What's the most meaningful thing to do about "Reapply tasks across editions"?

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InnerBrat

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Hi!

So, I'm almost done! A single edition ISO of Win11 Pro 24H2.
Really, only this is missing and then I can create the ISO and do the clean install.

I searched but didn't find anything about this, which baffles e because it seems pretty important.
Maybe it's so obvious that nobody needs to ask and I'm the only one wondering about it?

There are three choices where to duplicate some or all of the changes made to install.wim: recovery, boot 1 (Windows PE), boot 2 (Windows Setup).
Now, I don't really understand what the 2 boots do, I searched online, asked a few bots, and I still don't.
But it's not important.
Important is: I can imagine that it's meaningful to copy ALL changes onto the recovery partition, so that when I recover I don't lose anything. Right?
But boot? Isn't it their function just to boot, while the install depends on install.wim?
Which of the integrations/removals made to the install.wim would be meaningful to clone onto the recovery or boot images, and which could be problematic?

Thanks!
 
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So, garlin I know you'll be the one answering :D
Some more contest to help you with that.
I am asking in different places because this time you sadly didn't answer with your typical chat-speed (I hope you're ok), and I was in the typical all-nighter trying to finish the ISO, missing only this very last step, AGH!
Anyway it also helps me understand better/faster when different people give me their perspectives.
And so, someone told me that "The Recovery Environment (Windows RE) generally stays up to date with the installation image, and generally has the same basic hardware support as the full installation."
So now I am even more confused.
What was the intention of NTLite in offering the possibility to clone onto recovery and boot the integration/removal changes made to install.wim?
If for boot it's just because sometimes you need some drivers, why offering all other options too? I mean, removing components etc, why is it even available for boot?
And WinRE, what's meaningful and why?

Thanks
 
Reapply tasks across editions, can apply a set of changes (Updates, Features, Apps, Drivers, Scheduled Tasks, Services, Settings, and Registry) to multiple images at the same time. For each category, some or all of the images present in the WIM may be selected.

Post-Setup and Unattended changes are shared for the entire ISO.

This is a time-saving alternative to loading each image, one at a time, and apply the same set of changes. Changes which are applied to one or more images will result in longer processing times (by a lot!), so you should ignore the unneeded images. Unwanted images can be trimmed from this interface.

Most users find reapply tasks helpful if they have an AIO (All in One) ISO with multiple images like Home, Pro, EDU, Enterprise. Unless you're one of those persons who enjoy the N or KN editions, don't waste your time keeping those editions.

The other critical need for Reapply tasks across editions is inserting required drivers into boot.wim (Windows Setup), in order to have working storage or a network connection. Plain WinPE is provided in boot.wim for IT pro's building their own custom WinPE-based deployment platform or for Macrium users building a PE Recovery image. There is no need to update or keep this image.

What's not really needed?

IMO you don't need to update boot.wim (Windows Setup) beyond driver support.

Can you apply the Monthly CU to boot.wim? NTLite supports this, but it's a total waste of time. You're running WinPE for a few minutes while it configures devices, formats disks and extracts the WIM file before rebooting. WinPE doesn't have Features, Apps, that many Scheduled Tasks or Services. And most normal Windows settings are ignored by WinPE.

Should you update WinRE (Recovery image)? Only if you're an IT pro who's building a customized environment. Recovery partition is normally configured by reagentc extracting winre.wim into the partition, and copying the system's existing driver set. So you don't have to explicitly add drivers if the same drivers are part of the install image.

Current W10/11 CU's are now actively patching the Recovery environment, so it's less important to do this work yourself. If you need a pre-configured Push Button Reset (PBR) image, then it makes sense to update Recovery. Otherwise you don't need this work.

Some users will have different opinions that mine. I'm just here to tell you what's more effective for the time you're spending in NTlite, if you're a normal desktop user. Many NTLite capabilities exist so the product can support those IT pro's that do want them.

The most important lesson of system management is always do the least amount of change to effect the results you need.
 
I totally agree with least effort for maximum result.
It's just difficult to know what's the least effort when you're new to something.

So, to be sure that I understood:
- do nothing to any of the two boot (unless I need special drivers during boot).
- delete WinPE? Did I get that right? So it isn't needed for the clean install?
- do nothing to WinRE because it's al done automatically. But here I still have a question just in case: is this also valid for when I'm working on an offline ISO in order to do a clean install? Like, WinRE would automatically inherit all from install.wim during the clean install?
Or were you talking of when one works on a live image?

Thanks
 
There's two images in boot.wim: WinPE, and WinPE + Setup. The only difference is the latter contains Setup files. By default, the plain version of WinPE isn't flagged for booting, so you're never using it. MS provides both copies for reference.

Recovery is similar to WinPE, it's a subset of Windows in order to provide a backup environment in case of emergency where you corrupted Windows files, but the disk is readable. It's intended for you to run basic repair tools or CMD commands. As such, reagentc needs to copy over the same drivers as your normal installed Windows so it has full access to the same disk volumes.

Because you're only in Recovery to do temporary repairs, or to hack things you can't do in the running Windows system, it's not really important to apply KB updates. MS has recently realized there was a ton of Bitlocker or Secure Boot bugs in WinRE that opened them up to security exploits. And now they're obsessed with patching it (for security reasons).

Live or online image is another name for a running Windows system. This is where you see "DISM /online ....", because online means you're servicing the live Windows system you're using.
 
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