[ANSWERED] ?'s to better understand the WinReducer 8.1 v1.19 process...

Got a few ?'s to better understand WinReducer's 8.1 v1.19 processes...

1.  First I would like to understand which mods are baked into the Install.WIM file to a specific currently mounted edition & which ones are baked into the ISO in general.  The settings for the ones that are general to an ISO would only need to be modded/added when working on the last edition of a AIO ISO or only at the beginning right?

Mod Types	Info	Note
PRESETS (13)	This seems to be just safety settings & presets.  Not part of the final ISO.	Very important to make sure anything you do plan to use does not get broken while reducing or modding the ISO.
APPEARANCE (43)	I think all of the Appearance options are baked per edition?	Or is it a ISO wide mod for all 3 settings tab ?  My bet is that all settings here are edition based.
FEATURES (22)	This one I am not sure but I think they are all  ISO base.	Or all editions would need to have their own copy of every feature. ??
REMOVER (542)	All of these are definitely Edition based. Mods need to be done for every Edition.	But maybe not.  Will ask a ? about it below.  Maybe is a mix bag of stuff that gets modded in WIM & ISO wide.
SERVICES (54)	Not sure about services.  Guessing it's Edition based in the Install.WIM file. ??
SYSTEMS (20)	Not sure if all tabs are ISO based but that is where I am leaning. ?	Since it uses folders for the OOBE/OEM parts I am thinking the mods are not done in the WIM file but in the ISO.
UNATTENDED (34)	Since the UnAttended.XML file is on the root of the ISO.  I can safely say that	all UnAttended options are carried out ISO wide.

Please let me know what I got wrong so far.  And if from within some of the Mod Types things get done IN & out of WIM aka mix bag.

2.  When working on an AIO ISO & WinReducer is restarted after the first mounted mod is completed.  I thought WinReducer automatically loaded the last or one of the auto saved .WCCF from the PRESETS "LastUsed" folder.  But I have confirm that it auto-loads the .WCCF file in the root of the ISO folder in the ExtractedByWinReducer folder after the first mod.

Been trying to figure out why when I remount a different unmodded edition the parts under REMOVER is missing all the options I had already chosen under "Remove - Keyboards", "Remove - Languages" & "Tweaks".  At first I thought it was removing them for the unmodded edition because of the auto saved .WCCF files. But after deleting all the .WCCF files & the LastUsed folder.  Those same settings that where modded in the first edition are still missing.  They are also still missing even if I tell WinReducer from the START tab to Clear Settings. So must be from the root folder.  Does it check only the root folder or does it check root & then the other possible .WCCF locations?

Once I deleted the .WCCF in the root folder everything was clear when I loaded another edition.


3.  I saved the .WCCF file from the first mounted edition mod & reloaded it after mounting the next edition I wish to mod. I made sure the saved .WCCF included my choice for FINISH. I checked the .WCCF file and WIM is there.  Checked all other saved .WCCF files too



But when ever it is done modding the edition.  It still asked me how I want to save it.  It seems it is not pulling the FINISH option from the Loaded .WCCF file although it does show as GREEN in the FINISH area.  Or is getting part of the info since it shows green but it does not actually get it done.

That's it for now...

Hello,

1 - Unfortunately, I'm not able to help you efficiently with All in One ISOs, I'm not a specialist of this ... Perhaps others will answer you better than me !

In the meantime :
- PRESETS = Agree with you, this tab helps you to avoid to break some important functionalities you may need
- APPEARANCE = You need to define all options for your edition
- FEATURES = They are edition based, WinReducer detects if they exists and how they are configured.
- REMOVER = "All" : reduce wim; "Optimizations" : reduce ISO and boot.wim
- SERVICES = They are edition based, WinReducer detects if they exists and how they are configured.
- SYSTEM = "Drivers" and "Updates" : integrate what you want in wim; "OEM and OOBE" : only in the ISO
- UNATTENDED = Yes, but you could also integrate your file in your wim : interesting discussion (LINK). And no this possibility is not implemented in WinReducer, just because after doing this, it's really hard to correct what have been done. But with WinReducer method, you could see all your selected options and change them if needed ...

2 - Yes, previous wccf file is always auto-load if it exists ... ... So yes, if you want to mod another edition in your All in One ISO, you need to manually delete it before mounting another edition. you're on the right way !
And no, there are no other locations for wccf file storage except the WinReducer "PRESETS" folder and your ISO. Just for the record, the ONLY working directories, all WinReducer Software use, are their own installation directory ... Nothing is written in your system or in your registry ... it's 100% portable, 100% clean and 100% free !

3 - Could you please tell more about that, thanks.

winterstorm2050 wrote:

Hello,

1 - Unfortunately, I'm not able to help you efficiently with All in One ISOs, I'm not a specialist of this ... Perhaps others will answer you better than me !

In the meantime :
- PRESETS = Agree with you, this tab helps you to avoid to break some important functionalities you may need
- APPEARANCE = You need to define all options for your edition
- FEATURES = They are edition based, WinReducer detects if they exists and how they are configured.
- REMOVER = "All" : reduce wim; "Optimizations" : reduce ISO and boot.wim
- SERVICES = They are edition based, WinReducer detects if they exists and how they are configured.
- SYSTEM = "Drivers" and "Updates" : integrate what you want in wim; "OEM and OOBE" : only in the ISO
- UNATTENDED = Yes, but you could also integrate your file in your wim : interesting discussion (LINK). And no this possibility is not implemented in WinReducer, just because after doing this, it's really hard to correct what have been done. But with WinReducer method, you could see all your selected options and change them if needed ...

2 - Yes, previous wccf file is always auto-load if it exists ... ... So yes, if you want to mod another edition in your All in One ISO, you need to manually delete it before mounting another edition. you're on the right way !
And no, there are no other locations for wccf file storage except the WinReducer "PRESETS" folder and your ISO. Just for the record, the ONLY working directories, all WinReducer Software use, are their own installation directory ... Nothing is written in your system or in your registry ... it's 100% portable, 100% clean and 100% free !

3 - Could you please tell more about that, thanks.

1.  No problem, I know the AIO stuff is an uncharted expansion for WinReducer.  Just glad you are so open to our expanding ideas.  Thanks for that.  Just trying to help test the AIO modding process...

Thanks for the details.  I am understanding the process a lot better.  I do still have a ? on one of them.

- PRESETS =  Where the "Protect" options automatically turned on aka Green in past versions of WinReducer ?  Maybe I don't remember correctly.

Right now for my tests I am not protecting anything & only mod a few specific things under REMOVER & UNATTENDED.  Seems the first edition mod goes fine but the following mods weather I use the default wccf from the first mod or the one I manually saved do not work.  Right know the only thing I can think off is that the settings go from FAULSE to TRUE but they get saved as OK on the wccf & that doesn't make it work.  Plan to do a third test and save everything after every single step to get to the bottom of it.

2.  I had deleted all the wccf files in PRESETS but it seems it still reads the wccf file in the root of the extracted folder.  Done two long tests trying to mod multiple editions but it seems it's not working correctly.  On the first mod it says it has to do 96 things.  If I use a wccf file on the following editions it says it has to do 2 things.  I thought this was just because using a wccf would not list all the changes but since the changes are not being implemented.  It might be part of the problem.  Like I said above plan to save wccf's & take screen captures of every step to try to narrow what the problem is.

3.  This might be related to the first two problems.  On this instance the value stays as "True" on the wccf but at the end of each 2nd, 3rd & subsequent editions mod it requires me to tell it how I want to save the mods it just said it completed.  So it must not be reading the wim "True" value you see in the wccf code I put above.  The button is set to ON/GREEN from the wccf but if I don't click thru the "WIM or ISO Configuration" button manually & choose WIM again & lets me know the setting is saved (I would call it resaved) it will ask me at the end what I want to do.

Update:  Switching over to WinReducer v1.20 for all my testing.

k, so redid the tests on v1.20 & I am still having some of the same problems...  Although this support might be mute since the Sept. version of the AIO is now a 48in1. But I would be willing to continue to try to get it to work right with the July AIO (24in1).  Before getting the edition support to go to 50.

1.  There seems to be a setting missing from the new USB option of "FolderTransferTo" in the "Save in an ISO File".



2.  Also this option in a saved .wccf be it a manual save or the one it saves on the root only works for the first edition.  If I load a .wccf with any of this options when working on a 2nd, 3rd or etc. editions.  The settings seem to be clicked thru.  But at the end of modding the edition it will ask me how I wish to save it.

3.  No matter what I tried.  The AutoUnattend.xml file only gets apply to the original edition that was modded.  Any 2nd, 3rd or etc. editions only get the other mods apply but never the AutoUnattend.xml ones.  It's almost like it's hard coded to only do it on the first edition that is modded.

The only thing I can think of is that I did delete the "WinReducer81.wccf" file from the root of the ISO.  But isn't that use as a back up of the changes that where done ? Or does it play a part in installation too ??

4.  One does have to remove the EI.CFG file for the "AutoUnattend.xml" to work right.  But like I stated on #2.  It only works right on the first edition that is modded.  Gonna have to retest this.  Seems non of the "AutoUnattend.xml" settings are getting thru at all with or without the EI.CFG file.

5.  It seems that if one starts off modding a CORE version as edition 1.  And then try to mod a PRO version as edition 2.  It keeps the stuff not available aka grey out on the CORE version on the PRO version unless you delete the "WinReducer81.wccf" file in the root before you do the mount the PRO version.

That means it thinks Hyper-V, BranchCache Service & Offline Files Service are missing from the PRO version although they are not.  Right now the work around I can think off is to always make the first edition An Enterprise or WMC version or at the very least PRO.  And mod the lesser version like Core or N towards the end.

Hopefully I make sense on the above observations...

Hello,

That make sense, don't worry. I've updated the number of supported edition to 50 in next build (v1.21).

I will check other things later but please do not hesitate to remind me later. Thanks !