Keep your Windows 7 ISO up to date by slipstreaming rollups

Post date: Oct 01, 2017 11:18:47 PM

Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 was released way back in February 2011, and yet, is still a popular and reliable operating system. Sadly, if your doing a fresh install of Windows 7 today, there will be hundreds of updates required, and, the process is very slow and painful. In some cases, I myself have experienced long delays during "check for updates" while Microsoft's servers attempt to calculate what is needed to bring your PC forward 6 years into the future! Finally, I decided to dig deep into the world of "slipstreaming" of windows updates and follow the advise provided by Microsoft at Microsoft Technet. There are a few articles on the internet that cover slipstreaming fundamentals, however, this article is more about how to get started. When I first looked into the subject of "slipstreaming" a few years ago, and again in early 2016, things were not so clear to me in relation to what packages to include. Today, however, things are crystal clear due to simplifications made at Microsoft and the introduction of the rollup model. If your interested, read the following article from Microsoft in relation to this new model: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/windowsitpro/2016/08/15/further-simplifying-servicing-model-for-windows-7-and-windows-8-1/

In laymans terms, Microsoft has provided a special Convienience Rollup update (for several versions of Windows) that rolls up approximately 5 years worth of updates. When you dig into the finer details, you will find that Microsoft was very selective about what it includes in that rollup to avoid any compatibility problems. The rollup was made available in May 2016.

The other thing that Microsoft did was to provide a Monthly Rollup from October 2016 onwards that includes security and reliability fixes. This means that the latest Monthly Rollup will always include all essential updates since the Convienience Rollup released in May 2016. Prior to these 2 significant changes, Microsoft were providing non cumulative monthly updates in the form of a monthly ISO image. These are no longer being offered in light of the new streamlined approach. The Microsoft Update Catalog is now the source for offline updates.

The whole process now is pretty streamlined. This is my checklist:

• 1. obtain the latest copy of Windows 7 SP1 in ISO format

  2. (the latest Windows 7 ISO includes the installation hotfix described in KB Article 2534111)

  3. obtain KB3020369 (a prerequisite for KB3125574)

  4. obtain KB3125574 (the Convienience Rollup released in May 2016)

  5. obtain the latest Monthly Rollup. KB4022719 - June 2017

  6. download and install AIK/ADK ( does not have to be a windows 7 PC, Windows 10 works fine)

  7. run commands/scripts to slipstream the updates

  8. run AIK command to re-create ISO

Detailed manual steps to creating a fully patched ISO image can be found here

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/36016.windows-7-creating-fully-patched-image-by-slipstream-in-the-convenience-rollup-and-quality-rollup.aspx

Steps 1 through 5 are essential to getting started, and, should be viewed as a one off task to building your ISO.To help you with Steps 6 and 7, I have put together some scripts, given that a new Monthly update will be available each month, and, it's nice to be able to create a revised ISO each month.

The scripts are available from my GitHub repository at the following location:

https://github.com/m-parisi/slipstreaming

I will endeavor to keep these scripts updated in line with new updates being released.