[ANSWERED] Noobie question but I can't find anything that helps on the internet. . .

So I'm new to the world of custom ISOs and found Windreducer and it fits the bill perfectly for what I want to do.

I have installed all the required tools needed for Winreducer.
I have mounted the Win8.1 Pro image I have.
I have downloaded updates and whatnot and those have been applied.
I removed a few files that Windows doesn't need.
I made an autounattend that would skip the Eula and insert the product key etc.
I have saved the wccf and created an ISO.
Originally I mounted the ISO using the Win7 USB AND with Rufus, as I couldn't figure out how to mount to USB using Winreducer.
That image the autounattend didn't work when I booted from USB...
I then figured out how to mount it to USB using Winreducer, and still the same problem.

Any ideas?
Also, the compiled image seems to be lacking setup and the autorun files that the normal Windows 8.1 ISO uses.
Here is a image of what it looks like:


I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

1) your missing setup.exe (and autorun, if you need that )
2) Build an image and remove stuff you don't need but don't use the optimise section yet
3) test the build see if it boots fine and installs (use a vm such as virtual box)
4)if successful you can try use optimise section

Fyi - currently I have a reduced build and found that the optimise section will cause my builds to fail and if i change the temp directories, I'm trying to get to the bottom of it but those are things i be weary of.

Hi and welcome,

Moonie wrote:

That image the autounattend didn't work when I booted from USB...

Did you create the unattended file using WinReducer or another software or by your own ?

Moonie wrote:

Also, the compiled image seems to be lacking setup and the autorun files that the normal Windows 8.1 ISO uses.
Here is a image of what it looks like:

I'm stumped. Anyone have any ideas?

This is the case, if you use the WinReducer Option : "Optimizations - ISO - Windows - Unneeded Files Cleanup". It deletes all unneeded files like setup.exe, which is only needed if you want to start Windows Installation directly from your Windows installed Operating System. This is not the case for you because you want to start from USB key, and this file (setup.exe) is not required for usb.

Regards.

Ah brill!
Thanks for the replies, I figured it might have been something to do with the optimization, but wasn't entirely sure so thought I would come and check with the pro's.
And I used the tools autounattend to create the file

I will do a rebuild and see how it goes, thanks guys!