Imager Instructions

Setup
On your Windows 10 or Windows 11 device, ensure that you have VMware Workstation
Pro or Workstation Player 16.2 or newer installed. To quickly download the latest free
version of Player visit https://vmware.com/go/getplayer-win. Imager will use this
hypervisor for orchestrating the creation of Windows 10 or Windows 11 images. All other
requisite software will be downloaded automatically when building your first image.
Operation
After installing Imager, run “Imager” from the Start Menu or Desktop icon. Click “New” to
start creating a new Windows 10 or 11 image. Each page of the configuration wizard
represents data required for each stage of the imaging process.
Source Image
On the “Source Image” page you may select a Windows 10 or 11 installation media ISO or
an existing Windows image (.wim file). Windows 10 or 11 ISOs can be created using the
Windows Media Creation Tool or downloaded via one of the various subscription services
provided by Microsoft, including Windows Insider and MSDN.
Virtual Machine
In selecting virtual machine settings, consider the specification of devices that will be
hosting the VM. Selecting excessively high CPU or memory values might exceed the
resources available on host device or server. It is recommended that total CPU cores
(processors multiplied by cores per socket) does not exceed 8, and the memory to be
set between 2GB and 8GB.
Operating System
The administrator credentials provided here are used to create a local administrator
account in the VM for the duration of the imaging process. If you intend to keep the
administrator account or log in to the VM during the imaging process, be sure to
remember the password you configure here as there are no password recovery options.
The option to skip operating system updates is useful for speeding up the imaging
process but not recommended for production purposes. Skipping updates will only skip
and disable updates during the imaging process; the standard Windows features for
checking and applying updates will be re-enabled after imaging is complete.
Provision
The option for provisioning software and common settings into the image is supported
via provisioning packages (.ppkg files), a standard container format supported on
Windows. The most common method for creating these is Microsoft’s Windows
Configuration Designer tool, which is included for free in the Windows ADK.
Optimize
Imager is now integrated with VMware OS Optimization Tool (OSOT) for optimizing
Windows. This is commonly used for preparing golden images for use in Horizon desktop
pools to provide significant performance, capacity and usability improvements.
This can be enabled simply by toggling “Optimize image” and selecting the pre-defined
default template or uploading a custom template file created within the OSOT console
application. Using the default template does not require you to download or become
familiar with OSOT. More template choices are planned for the next release.
Sysprep
This final stage ensures the image is sysprepped, generalized and ready for distribution
to users. Imager will automate this process and perform any final clean-up and
optimization tasks.
An unattend XML file (also known as a Windows Setup answer file) can be provided for
automating the OOBE (out-of-box-experience) process when the VM is distributed to
users and first booted. If no unattend file is provided, the user will need to the follow the
default OOBE flow which will ask all setup questions, including region, keyboard, and
EULA acceptance, etc.
Starting the Build

After everything is set, you can click “Build Image” and allow the process to run to
completion. This can take from 20 minutes to many hours depending on device
performance, VM specification, what software packages will be installed, and whether OS
updates will be installed. To significantly reduce build time and network usage, it is
recommended to avoid old Windows installation media files that require many updates to
be downloaded and installed to bring the image up to date.
A much faster build can be achieved by using the “Skip Updates” option on the
Operating System page. However, this is not recommended for VMs with production
usage.
Continuing a Build
For image builds that were stopped at a stage prior to sysprep, you may “continue” the
build process later. This allows manual customizations of the image before running the
later stages and finalizing the image.
Command-Line Usage
All functions available via the Imager UI application are available via the Imager
command-line tool. To path to this tool is %ProgramFiles%\VMware\Imager\imager.exe.
To get version and help information:

cd %ProgramFiles%\VMware\Imager
imager version
imager help
To get help on a specific tool, such as build-image:

imager build-image help
For example, to build a VM from a Windows 11 ISO downloaded from Microsoft:

imager build-image --source \data\Windows11.iso --edition Professional \
--vmname MyWindows11 --skipupdates
If you want to view what editions are available in any Windows 10 or 11 ISO media file:
imager list-editions --source \data\Windows11.iso
Edition Index Description
-------------------- ----- ---------------------------------
Core 1 Windows 11 Home
CoreN 2 Windows 11 Home N
CoreSingleLanguage 3 Windows 11 Home Single Language
Education 4 Windows 11 Education
EducationN 5 Windows 11 Education N
Professional 6 Windows 11 Pro
ProfessionalN 7 Windows 11 Pro N
To avoid being prompted for the password of the VM’s local administrator, set the
IMAGER_ADMINPASSWORD environment variable prior to building the image. For
example:
set IMAGER_ADMINPASSWORD=some-password
imager build-image --source \data\Windows11.iso --edition Professional
To view the list of previously built images:

imager list-images
ID VMX file Completed Modified
-------- ----------------------------------------------- ------------ -------------------
5be4ec81 C:\VMs\Imager\MyWindows11-2\MyWindows11-2.vmx Optimize 28/06/2022 2:44 PM
175881c1 C:\VMs\Imager\MyWindows11\MyWindows11.vmx Sysprep 27/06/2022 2:38 PM
To delete an image from your machine, use the ID in the first column of the images list:
imager delete-image --source 5be4ec81

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Setup

Starting the Build

To get version and help information:

To get help on a specific tool, such as build-image:

For example, to build a VM from a Windows 11 ISO downloaded from Microsoft:

To view the list of previously built images:

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