There may be a case where you need a specific Windows file. Instead of searching for it in third-party sources you can easily extract it from a Windows installation ISO file that you will download from Microsoft.
If you discover that one or more of your Windows system files are missing, your most logical move would be to use DISM & SFC processes which will automatically restore the lost file.
But alternatively, you can find the lost files through the Windows installation ISO images that you will even download from Microsoft itself, so you can be sure that you will not fall victim to a virus. In some cases, extracting the files from ISOs is the only possible solution.
For example, a few days ago I got hold of a Windows 10 laptop that did not have the WinRE.wim recovery file even though the Recovery partition was there. I got the missing file from the install.esd that is on the Windows 10 ISO.
For those interested in how to repair the Recovery Environment on a Windows PC mentioned here.
There are at least two ways to extract files from a Windows 10/11 installation disc or an ISO file. We'll see the trick with 7-zip as the second way with dism requires you to have a wim file and not an esd (you'll see what we mean below).
Before proceeding, remember that ISO files have multiple versions within them, whose images are combined into a single ISO.
So in an ISO of Windows 10 64-bit you can find even 6 or more operating systems, such as Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Home N, Windows 10 Education, Windows 10 Education N, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Pro N. You should know where to download what you want.
Using 7-zip
step 1 : If you don't have 7-zip then download and install it from http://7-zip.org/
step 2 : Download the Windows ISO that you want and double-click the ISO file to extract it to a virtual disk, say E. Enter the Sources folder (E:\sources).
Note: On multiple Windows DVD files, make sure you have access to the correct “Sources” folder that matches your computer's bit (x86 or x64). The paths are “E:\x86\Sources” and “E:\x64\Sources” for 32-bit and 64-bit, respectively.
step 3: In the Sources folder, right-click the file install.wim or install.esd, right-click, select “Open with” and tell it to open with “7-zip File Manager”. Note: In some cases you will see it as wim and in others as esd.
step 4 : Each numbered folder inside install.wim or install.esd represents a Windows Edition.
There are two ways to find the version you want. The simplest is to double-click to open the file [1].xml.
There you can see the list of directories and the corresponding version of Windows that each folder has.
It is not the easiest to read, it takes a little patience and for example, see the details about the Windows 10 Pro image located in folder 5 (Index #5).
∇ INDEX="5"> 29279 105311 15527760723 6009990247 ∇ 0x01DA265E 0x9AD715AB ∇ 0x01DAE44B 0x9B2640A9 0 ∇ 9 Microsoft® Windows® Operating System Professional Client ∇ 0 10.0.19041.3636;2016-01-01T00:00:00Z IMAGE_STATE_GENERALIZE_RESEAL_TO_OOBE WinNT Terminal Server ∇ el-GR en-US el-GR ∇ 10 0 19041 3803 0 vb_release WINDOWSWindows 10 ProWindows 10 Pro Professional Windows 10 Pro Windows 10 Pro
To summarize the contents of the list of versions found in install.wim or install.esd in our example, they are:
1 – Windows 10 Home
2 – Windows 10 Home N
3 – Windows 10 Education
4 – Windows 10 Education N
5 – Windows 10 Pro
6 – Windows 10 Pro N
Alternatively you can see what each folder from 1 to 6 contains by applying them instructions we had given you in 2015 from here (unfortunately someone from our team messed with the photos).
That is, you can open a taskbar with administrator rights and search for information by typing the command:
dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:Ε:\sources\install.wim /index:1
where E is your virtual disk and Index:1 is the first folder. Then put corresponding index:2 to see the 2, and so on.
step 5 : Once you have found the version you are interested in, enter with 7-zip the corresponding number that contains it and copy any file you are missing.
In our example, if you are looking to extract the WinRe.win file for Windows 10 Pro enter the 5 folder and browse to “[5]\Windows\System32\Recovery\Winre.wim”.
When finished close 7-zip and unmount the ISO or eject the disc from the dvd player.
Install.esd vs Install.wim
Some Windows ISOs have install.esd instead of install.wim. ESD is a highly compressed format whose file size is about 80% more compressed compared to WIM file.
However, the ESD image is read-only and thus has drawbacks. For example, it cannot be deployed using a WDS server. Therefore, you need to convert the ESD file to a WIM file to serve the image or develop it.
7-zip can handle ESD as well as WIM. While the DISM command will reject the ESD by reporting an error:
Error : 11 – An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format.
Good Luck.
