v0.6.2_250323

This is the second preview release of DISMTools 0.6.2, with new features and enhancements:

This is also the 100th release of DISMTools. Thanks to all of you for your continued support!

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	5270E64AB571740158B285074C30A18FB1D824C1C4162091052E350BDB14E7F1
Portable	DISMTools.zip	F4329B29AD73D0D2BE468E98F70BEC672C8F984E3A7C527D676C5F1098AC3438

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Bugfixes

• The product key syntax validation algorithm is now more reliable
• Password entry is now disabled when setting up an open network connection in the unattended answer file creation wizard (for the love of all security experts and IT admins, DON'T DO THIS!!!)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an access violation exception if you declined the UnattendGen self-contained version download dialog

New features

New tasks

• NEW! Image edition tasks have been added. Access them by going to Commands -> Windows editions:

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• The Driver Installation Module (DIM) now shows instructions and progress information at the bottom of the window:

• The restart dialog has been ported to ARM64
• CODE: the procedure to add Optional Components for Windows PE has been streamlined for ISO and test environment creation

Image information reports

• HTML versions of image information reports now have a sidebar for easier section navigation:

Image information dialogs

• You can now sort features and capabilities by clicking the column headers (#231):

Miscellaneous

• If a removable medium contains a Windows installation, you will now be able to use it in the offline installation management mode
• CODE: image operations have been refactored

Removed features

• Actions, introduced in version 0.3, have been removed due to a lack of maintenance
• Printing capabilities of image information reports have been removed (hopefully temporarily)

Note

We had to say goodbye to printing capabilities for 2 reasons:

1. They have been partially broken since version 0.6, when the format switched to Markdown and they started printing the HTML version
2. Recent changes in how the HTML versions of the report look now have made printing not feasible

This may be a blow to some of you, and I get that. That's why I'll keep investigating to try to bring these back up in their full glory

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6.2 Preview 2 by @CodingWonders in #234

Full Changelog: v0.6.2_pre_2531...v0.6.2_pre_2532

v0.6.1 Update 1

This is the March 2025 Update of DISMTools 0.6.1, with new features and enhancements from preview releases of version 0.6.2:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	101BB161C5E0B59D36610EA9E81585A9CE7542B54ED9FA9658F1A53D2AB41CBF
Portable	DISMTools.zip	438F327F25C12B525F15B9571BDC1B7355C6B4F0DDAB3811FC0CCAE8109F0E29

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where, if you had an App Installer package and its resulting package, the program would throw an error when attempting to scan the second package
• The product key syntax validation algorithm is now more reliable
• Password entry is now disabled when setting up an open network connection in the unattended answer file creation wizard
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an access violation exception if you declined the UnattendGen self-contained version download dialog

New features

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• 2 new Optional Components are added to Preinstallation Environments, mainly to improve support for drives encrypted with BitLocker, and implementations of IEEE 1667
• When copying Optional Components and adding packages, you will now see a refreshed output:

• Several improvements were made to Windows PE for ARM64:
  • Support for the Arm64EC ABI is now added to the PE image, as another Optional Component
  • The Driver Installation Module (DIM) now works natively on ARM64:

• The Driver Installation Module (DIM) now shows instructions and progress information at the bottom of the window:

• The restart dialog has been ported to ARM64

Miscellaneous

• The program installer is now built with a new version of Inno Setup (v6.4.1)
• If a removable medium contains a Windows installation, you will now be able to use it in the offline installation management mode

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6.1 Update 1 by @CodingWonders in #235

Full Changelog: v0.6.1_stable...v0.6.1_upd1

v0.6.2_250309

This is the first preview release of DISMTools 0.6.2, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	A0311AA60080E566A621B9301B4D0597456374B965D5871A6F4C1846162B1FA5
Portable	DISMTools.zip	C8D8DE4C602327BCD5562ADA15A2F39F18FDD1ABF88AFFA59AE3204E1E13F248

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where, if you had an App Installer package and its resulting package, the program would throw an error when attempting to scan the second package

New features

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• 2 new Optional Components are added to Preinstallation Environments, mainly to improve support for drives encrypted with BitLocker, and implementations of IEEE 1667
• When copying Optional Components and adding packages, you will now see a refreshed output:

• Several improvements were made for Windows PE for ARM64:
  • Support for the Arm64EC ABI is now added to the PE image, as another Optional Component
  • The Driver Installation Module (DIM) now works natively on ARM64:

The Driver Installation Module on a Raspberry Pi

Unattended answer file features

• You can now import Batch scripts when configuring post-installation scripts:

Miscellaneous

• The program installer is now built with a new version of Inno Setup (v6.4.1)

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6.2 Preview 1 by @CodingWonders in #227

Full Changelog: v0.6.1_stable...v0.6.2_pre_2531

v0.6.1

DISMTools 0.6.1 is now available as a stable version, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	0CF9A6CB1B9B7AB30114402A1491F6D7BF9475E7D78663566E7B10EE6E265144
Portable	DISMTools.zip	BE63703A0E772CC78F76C0F6AC48ABE524ED90FD1C90110FA1441407E861343A

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Changes made since last preview

Bugfixes

• Non-English redirected DISM output is now shown correctly

New features

• The testing environment creator now detects the architectures compatible with the ADK
• Remaining options that were introduced in preview versions are now localized
• Help documentation has been updated

Overall changes

Bugfixes

Note

This will show the bugfixes of all preview versions. To view them, expand a section

Preview 1

• Fixed an issue where the program would sometimes throw an exception when saving settings (#205, thanks @Dretreyt for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where Windows 8 and 10 detection functions for background processes would sometimes throw exceptions (#206, thanks @arielsil for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where background processes would sometimes not start after mounting a Windows image, causing you to reload the projects (#208, #210, thanks @novice55 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when creating a new project from within the online and/or offline installation management modes (#209, thanks @webber3242 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when using keyboard combinations to access items in the recent projects list if there were no items. Now, the following message will appear:

Preview 2

• Fixed an issue where feature disablement would not be possible due to a DynaLog logger issue
• WIMBoot options are no longer enabled if the Windows image being serviced does not contain Windows 8.1 (#211, thanks @arielsil and @Dede333)

Preview 3

• The PE Helper now detects whether the selected index is invalid
• Fixed a visual issue in the image index switch dialog

Preview 4

• Fixed an issue where the PE Helper would not create ISO files if you had a version of the Windows ADK earlier than 10.1.26100.2454
• AppX package counts in image information reports are more reasonable now on Windows 8 hosts
• Fixed an issue where folder attributes for AppX package addition and driver addition were not being detected correctly (#220, thanks @InnerBrat for spotting)
• Fixed an additional issue regarding the Recents list

New features

DynaLog

• DynaLog, which was initially introduced in DISMTools 0.6, has been applied to the whole codebase

Tip

Expand the following section if you want to know how events are logged

Understanding DynaLog event logs:

DynaLog event logs are stored in the file DT_DynaLog.log, in the logs folder. When you open it, you will see events following this structure:

...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Getting mounted images...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Clearing lists...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Initializing API...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Calling API function to grab mounted images...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] 10 mounted image(s) have been detected on this system. Grabbing information...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Image information:
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Image file : C:\wims\install_23h2.wim
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Image index : 1
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount directory : C:\dtprojs\Win11-23H2\mount
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount status : 0 (OK)
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount mode : 0 (Write permissions enabled)
...

An event is divided into 3 parts:

1. The time at which it happened. This is a UTC timestamp
2. The name of the function/method that logged an event and, optionally, the name of its parent
3. The message

The logger can be temporarily disabled by the program, but this is only done in situations where logging causes a performance overhead. I want a balance between performance and logging capabilities.

You can disable the logger completely by going to the log options, but it's not recommended.

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• The PE Helper now supports initiating OS installations from within full Windows environments, thanks to HotInstall:

HotInstall prepares your computer to boot to the Preinstallation Environment, from which you will be able to install Windows. This is done by configuring the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) to add a boot entry to the Windows PE image.

You can start the installation process with HotInstall by either running setup.exe in the disc image or by using AutoRun.

After your computer has restarted, choose "DISMTools Operating System Installation" in BOOTMGR, or wait for 3 seconds, and continue with OS installation as you would if you booted to the ISO file.

Until you install the operating system with the PE Helper, nothing will happen to your computer and you can still boot to the full Windows environment in case you need to back up files or export its installed drivers to a folder (if needed). You can remove the newly created BCD entry by using bcdedit /delete {<BCD entry GUID>} /f (grab the GUID first by running bcdedit) from an administrative command prompt session.

Note

• Ventoy drives are not supported due to the way they work, such that ISO files are never inserted - only the Ventoy USB
• HotInstall is not included with test projects created by the Test Environment creator
• HotInstall will not upgrade your installation of Windows. It will perform a clean installation
• HotInstall is supported on these platforms, with a requirement for .NET 4.8:
  • Client: Windows 8.1 and later, excluding Windows 10 versions 1507 and 1511
  • Server: Windows Server 2012 and later, excluding Server Core
• If you run into a problem or want to suggest a new feature for HotInstall, report feedback in its repository, not this one. If you report HotInstall feedback in this repository, it will be transferred to the HotInstall repository

• You can now view a bit more information when specifying the image index for your Windows image by typing INFO:

• You can now copy your ISO files to Ventoy drives:

Note

This process will take some time, depending on the speed of the Ventoy drive and your computer

• When installing the drivers specified in the Driver Installation Module, you will now see a progress indicator:

You will see a slightly different output in this release

• The ISO creator now detects the architectures that are supported by the Assessment and Deployment Kit installed on your computer:

• Compatibility has been improved for the latest Windows ADKs (starting from version 10.1.26100.2454 - December 2024 update):
  • ISO creation will finish successfully now
  • You can now create ISO files with boot binaries signed with the "Windows UEFI CA 2023" certificate:

Note

You will see the following message when checking this option:

![DISMTools_6xnHCcaDOQ](http...

v0.6.1_250223

This is the fourth and final preview release of DISMTools 0.6.1, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	7470109F4B8DF108982279422D5DD27C444EE5FC649850288E181473143FC9BE
Portable	DISMTools.zip	8C25F63755F9BB1A1E6311EF012886D5B3DB83082AEEF11899B1CB675C515196

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the PE Helper would not create ISO files if you had a version of the Windows ADK earlier than 10.1.26100.2454
• AppX package counts in image information reports are more reasonable now on Windows 8 hosts
• Fixed an issue where folder attributes for AppX package addition and driver addition were not being detected correctly (#220, thanks @InnerBrat for spotting)
• Fixed an additional issue regarding the Recents list

New features

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• HotInstall has been updated to the latest version, with a localized Disk Space Checker, and support for exporting system drivers if you wish:

• When installing drivers specified in the Driver Installation Module (DIM), you will now see a different output consisting of a summary:

• The Extensibility Suite has had some improvements:
  • Support has been added for ADK 10.1.26100.2454
  • An alias (StartDim) has been added, letting you launch the Driver Installation Module more easily:

Unattended answer file features

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• You can now target multiple processor architectures with your answer file:

• You can now normalize the spacing of your unattended answer file to make it consistent:

Miscellaneous

• Progress panel log switcher buttons are now localized

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6.1 Preview 4 by @CodingWonders in #223

Full Changelog: v0.6.1_pre_2521...v0.6.1_pre_2522

v0.6.1_250209

This is the third preview release of DISMTools 0.6.1, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	65D6C408CFE69DBB64154C74129EBA7C106CE2E00D8EF51985A6E46EDAA03EA1
Portable	DISMTools.zip	AA7EB3B1AC2D324C8608CA46A287769A66460C2D1E58F8A8F3D579ABE516E24C

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Important

An issue has been detected in the PE Helper that prevents it from creating ISO files if you have a version of the Windows ADK earlier than 10.1.26100.2454. This has already been fixed and will be included with Preview 4. You can do the following:

• Wait for Preview 4 to arrive
• Update the ADK and the Windows PE add-on to the latest version
• Replace the PE Helper with the patched version, which you can get here

Bugfixes

• The PE Helper now detects whether the selected index is invalid
• Fixed a visual issue in the image index switch dialog

New features

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• HotInstall has been updated to the latest version, with support for language translations and a refined disk space checker that uses WMI calls:

• You can now copy your ISO files to Ventoy drives:

Note

This process will take some time, depending on the speed of the Ventoy drive and your computer

• When installing the drivers specified in the Driver Installation Module, you will now see a progress indicator:

• The ISO creator now detects the architectures that are supported by the Assessment and Deployment Kit installed on your computer:

• Compatibility has been improved for the latest Windows ADKs (starting from version 10.1.26100.2454 - December 2024 update):
  • ISO creation will finish successfully now
  • You can now create ISO files with boot binaries signed with the "Windows UEFI CA 2023" certificate:

Note

You will see the following message when checking this option:

The PowerShell command in question is [System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetString((Get-SecureBootUEFI db).bytes) -match 'Windows UEFI CA 2023'. It will be added to the Help documentation for the release of version 0.6.1 as a stable version.

Learn more about boot binaries signed with this certificate here:

• https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/kb5036210-deploying-windows-uefi-ca-2023-certificate-to-secure-boot-allowed-signature-database-db-a68a3eae-292b-4224-9490-299e303b450b
• https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/revoking-vulnerable-windows-boot-managers/4121735
• https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/windows-itpro-blog/updating-microsoft-secure-boot-keys/4055324

Unattended answer file features

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• User accounts with "None" names are now blocked

Miscellaneous

• Log switchers in the progress panel are more visually appealing now
• CODE: DynaLog now uses 64-bit long types for file content detection
• The following components have been updated:

Component	Version in last release	New version
Scintilla.NET	5.6.5	5.6.6

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6.1 Preview 3 by @CodingWonders in #216

Full Changelog: v0.6.1_pre_2512...v0.6.1_pre_2521

v0.6.1_250126

This is the second preview release of DISMTools 0.6.1, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	85282D5549F115B41DA2AB3F8DC4BE2A1306DFE8B5357CEBBA7AA6B511528ACC
Portable	DISMTools.zip	5AC7AB3129CBCEE0E6B531D3A7C8B1791ADA4B060143B9F4D5C624E08E741C91

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where feature disablement would not be possible due to a DynaLog logger issue
• WIMBoot options are no longer enabled if the Windows image being serviced does not contain Windows 8.1 (#211, thanks @arielsil and @Dede333)

New features

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• HotInstall has been updated to the latest version, with the addition of a disk space checker, and support for dark mode:

Tip

ONLY FOR INSTALLATIONS STARTED WITH HOTINSTALL: When selecting the disk to apply the image to, you can type DSCR to look at the reports and see which drives have enough space for your Windows image

• You can now view a bit more information when specifying the image index for your Windows image by typing INFO:

Unattended answer file features

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• You can now configure post-installation scripts for your unattended answer files:

• When you change the computer name to an empty value, you won't be annoyed to put a computer name as much:

Miscellaneous

• DynaLog logging can now be disabled on demand, and you can now configure the editor to open operation logs from within the Options dialog:

Note

Disabling DynaLog logging is not recommended unless you experience a performance overhead with DISMTools. This will take effect as a program setting

• DISM output is now redirected to the progress panel:

Update details

Setting migration will be performed when you update to this version. These are the settings that will be affected:

Setting	New status	Reason
Logs > DynaLog logging control	New
Logs > System Editor	New

• Pull Request associated: #214

Full Changelog: v0.6.1_pre_2511...v0.6.1_pre_2512

v0.6 Update 1

This is the January 2025 update of DISMTools 0.6, with new features and enhancements from preview releases of version 0.6.1:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	C6832DC88ACFA40415D09325D1C8F2DF8990087DF0AA43C834F87A6B79A88A78
Portable	DISMTools.zip	23CEC2EE7F0891E2DE12CBAFCE69EFBA1DD13B134B390EA50569BF0209C224CF

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Note

If you are using DISMTools 0.6, you will have to initiate the update by going to the About dialog (in the Help menu)

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the program would sometimes throw an exception when saving settings (#205, thanks @Dretreyt for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where Windows 8 and 10 detection functions for background processes would sometimes throw exceptions (#206, thanks @arielsil for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where background processes would sometimes not start after mounting a Windows image, causing you to reload the projects (#208, #210, thanks @novice55 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when creating a new project from within the online and/or offline installation management modes (#209, thanks @webber3242 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when using keyboard combinations to access items in the recent projects list if there were no items. Now, the following message will appear:

• WIMBoot options are no longer enabled if the Windows image being serviced does not contain Windows 8.1 (#211, thanks @arielsil and @Dede333)

New features

Unattended answer file features

• Applying unattended answer files from within DISMTools is faster now

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• The PE Helper now supports initiating OS installations from within full Windows environments, thanks to HotInstall

Note

• Ventoy drives are not supported due to the way they work, such that ISO files are never inserted - only the Ventoy USB
• HotInstall is not included with test projects created by the Test Environment creator
• HotInstall will not upgrade your Windows installation. It will perform a clean installation
• HotInstall is supported on these platforms, with a requirement for .NET 4.8:
  • Client: Windows 8.1 and later, excluding Windows 10 versions 1507 and 1511
  • Server: Windows Server 2012 and later, excluding Server Core
• If you run into a problem or want to suggest a new feature for HotInstall, report feedback in its repository, not this one. If you report HotInstall feedback in this repository, it will be transferred to the HotInstall repository

• You can now view a bit more information when specifying the image index for your Windows image by typing INFO:

Miscellaneous

• The following components have been updated to their latest versions:

Component	New version
Managed DISM API	3.3.0
Markdig	0.40.0
Scintilla.NET	5.6.5

• You can now press Alt + U to restart background processes on demand

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6 Update 1 by @CodingWonders in #213

Full Changelog: v0.6_stable...v0.6_upd1

v0.6.1_250112

This is the first preview release of DISMTools 0.6.1, with new features and enhancements:

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	4F38F5F43A271DDFCB134184DFA748895D8AD19AC385BADC0BAD508EC9F4D3AE
Portable	DISMTools.zip	4AA1D4FC89202F74196F9FB78D915523AA67053A198ED5E29A91F9A351D41E7B

Important

If you use Windows Defender, it may incorrectly flag this version as malware. SmartScreen may also do this. Don't worry; this is safe to download and use.

This AV solution flags this program because it lacks code-signing certificates, which are quite expensive (as of January 2025, 660 and 864 dollars for 3 years of SV and EV certificates, respectively, from Comodo).

If you use other antivirus solutions, you will not see this problem. Learn more here

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue where the program would sometimes throw an exception when saving settings (#205, thanks @Dretreyt for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where Windows 8 and 10 detection functions for background processes would sometimes throw exceptions (#206, thanks @arielsil for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where background processes would sometimes not start after mounting a Windows image, causing you to reload the projects (#208, #210, thanks @novice55 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when creating a new project from within the online and/or offline installation management modes (#209, thanks @webber3242 for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an exception when using keyboard combinations to access items in the recent projects list if there were no items. Now, the following message will appear:

New features

DynaLog

• DynaLog, which was initially introduced in DISMTools 0.6, has been applied to the whole codebase

Note

There are no options to configure the logger yet. Expect these to arrive in later preview releases

Tip

Expand the following section if you want to know how events are logged

Understanding DynaLog event logs:

DynaLog event logs are stored in the file DT_DynaLog.log, in the logs folder. When you open it, you will see events following this structure:

...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Getting mounted images...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Clearing lists...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Initializing API...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Calling API function to grab mounted images...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] 10 mounted image(s) have been detected on this system. Grabbing information...
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] Image information:
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Image file : C:\wims\install_23h2.wim
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Image index : 1
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount directory : C:\dtprojs\Win11-23H2\mount
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount status : 0 (OK)
[01/03/2025 16:07:48] [DetectMountedImages (MainForm_Load)] - Mount mode : 0 (Write permissions enabled)
...

An event is divided into 3 parts:

1. The time at which it happened. This is a UTC timestamp
2. The name of the function/method that logged an event and, optionally, the name of its parent
3. The message

The logger can be temporarily disabled by the program, but this is only done in situations where logging causes a performance overhead. I want a balance between performance and logging capabilities.

Unattended answer file features

• UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version
• You can now tell the unattended answer file to use a configuration set or distribution share:

• Applying unattended answer files from within DISMTools is faster now

Preinstallation Environment Helper

• The PE Helper now supports initiating OS installations from within full Windows environments, thanks to HotInstall

HotInstall prepares your computer to boot to the Preinstallation Environment, from which you will be able to install Windows. This is done by configuring the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) to add a boot entry to the Windows PE image.

You can start the installation process with HotInstall by either running setup.exe in the disc image or by using AutoRun:

Next, follow these screens:

After your computer has restarted, choose "DISMTools Operating System Installation" in BOOTMGR, or wait for 3 seconds, and continue with OS installation as you would if you booted to the ISO file.

Until you install the operating system with the PE Helper, nothing will happen to your computer and you can still boot to the full Windows environment in case you need to back up files or export its installed drivers to a folder (if needed). You can remove the newly created BCD entry by using bcdedit /delete {<BCD entry GUID>} /f (grab the GUID first by running bcdedit) from an administrative command prompt session.

Note

• Ventoy drives are not supported due to the way they work, such that ISO files are never inserted - only the Ventoy USB
• HotInstall is not included with test projects created by the Test Environment creator
• HotInstall will not upgrade your installation of Windows. It will perform a clean installation
• HotInstall is supported on these platforms, with a requirement for .NET 4.8:
  • Client: Windows 8.1 and later, excluding Windows 10 versions 1507 and 1511
  • Server: Windows Server 2012 and later, excluding Server Core
• If you run into a problem or want to suggest a new feature for HotInstall, report feedback in its repository, not this one. If you report HotInstall feedback in this repository, it will be transferred to the HotInstall repository

Miscellaneous

• The following components have been updated to their latest versions:

Component	Version in last release	New version
Managed DISM API	3.2.0	3.3.0
Markdig	0.38.0	0.40.0
Scintilla.NET	5.6.4	5.6.5

• You can now press Alt + U to restart background processes on demand. This is useful if the image was loaded into DISMTools and serviced by an external program. This will update the information grabbed by the program so that you have the latest information to work with
• Operation logs can now be opened with the editor of your choosing if the operations have failed:

Note

Support is experimental and no configurations can be done from the Options window for now - only in the settings files themselves (settings.ini and the registry). Some editors may not be able to open the file if they rely on command-line flags to open files.

These things will be tackled for Preview 2

What's Changed

• DISMTools 0.6.1 Preview 1 by @CodingWonders in #212

Full Changelog: v0.6_stable...v0.6.1_pre_2511

v0.6

DISMTools 0.6 is now available as a stable release, with new features and enhancements:

This release is a gift from me. Merry Christmas!

File hashes

File	Name	Hash (SHA256)
Installer	dt_setup.exe	1F70DC25B72DA0C193FC2DC6FAF34B0E21EF27093DA433299DBDF147F9160969
Portable	DISMTools.zip	3BEC62A87502D9675FAF7A0479A599269D147BD51B68F3C0E90C72928264CD6E

Changes made since last preview

Bugfixes

• Fixed some visual issues in the testing environment creator

New features

• The unattended answer file features have seen several improvements, mainly in the user accounts department:

  • UnattendGen has been updated to the latest version. This now requires .NET 9 to function, but you can always pick the self-contained package:

  

  • Duplicate user account detection has been added
  • User validation errors are more meaningful (see screenshot in overall changes)
  • Invalid characters are automatically trimmed from user names
  • Account checks have been added to block those that match the custom computer name

  

  • Windows 11 settings in the Basic System Configuration page are now disabled when you select x86 in the architecture list
  • You can now use your computer name as the computer name of the answer file more easily

  

  • You can now choose the Enterprise edition as part of the generic product key list

Note

Use this setting only if you want to use your computer as the one on which you want to use the unattended answer file. Computer names and descriptions help identify a computer on the network, so there will be a conflict if you use the answer file on a computer different than the one that created it

• The custom system restart application, seen in the OS installer, has been added to the testing environment creator
• The App Installer downloader has received cancel functionality

Overall changes

Bugfixes

Note

This will show the bugfixes of all preview versions. To view them, expand a section

Preview 1

• Fixed an issue where some properties for image information reports were not obtained

Preview 2

• The image application task and the image file information dialog are more reliable
• Fixed an issue where all images would be remounted, but the first mounted image would never show in the automatic reload panel
• Fixed an issue where the mounted image list in the mounted image manager would not be cleared if an external program unmounted all images
• Fixed an issue where clicking the "Access directory" option of the "Mount directory" tree view item would always load the project's mount directory, even if the image was mounted elsewhere (thanks @Procstas for spotting)
• Fixed a parser issue in the App Installer downloader
• Fixed attribute filter issues for AppX package directories when they are dropped

Preview 3

• Fixed an issue that happened when adding and removing capabilities where capability display names would be misclassified as capability identities

Preview 4

• Fixed an issue where the program would continue running without having .NET Framework 4.8
• Fixed an issue where the program would randomly freeze, even though it was still responding

Preview 5

• Fixed an issue where the program would sometimes throw an exception at startup

Preview 6

• The image name and description fields of the new design no longer use mnemonics, to prevent ampersands from showing as underscores

Preview 7

• The image information report results dialog no longer mentions a text box
• Italian translations have been slightly fixed (thanks @bovirus for spotting)
• Fixed an issue where the following log path warning would be triggered during serviceability tests with the OS installer. This would happen with Selenium-based builds of Windows 11:

• Fixed an exception that would sometimes happen when launching the AppX package addition dialog

Preview 8

• Fixed an issue where operations would no longer start sometimes
• Fixed a visual issue with the image file information list view of the ISO creation wizard
• Fixed an issue where the program would throw an IO exception when getting information about AppX packages, such as Intel Graphics Experience or MSI Center, in some cases (#199, #200, thanks @yyg1208 for spotting)
• Fixed a startup exception related to the mounted image detector (#201, thanks @Oldsch00lpunk for spotting)
• The DynaLog logging system has seen some fixes in the log maintenance functions

New features

New tools

• The image registry control panel has been introduced, allowing you to quickly load and unload the hives of the image or installation you are servicing:

Preinstallation Environment Helper/ISO Creation Tools

• You can now press B on the partition selection screen to go back to the disk selection screen if you chose the wrong disk
• The Operating System installer now shows a cleaner progress output for DiskPart and DISM:

• Compatibility with PowerShell based on the new, open-source .NET (e.g., PowerShell 7) has been improved
• Output for CopyPE and OSCDIMG is now shown more cleanly
• To avoid bloating the program directory, the Windows PE image is now mounted to the %TEMP% ($env:TEMP) folder
• A custom title is now used for both the PE generator and the OS installer
• PowerShell is now called without loading any existing profiles in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\WindowsPowerShell, to speed up script launch
• The testing environment portion of the Preinstallation Environment Helper is now loaded without loading profiles
• The output of OSCDIMG has been improved for the Extensibility Suite
• CODE: the indentation of the PE Helper is now consistent
• The computer restart popup of the OS installer has been improved:

• The time taken for the unattended answer file to be applied by the OS installer has been reduced
• Image file information in the ISO creation wizard is now shown in a list view:

Image information dialogs

• You can now filter features and capabilities based on their state by using the state: keyword, followed by the state:

Tip

State filters available to you:

• State filters for features: enabled, disabled, enablepending, or disablepending
• State filters for capabilities: installed, notpresent, or installpending

Unattended answer file features

• For fully unattended installations (including setup), unattended answer files are now named autounattend
• Panels in the disk configuration, user accounts, and wireless configuration pages are now properly resized when you resize the window, and the window can now be resized
• Exit codes for the unattended answer file generator (UnattendGen) are now shown in Hex
• Fixed some XML writer issues for the UnattendGen parser (thanks David Retzloff on the MDL forums for spotting)
• The unattended answer file manager and the application task have received translations
• You can now specify placeholders of the system components to add to your unattended answer file:

Note

• The link at the bottom of the page will open the system component reference from Microsoft online documentation
• You will have to fill in the details for the components and passes you configure
• To continue creating your unattended answer file without configuring additional components, skip this page

• After you have created your unattended answer file using the wizard, you can now open it in the Windows System Image Manager (SIM), or load it in the Editor mode to fill in placeholder passes: