What Is Deployment Image Servicing and Management? (Standard 8)

  • Article

7/8/2014

Review the benefits, uses and limitations of Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) in Windows Embedded 8 Standard (Standard 8).

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is a command-line tool that can be used to service a Windows Embedded 8 Standard (Standard 8) image or to prepare a Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 4.0 image.

Benefits

In Standard 8, you can use DISM to do the following:

  • Add, remove, and enumerate embedded modules.
  • Add, remove, and enumerate CBS packages.
  • Add, remove, and enumerate drivers.
  • Enable or disable Standard 8 features.
  • Apply changes based on the offlineServicing section of an Unattend.xml configuration file.
  • Configure international settings.
  • Prepare a Standard 8 image.
  • Troubleshoot more effectively with better log files.
  • Service all platforms (32-bit, 64-bit).
  • Service a 32-bit image from a 64-bit host, and service a 64-bit image from a 32-bit host. For more information, see the "Limitations" section later in this topic.

Common Servicing and Management Scenarios

Image servicing and management solutions fall into the following two main categories:

  • Managing the data or information included in the Standard 8 image, such as enumerating or taking an inventory of the components, updates, drivers, or applications in an image.
  • Servicing the image itself, including adding or removing driver packages and drivers, modifying language settings, and enabling or disabling Standard 8 features.

The following table outlines the common scenarios for servicing and management.

Task

Management

Servicing

List all images within a .wim file.

X

 

Prepare a Windows PE 4.0 image.

 

X

List information about a Standard 8 image.

X

 

List specific information about a mounted image, including where it is mounted, the index of each image in a .wim file, and the mount status.

X

 

List all drivers in an image, or information about a specific driver.

X

 

Add an out-of-box or boot-critical driver to support new hardware.

 

X

Add operating system updates such as hotfixes and Standard 8 features.

 

X

Add or remove a language pack, and configure international settings.

 

X

List all international settings and languages in an image.

X

 

Troubleshooting through integrated status and logging.

X

X

List all features in a CBS package or specific information about a Standard 8 feature.

X

 

Apply settings in an Unattend.xml configuration file.

 

X

Limitations

  • Installing CBS packages to a remote computer over a network is not supported. The Standard 8 image must be present on the local system. DISM can access CBS packages on a network share but it must copy them to a temporary, writable scratch directory. We recommend using a unique scratch directory on a local drive for each CBS package you install. The contents of the scratch directory can be deleted after installation.
  • When you specify a configuration file (Unattend.xml) for an image, only the settings specified in the offlineServicing configuration pass are applied. All other settings in the configuration file are ignored. For more information, see Unattended Servicing Command-Line Options.
  • DISM can install only .cab files, .emd files, .msu files, and .inf files.
  • Some CBS packages require other CBS packages to be installed first. Because of this dependency, you should use a configuration file if you are installing multiple CBS packages. By applying a configuration file by using DISM, multiple CBS packages can be installed in the correct order. This is the preferred method for installing multiple CBS packages.
  • CBS packages are installed in the order they are listed in the command line.
  • The commands and options available for servicing an image depend on which Standard 8 operating system you are servicing, and whether it is an offline image or a currently running operating system.
  • You can specify more than one module, driver, or CBS package on a command line. However, multiple Unattend.xml configuration files are not supported. Only a single configuration file can be specified on any command line.
  • You can specify multiple modules, drivers or CBS packages but you cannot specify multiple commands (such as /Add-Driver /Remove-Driver or /Add-Driver /Add-Package) on the same command line.
  • When you use a computer that is not joined to a network domain, you must use net use with domain credentials to set access permissions before you specify the path for the DISM log stored on the network share.
  • Wildcards are not supported in DISM command line operations.
  • Files or directories copied to a target device when adding a custom module through DISM may be hidden. In order to see these files, the user should change the system attribute to display system and hidden files.

Unattended Installation Configuration File

When a configuration file is applied by using DISM, the updates that are specified in the configuration file are implemented on the Windows image or the running operating system. You can configure default Windows settings, add drivers, CBS packages, software updates, and other applications by using the settings in a configuration file.

ImageX

ImageX is a command-line tool that can be used to mount an image, or to apply an image to a drive so that it can be modified with the DISM command-line utility. After the image is modified, you can use ImageX to capture the image, append the image to a Windows image (WIM) file, or export the image as a separate file. If you do not have to capture, append, or export the image after you modify it, you should use DISM to mount the image instead of using ImageX. For more information, see ImageX Technical Reference.

See Also

Concepts

How Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) Works
Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) Command-Line Options

Other Resources

Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) Technical Reference