How to Sysprep and Capture Windows 11 22H2 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT and WDS)

Published October 08, 2022 by Danny Moran

Table of Contents

PAGE CONTENT

Before starting, you need to have a fully working Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Windows Deployment Services setup.

Introduction

How to Sysprep and Capture Windows 11 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT and WDS)

How to Sysprep and Capture Windows 11 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT and WDS) video

How to Sysprep and Capture Windows 11 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT and WDS)

Before starting, you need to have a fully working Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and Windows Deployment Services setup.

Open Deployment Workbench
Right-click Deployment Shares, and then press New Deployment Share.
Set a path for where you want to store your deployment share and press Next. The deployment share can end up being 100’s of GB in size. Pick a drive that has a lot of fast storage.
Set a Deployment Share name and then press Next. Make sure you leave the $ at the end of the share name.
Set a Deployment Share description and then press Next.
Leave the options as default as these will be amended later.
Check the summary is correct and then press Next to create the deployment share.
Once the deployment share has finished being created, press Finish.

Right-click your new capture deployment share and press Properties.
Under General, untick x86 for the supported platforms.

Under Rules, enter the below settings into the Rules box.

[Settings]
Priority=Default
Properties=MyCustomProperty

[Default]
OSInstall=Y
DoCapture=YES
SkipCapture=NO
SkipAdminPassword=YES
SkipProductKey=YES
SkipComputerBackup=NO
SkipBitLocker=YES

No amendments need to be made to the bootstrap.ini
Under Windows PE, change the platform to x64, and then untick Generate a Lite Touch bootable ISO image.
Under Monitoring, tick Enable monitoring for this deployment share.
Press Apply and then OK.
Right-click your deployment share and press Update deployment share.
Select Completely regenrate boot images, and then press Next, and then Next to generate the boot images.

Copy the installation ISO file for the operating system you want to capture and deploy to your deployment server.
Right-click the ISO file and press Mount.
In the Deployment Workbench, right-click the Operating Systems folder and press New Folder.
Name the folder Windows the same name as the operating system you are importing and press Next, Next, and then Finish.
Right-click the new folder you just created and then press Import Operating System.
Select Full set of source files, and then press Next.
Select **Browse…*, and then select the mounted drive, and then press OK and then Next.
If you get an error at this stage, it is likely that the ISO file that you are using doesn’t have an install.wim file, but an install.esd file. You will copy the install.esd file from within the sources folder of the mounted drive to the desktop and then use the below guide to extract the install.wim file out of it. Then repeat Step 7 but select the folder that has your extracted install.wim file.
Guide on extracting WIM files from ESD files
Enter a destination directory name and then press Next. The name should be automatically picked up.
Check the summary is correct and then press Next to import the operating system.
Once the operating system has finished importing, press Finish to close the wizard.

Creating a Task Sequence in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

Right-click the Task Sequences folder with MDT and press New Task Sequence.
Give your Task Sequence a unique ID and descriptive name, and then pres Next.
Select Sysprep and Capture from the dropdown and then press Next.
Select the operating system you want to capture and deploy and press Next.
Select do not specify a product key at this time, and then press Next.
Fill in the Full Name, Organisation, and IE Home Page, and then press Next.
Set a local administrator password that can be used once the operating system has been deployed, and then press Next.
On the summary page, check the settings and then press Next to create the task sequence.
Press Finish to close the task sequence wizard.

Capture your Windows 11 reference image

On the fully setup Windows 11 device you are using as a reference image, navigate to your deployment share using file explorer and run the LiteTouch VBScript Script Fie. The file path should look something like:
```
\\DEPLOYMENT01\DeploymentShareCapture$\Scripts\litetouch.vbs
```
Accept the UAC popup by pressing Yes.
When the Windows Deployment Wizard has loaded, select the capture task sequence you want to run, and then press Next.
Select the location you want to store your captured image. I leave this as default.
```
\\DEPLOYMENT01\DeploymentShareCapture$\Captures
```
Enter a file name for captured reference image, and then press Next.
Enter credentials that give access to the deployment share and then press Next.
Check the summary details, and if correct, press Begin to start the capture process.

Once you press Begin, don’t touch the reference computer until the capture process has finished. The computer will automatically reboot into the PXE environment during this process.

Importing the captured Windows 11 reference image into Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

Once your capture has finished, you should have a captured wim file in the following location:
```
\\DEPLOYMENT01\DeploymentShareCapture$\Captures
```
Open Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and right-click the Operating Systeps folder within your standard deployment share, and then press Import Operating System.
Select Custom Image File, and then press Next.
Press Browse, and then navigate to your captured wim file, select it, and then press Open, and then press Next.
Select Setup files and not needed, and then press Next.
Give your import a descriptive name, and then press Next.
On the summary page, check the details are correct, and then press Next to import the captured wim file.
Press Finish to close the import wizard.

Creating a task sequence to deploy your captured Windows 11reference image

Right-click the Task Sequences folder with MDT and press New Task Sequence.
Give your Task Sequence a unique ID and descriptive name, and then pres Next.
Select Standard Client Task Sequence and then press Next.
Select the captured operating system you want to deploy and press Next.
Select do not specify a product key at this time, and then press Next.
Fill in the Full Name, Organisation, and IE Home Page, and then press Next.
Set a local administrator password that can be used once the operating system has been deployed, and then press Next.
On the summary page, check the settings and then press Next to create the task sequence.
Press Finish to close the task sequence wizard.

You should now be able to network boot from devices on your local network and boot into MDT.

Once in the MDT PXE boot environment, follow the onscreen wizard to deploy the captured operating system.

How to Sysprep and Capture Windows 11 22H2 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT and WDS)

Introduction

How to Sysprep and Capture Windows 11 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT and WDS) video

How to Sysprep and Capture Windows 11 using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT and WDS)

Creating a Capture Deployment Share in Microsoft Deployment Workbench

Capture Deployment Share Properties

Adding an Operating System to the Deployment Share

Creating a Task Sequence in Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

Capture your Windows 11 reference image

Importing the captured Windows 11 reference image into Microsoft Deployment Toolkit

Creating a task sequence to deploy your captured Windows 11reference image