In this tutorial we will show you how to convert ESD to WIM file using Command Prompt. ESD file is a new thing within Windows 10 OS, that Microsoft is pushing out. ESD (Electronic Software Download) files used when installing software upgrades, they are not to be opened manually (unless you’re converting them). Instead, Windows uses them internally during the update process. The problem is that a lot of users using WDS to push out their images. So today we will show you can easily convert ESD to WIM image.

First of all, we’ll figure out what the install.wim and install.esd files are and how they differ.

Install.esd and install.wim are archives containing compressed operating system files, and they can include several Windows editions (Professional, Home, Enterprise etc.). During the installation of Windows, all files are unpacked from the install.wim/esd image to the system drive of the computer.

If you compare the size of the analog files wim and esd, you can notice that the file size with the esd extension is smaller, because it is compressed more strongly (a new type of compression is used – Recovery). This compression type packs the Windows installation files even more and, as a result, the size of the install.esd file becomes less than the install.wim file by 30%.

Microsoft distributes the last upgrades of Windows 10 builds in the install.esd format. In addition, recently in all distributions of Windows 8.1, Windows 10, instead of the install.wim file, install.esd is located.

The inconvenience of using the install.esd file is that Dism refuses to mount this image. Accordingly, in such image it is impossible to inject drivers and updates. Therefore, in this situation, the easiest way is to convert the install.esd file into install.wim and then just work with the install.wim file.

How to Convert .ESD to .WIM File on Windows 10

The first thing you need to do is to open your File Explorer. Go to C: drive and create a folder Win10 and drop all files from Windows 10 ISO image into it.

When you copied all files, go to Sources, find install.esd and make a copy of this file.

Now create another folder on your C: drive – name it ESD. Paste install.esd file into this folder.

The next thing you need to do is to open Command Prompt as Administrator. We need to get into folder we have just created. Type in:

cd c:\esd

Then we need to clear it out:

cls

Each edition of the OS is stored in the file install.esd and has assigned serial number – an index (index 1, 2, 3, 4 ..), which can be viewed using the DISM tool. You can get information about your ESD file using the following command:

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:install.esd

As you can see, in the install.esd archive there is an image of 4 versions of Windows 10 with the indexes: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool

Version: 10.0.16299.15

Details for image : install.esd

Index: 1

Name: Windows 10 Pro

Description: Windows 10 Pro

Size: 15,103,101,178 bytes

Index: 2

Name: Windows 10 Home

Description: Windows 10 Home

Size: 14,917,903,101 bytes

Index: 3

Name: Windows 10 Home Single Language

Description: Windows 10 Home Single Language

Size: 14,917,646,651 bytes

Index: 4

Name: Windows 10 Education

Description: Windows 10 Education

Size: 14,320,369,327 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

Find index number that you need (we are choosing Index 1 because it is a PRO version).

Let’s go ahead and run command:

dism /export-image /SourceImageFile:install.esd /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:install.wim /Compress:max /CheckIntegrity

Image exporting is started and this process can take a long time. Conversion is quite a resource-intensive operation, during which the processor and memory of your computer will be heavily loaded.

Once ESD conversion is completed, you can copy your new WIM image file and then go to Win10 original folder, then to Sources and replace install.esd file.

The resulting install.wim file can be mounted by the DISM utility, and you can use it to create your own Windows assemblies.

That’s it! Hope this was useful for you!

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