How to make a Windows 7 SP1 Convenience Rollup ISO with all updates up to 2016

Yeah, thanx guys. I've got to focus on the possibility of getting into respiratory care. Need to study a lot of hospital protocols so I can have a shot of getting hired.

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Audioaficionado said:

Yeah, thanx guys. I've got to focus on the possibility of getting into respiratory care. Need to study a lot of hospital protocols so I can have a shot of getting hired.

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A labor of love? Or desperation?

It beats housekeeping for $15k/yr and it's what I have a degree in and owe the Fed loan almost $80k for. I'm looking forward to finally doing what I worked so hard for.

Audioaficionado said:

It beats housekeeping for $15k/yr and it's what I have a degree in and owe the Fed loan almost $80k for. I'm looking forward to finally doing what I worked so hard for.

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Sorry for the misunderstanding, I was referring to your expression of thanks to the three of us working on this project. We have undertaken this as much out of desperation as from a passion for technology challenges. We had to come up with a way of reliably being able to install Windows 7 updates since we need to deploy Windows 7 machines.

Your respiratory care plans are noble ones. I am retired from healthcare as a chaplain and a lot of my respected work buddies did what you are planning to do.

Okay, I'm glad I decided to try this build process on a Windows 7 machine. At the same time I also decided to make a Home Premium build instead of Pro as I had been doing. I discovered in the process that the DOS syntax did not like "HOME PREMIUM" but wanted "HOMEPREMIUM" (one word) instead. I also spruced up some things and here is what I consider to be my final product (barring input to the contrary from c6 and TW).

All links seem to work now (in Word, anyway).

You might want to add this to your ISO: Servicing stack update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1: September 20, 2016

Woe, what is that!?!

They "discovered" we made an ISO that finally works and soon Windows 7 Update will no longer work unless this *just* released brand new Servicing Stack Update is installed
Touche, Microsoft.


Yes, we definitely need to test this and include it in there before any article is published... and before they legitimately turn off Windows 7 Updates to brand new installations without it... certainly there was a lot of talk that previous Servicing Stack Updates were "the" reason original Windows 7 .isos did not work as new installations... but that doesn't matter any more. As long as it doesn't break what we know works, it should be in there to make sure a future change doesn't switch off Updates to new installations just like we know Microsoft did until a certain rollup (we don't exactly know which one) between May and August 2016 made it possible to install Windows 7 with a working Windows Update.

Thank you satrow for linking to that.


The BIG question is what happens to April 2015 servicing stack update!?!
What do we do with that, keep it in and add September 2016 servicing stack update on top of it!? Or instead of it?
They told us, April 2015 servicing stack update was a *must install* or else Updates would not work. We now know that in addition, a certain Rollup was a *must* too.

I don't know, instinctively, I would put that September 2016 servicing stack update in addition, and not instead of April 2015 servicing stack update. Need opinions, and ultimately a test with September 2016 servicing stack update included in the .iso.

It might just be a patch to ensure we get the upcoming rollups foisted on us?

Turn off your Windows 7 auto-updates and only manually update your machine *after* drive imaging your OS partition.

I had been doing that in Windows 98, I am doing that in Windows 10.
M.2 drives are a quantum leap in hard drive technology. Time to reimage my operating partition is now measured in seconds, not minutes or hours .


But there are many additional things we can talk about here.
The big picture of this thread is: do you in your hand hold a disc (or a USB) that can install a Windows 7 with a working Windows 7 update?
That is what instructions in post#1 accomplish.
(Most or all other .isos install Windows 7 with a broken Windows 7 Update.)

Once you have an .iso in your hands that installs a working Windows 7 - what happens after that, you control through your operating system partition drive imaging.

The big picture of this thread is: do you in your hand hold a disc (or a USB) that can install a Windows 7 with a working Windows 7 update?
That is what instructions in post#1 accomplish.

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This really is a big deal. It also points out the lack of effort on the part of M$ to deal with this. I have to wonder what they're really trying to do with the updater. There is obviously a solution at the consumer level, so why can't Nadella's Ninjas figure it out??? I think there is an underlying issue that they certainly aren't sharing with us. My first suspicion is M$ is trying to do to W7 updates what they've done with W10, mandatory with no selectivity.

I can tell you this for certain. If your automatic updates are turned off and you have Windows Update set to only search for and not download or install updates then the updater as we fixed it via the build instructions in this thread is not broken. Updater still worked as of last night, 9/24/2016. That post dates the September Servicing Stack update Satro speaks of by four days. I tried it personally at lest twice yesterday.

However, I echo your admonition c6, in the previous post, to turn off automatic updates from now on. I can't say for sure this is necessary but I can say for sure it was necessary with XP after some figured out how to fix that Windows version broken updater. If you turned automatic updates back on you broke it again.

If Microsoft is going to break our fix with every servicing stack update you can be I'm not going to keep playing that game on any computer I am running Windows 7 on. I'll keep auto updating turned off. It will be an issue, however, for those who go to use our tool in the future to build Win 7 machines. So perhaps the instructions need to be amended to make it easy for those using them to easily add subsequent servicing stack updates.

I never leave updates on automatic. I always set it to notify but not download or install.

Currently it matters not a jot about that Servicing stack, I'm guessing it's hanging out there in readiness for the upcoming WU changes.

Well, I have some more information. After thinking about it all I realized that yesterday I manually downloaded every single new Win 7 update onto the machine I had built using our slipstream build - optional updates, driver updates, everything. I looked at the list of installed updates and the September Servicing Stack Update (kb3177467) is at the top of the list. The good news is that the updater is not broken, at lest when configured for manual updates. If I tell it to search it does not sit there and grind slowly away without finding anything. It really searches and after just a few minutes says, "Your computer is up to date."

If it still works when the October updates come out that will be another good sign. And if October's updates break it again then we may have a clearer idea of what kind of update breaks it.

There's no end to this that I can see. To have any certainty about what we are accomplishing with the slipstream build instructions for those not already having used it to make a build we would have to rebuild it and test it every time Microsoft comes out with a new Servicing Stack Update for Windows 7.

In the dream world of my imagination, if Microsoft were sincere in helping their customers solve this issue, they would offer for download their own updated slipstream ISOs on a regular basis.

Yes. But last time they came out with one of these was April 2015. So a year and a half ago. Then to this day they were saying no updates work without that April 2015 service stack. I think it's important we include this new September 2016 version and it ends there for another year and a half.

I mean the while thing goes dark just over 3 years from now. There may be just one more around April of 2018...

By including "it" you mean the September Service Stack update? If they only come up with them that infrequently then I can agree with that.

You were also wondering if omitting the April SS update but including the September one would give a viable slipstream, weren't you?

Yes, but I say we include it.
Test the iso with it in there and if it works, then that's it.
It may make the .iso future proof or at least prolong how long it works by a year and a half at least.
I think it's a smart thing to do.
But it absolutely ends there.

The April 2015 was important enough for them to mentioning it frequently.

There may be one more time we do this midway to the 2020 expiration date.
Not counting the 2020 being the final .iso for anyone wanting to run an OS that is no longer updated.

I ran house computers that I stopped updating at WinXP SP2 because SP3 made them slower (back in the day).
People might want to run old devices with their Windows 7 licenses...

I really think this should work and should be added.
Of course somebody needs to run it at least once.


6b.

• September 2016 servicing stack update for Windows 7 would be recommended for future updates:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3177467

Copy to C:\updates\
either
• 64-Bit September 2016 Servicing Stack Update for Windows 7 file:
Windows6.1-KB3177467-x64.msu
or
• 32-Bit September 2016 Servicing Stack Update for Windows 7 file:
Windows6.1-KB3177467-x86.msu


Integrate September 2016 Servicing Stack Update:
Dism /Image:C:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3177467-x64.msu
Change name of .msu file if you are integrating a 32-bit / different version file:
Dism /Image:C:\Win7SP1ISO\offline /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\updates\Windows6.1-KB3177467-x86.msu