For testing purposes I quickly wanted to create a master image using a VHD file. The Master VM was running on VMware so I decided to use the Windows 10 built-in functionality. Just run the sdclt.exe command with administrator privileges. (This was introduced some time ago with Windows Vista).
Confirm your backup settings:
Sleect the Create System Image function and specify a location where you wish to store the VHD file. In this example I use a network location. Follow the default options and wait a couple of minutes. At the network location I just specified there is now the VHD file present.
Note : You can use this file also when you boot in the Windows Recovery Environment.
(Choose System Image Recovery and point to your created VHD image)