[mdt] Delete files from the .wim

[just_david]

Simple as it says really.

 

Is this safe to do?

 

Someone built a deployment on a site we look after and some muppett left half a gig of files in the default users download folder.

 

Que filled hard drives with 6gb of service accounts.

 

Can I just delete the files from the .wim, as all they are is a handful of unused .exe files?

[snagrat]

Yes, as long as the files are not required by the OS

 

Mount, delete, commit and unmount.

[just_david]

Yes, as long as the files are not required by the OS

 

Mount, delete, commit and unmount.

 

Given what these are, exe's for paint.net etcm could i be as lazy as to open the archive with 7zip and delete them?

[snagrat]

Never used 7Zip to do it personally so insure

[3s-gtech]

I don't think you can - while you may be able to browse the contents, you'll struggle to modify it then make it still work afterwards.

[Arthur]

Is this safe to do?

Never tried 7-Zip, but it's easy enough to do using a PowerShell script and at least you would know your image would still work afterwards.

 

#Requires -Version 5.0
#Requires -RunAsAdministrator
#Requires -Modules Dism

# Get script directory
if ($myInvocation.MyCommand.CommandType -ne [system.Management.Automation.CommandTypes]::Script) {
$ScriptDir = [system.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($myInvocation.MyCommand.Definition)
} else {
$ScriptDir = [system.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($psISE.CurrentFile.FullPath)
}
Set-Location "$ScriptDir"

$Image = "$ScriptDir\install.wim"
$MountFolder = "$ScriptDir\Mount"

if (!(Test-Path -path $MountFolder)) {
New-Item -Path $MountFolder -ItemType Directory -Force | Out-Null
}

Mount-WindowsImage -ImagePath $Image -Index 1 -Path $MountFolder

Remove-Item "$ScriptDir\Mount\Users\Default\Downloads\*" -Recurse -Force

Dismount-WindowsImage -Path $MountFolder -Save

 

Note. Place .ps1 script into the same folder as the install.wim and then run. Make a copy of the image just in case though.