Hi! I was about to finish the Win11 Pro 24H2 ISO with NTLite for the first time but I got stuck right at the end. It offers the possibility to duplicate to boot and recovery the changes you made to the install.wim (e.g. integration of drivers and updates, removal of features, apps etc). That's new for me, coming from MSMG Toolkit. Can someone tell me which of the integrations/removals typically made to the install.wim would be meaningful to clone onto the recovery or boot images, and which could be problematic (btw here there are 2 boot images: Windows PE and Windows Setup)? I can imagine that it makes sense to copy all changes onto the recovery image. But why would one want to put drivers or updates on the boot images? Maybe a specific one for a specific circumstance, but so in general? Actually the integration of drivers in the boot.wim I did try it in MSMG Toolkit now that I think about it, and I couldn't even use my BT mouse during install, so what is it even for? After all, isn't it the job of install.wim, installing drivers and updates during clean install? And removing features etc, what does that even have to do with boot? Thanks
If you have no problems with the default boot image, I don't think you need to bother changing it. Even if you can customize it using tools, that's not necessarily recommended. You should only use tools when you have some kind of problem for a special reason. Even if some geek says you can do this and that with a tool, is it really useful for you?
Well, most of the change that at least I make to the install.wim aren't about "problems" but about debloating, enhancing privacy, and skimming to lighten the load of background processes. I don't remove everything obsessively like some other people do, and I did a lot of trials and errors where I learnt at my expenses that it's better to remove a bit too little than a bit too much. So, for clarity: would there be any advantage/benefit in loading all drivers (which I loaded in the install.wim) in the boot.wim? And there is no advantage whatsoever in integrating updates into the boot.wim, or in applying to boot.wim the same tweaks (removals of components, features etc) done to install.wim? I just don't understand why some programs give this option if it's useless. I mean, dangerous options, ok, at own risk. But useless ones?
I think the usefulness of a tool varies depending on the person using it and for what purpose. If there are features you don't need, you don't need to use them. A tool simply provides what can be done with that tool, and whether or not you use those features is a personal decision.
That's a very diplomatic answer, but what is the usefulness of a shower under an umbrella? Anyway, let's skip the uncomfortable question then. When and what would you consider useful to apply to boot.wim or WinRE, among all the typical things which can be integrated to or removed from install.wim? I like to ask different people because what and how each person answers is influenced by the own experience and forma mentis, and specially when I am stil a beginner and I still have lot of holes in my knowledge, asking different people can help me understand things better and faster. So, atm what I understood is that apart for some specific drivers, and maybe some OS updates, there's no need to do any tweaks to boot.wim I was sure that it was meaningful to do to WinRE all tweaks done to install.wim, but I was told that WinRE stays "up to date" with the installation anyway. I don't quite understand that. And once again I feel "ok but why then offering a tool which has no usage because it's already happening automatically anyway"? I maybe misunderstood something. So, I keep asking until I understand
I don't change boot.wim or WinRE. However, people using older PCs may need to make changes. Therefore, I think what is useful or not depends on each individual's environment. So, as I've said many times, the usefulness of a tool varies depending on the environment and purpose of the person using it. As for WinRE, I don't think there's any point in editing it. By the time the problem occurs, a new build will probably have been released. If you have questions about a tool, you'll probably get a better answer if you contact the tool's author directly rather than posting the question here.
Ok, I got your point. To clarify mine: I am not denying that (and I actually even clearly said it in my post) in some specific circumstance, like third-party disk controllers for RST or VMD, it might be needed adding drivers to boot.wim, but (correct me if I'm wrong) there's and cannot be any instance ever where one might possibly need to "remove packages", "remove apps", "remove services", "remove features" etc from boot.wim So, it's confusing and imo misleading if you say "you never know". It just creates a fog of mystery which doesn't help newbies make sense of things. Other than that, sure, I agree that all is relative to personal needs. But if we answer all questions with this, it wouldn't help much. Giving some examples of what/when, for instance, that would be really useful. As you seem to care about helping out, I wanted to give you my feedback about what could help me and imo some others. Cheers