For testing purposes I had to deploy several Windows 2012 R2 Servers with the latest updates included. I also would like the VMware tools included for example. In this blogpost I describe the steps I’ve taken to build my own Windows 2012 R2 ISO. It also works for other Windows versions.
I use WSUSoffline (latest version here) for downloading the latest Windows updates and NTlite for slipstreaming the drivers and creating the ISO. Finally I use Vmware Workstation to test the ISO (and for the VMware tools drivers). Make sure to download WSUSoffline and unpack it to any hard drive with enough free space for you to download the updates.
Select the x64 Server 2012 R2 (in my case) updates and hit Start!
The tool started downloading the update files.
Ok…fast forward…. make sure you have a Windows 2012 R2 ISO. Extract this to a directory with enough free space for you to work with… Now open NTlite.
Add your Windows 2012 R2 folder to the installation:
You notice something like this:
Ok, dubbel click the blue button. (This contains the files you’ve just unpacked) Notice that it can take some time for everything to load..
Ok.. (sorry for the Dutch translation :-)) But go to “Opwaarderingen” or “updates”. Here we are able to specify which extra updates must be added to the installation.
Choose the “in map en sub mappen” (folders and sub folders) to specify the directory WSUSoffline just completed downloading the updates to! That’s the client folder:
Ok now the updates are checked and added to the left pane!
But we want to include some drivers (see my previous post) and VMware tools too! No problem. Go to device drivers and specify the folder containing the drivers.
Now we have included all the necessary drivers we are ready to build the ISO!
Select the option to create the ISO (specify a location and name) and click start and of you go!