed are visible and usable. It's just kind of weird. If I use a windows 8/8.1 iso, the ui is scaled as it should, but my problem there is there's no option to say "i don't have a product key" and it doesn't let you continue without a product key. While the win10-upgraded iso still has "i don't have a product key" option as usual. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Also I might have missed a detail or two, do ask.
@shhnedo Nice review, I think most of wished steps will be replaced by new XP2ESD. Will point it here when its done. According to product key issue, I found solution a long time ago, But its not integrated into current POWIS solution. Small custom non standard ei.cfg can fully suppress it on any setup engine version. +-2 hours to share that ei.cfg, don’t remember that.
Nice. Although all I really need in my specific scenario is to upgrade the windows 7 boot.wim for esd support. I tried channel default and VL 0 but it didn't help and I wasn't really enthusiastic about researching the ei.cfg required for an aio iso. Also, another thing I noticed, the system reserved partition is now 50MB instead of 100MB(upgraded vs stock boot.wim).