The Capture Operating System Image task sequence action captures one or more images from a reference computer and stores them in a WIM file on the specified network share. The Add Operating System Image Package Wizard can then be used to import this .WIM file into Configuration Manager 2007 so that it can be used for image-based operating system deployments.
Each volume (drive) on the reference computer is captured as separate image within the .wim file. If the referenced computer has multiple volumes, the resulting WIM file will contain a separate image for each volume. Only volumes that are formatted as NTFS or FAT32 are captured. Volumes with other formats and USB volumes are skipped.
The installed operating system on the reference computer must be a version of Windows that is supported by Configuration Manager 2007 and must have been prepared by using the SysPrep tool. The installed operating system volume and the boot volume must be the same volume.
You must also enter a Windows account that has write permissions to the network share you selected.
The Capture Operating System Image task sequence step runs only in Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE) and will not run in a standard operating system. For information about task sequence variables for the Capture Operating System Image task sequence action, see Capture Operating System Image Task Sequence Action Variables.
You can configure the following settings:
- Name
- A short user-defined name that describes the action taken in this step.
- Description
- More detailed information about the action taken in this step.
- Target
- File system pathname to the location that Configuration Manager 2007 should use when storing the captured operating system image.
- Description
- An optional user-defined description of the captured operating system image that is stored in the .WIM file.
- Version
- An optional user-defined version number to assign to the captured operating system image. This value can be any combination of letters and numbers and is stored in the .WIM file.
- Created by
- The optional name of the user that created the operating system image and is stored in the WIM file.
- Capture operating system image account
- You must enter the Windows account that has permissions to the network share you specified. Click Set to specify the name of that Windows account. For more information, see About the Capture Operating System Image Account.