Latest Windows 11 Cumulative Update is massive?

[tired-it]

I understand that the Windows image increases in size over time minus a few exceptions. However, something about the last few months has seemed excessive? Is it normal for NTLite to download a 2GB cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2?

Normally, I use UUPDump to create an up-to-date ISO that comes out to around 6.7GB, which is already getting absurdly huge.

The base image from Microsoft's website is 5.4GB. The July 2025 KB5062553 update downloaded from NTLite is 2.34GB. Usually cumulative updates from NTLite vary around 700mb.

If I were to use the base image from Microsoft's website and integrate only the latest cumulative updates via NTLite, I get an ISO at about 7.45GB. My production ISO, before ESD compression, went from 6.2GB to 6.9GB month to month and that is with only light removals.

Was it always like this? Is there anything I can do to further decrease the size before using ESD compression?

edit: more details

 

[tistou77]

I understand that the Windows image increases in size over time minus a few exceptions. However, something about the last few months has seemed excessive? Is it normal for NTLite to download a 2GB cumulative update for Windows 11 24H2?

Indeed, MS added MSIX files for features related to AI and Recall in the latest CUs But these features are only for NPU machines

You can always remove "duplicate" updates with NTLite.
If I remember correctly, it's Manifest Backup component

 

[tired-it]

Indeed, MS added MSIX files for features related to AI and Recall in the latest CUs But these features are only for NPU machines

You can always remove "duplicate" updates with NTLite.
If I remember correctly, it's Manifest Backup component

What updates can be removed? I only have the checkpoint and latest cumulative updates. They are KB5042098 (.NET superseded), KB5056579 (.NET), KB5063666 (SSU), KB5043080 (required checkpoint), KB5064489 (July cumulative).

 

[tistou77]

KB5063666 (SSU) can be removed, SSU is integrated with CU
KB5042098 (.NET superseded)

 

[tired-it]

KB5063666 (SSU) can be removed, SSU is integrated with CU
KB5042098 (.NET superseded)

Good to know. Unfortunately, the bulk of the space is taken up by the latest cumulative update. I have never gotten such massive images before. At 7.45GB after updates, I barely have space to even add programs into Post-Setup without ESD compression, which takes a long time to complete. Surely there is something else I am missing?

 

[tistou77]

You can try removing the Manifest Backup component, it should reduce the image a bit
Just duplicates updates, it didn't break anything last time we tested

 

[tired-it]

Update: Still no luck reducing the image size before ESD compression. The original ISO with added updates is just big, guess that is how Windows is these days.

 

[tired-it]

Update: Best practice for reducing the image size before compression is to export whatever edition you want and overwriting the WIM file in the cache. This gets me close enough to a manageable file size. Not sure why the "Trim unused editions" option does not provide the same result.