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Cammsnen's avatar
Cammsnen
Iron Contributor
Jun 16, 2025

Look for a good windows 10 media creation tool for os install

One of my backup PCs is still running the legacy Windows 7 Home edition. Unfortunately, many of the modern apps are not working well in Windows 7. I heard it could be better upgrading the PC to Windo...
MichiganGreatLake's avatar
MichiganGreatLake
Iron Contributor
Jun 16, 2025

You can use DISM to create a bootable Windows 10 installation USB drive or ISO by applying a Windows 10 image (.wim or .esd file) to a USB drive.

​​DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management)​​ is a command-line based free Windows 10 media creation tool used for servicing and preparing Windows images, including those used for Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment), Windows Recovery Environment, and full Windows installations. It allows you to mount, modify, and manage Windows image (.wim) or virtual hard disk (.vhd/.vhdx) files.

✅ ​​Prerequisites​​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

1. A working Windows PC.
2. A USB flash drive with at least ​​8 GB​​ of storage (preferably 16 GB or more).
3. A downloaded Windows 10 ISO file from the official Microsoft website.
4. Administrative privileges on your PC.

✅ Step-by-Step Guide Using DISM​:

Insert the Windows 10 ISO file into your system (or download it if you haven't already).

Right-click the ISO file and select ​​Mount​​. This will assign it a drive letter (e.g., D:).

F:\sources\install.wim

Once the ISO is mounted, navigate to the sources folder. This is the image file you’ll use with DISM.

Now, use DISM to apply the install.wim image to the USB drive. Replace D: with your mounted ISO drive letter and E: with your USB drive letter.

dism /apply-image /imagefile:D:\sources\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:E:\

After applying the image, you need to make the USB drive bootable by copying the boot files:

bcdboot E:\Windows /s E: /f UEFI

Safely eject the USB drive. Insert it into the target PC. Boot from the USB drive (you may need to change the boot order in BIOS/UEFI). Follow the on-screen instructions to install Windows 10.

✅ Bonus Tip

You can also use DISM to capture and deploy custom Windows images, which is useful for system administrators or advanced users deploying Windows across multiple machines.

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