Dissecting the "New" Windows 8.1 GA ISO

[FaiKee]

Some guys thought that the "new" win8.1 ISO's released by MS on GA is a new compilation to replace RTM build 9600.16384, some refer it as RTM-2. And most people, already installed 9600.16384 and added RollupA updates, tended to reformat and fresh install with the new ISO's, thinking that it is something new and different.

I have downloaded the win8.1Pro X86 GA edition, let's see what's in it:

First I extracted install.esd to a new drive, by going thru installation(in a VM) and kill the process after expanding files, all this time web connection was disabled so nothing to affect it. Windows\explorer.exe reported 9600.16408, and system32\ntoskrnl.exe reported 9600.16404



Now, when installation is completed, open Control Panel ->Windows Update -> Installed Updates




Since there is no restore point, the 4 updates could not be un-installed, I am quite sure if it could be done, it would simply roll back to nothing but build 9600.16384, nothing more, nothing less.


Any comments?  :)

 

 

[code65536]

Would've been more interesting if you had done this:

 

1) Slipstream all the public-released hotfixes into a RTM ISO, installed it, went into sysprep audit mode to do a dism cleanup with /rebase and then recaptured the image.

 

2) Installed the GA ISO and then recaptured the image.

 

3) Diff the two images.

 

Best way to do #3 is to use HashCheck to create .md5 files of all the files inside the two images and then WinDiff'ed the two .md5 files.

[FaiKee]

Would've been more interesting if you had done this:

 

1) Slipstream all the public-released hotfixes into a RTM ISO, installed it, went into sysprep audit mode to do a dism cleanup with /rebase and then recaptured the image.

 

2) Installed the GA ISO and then recaptured the image.

 

3) Diff the two images.

 

Best way to do #3 is to use HashCheck to create .md5 files of all the files inside the two images and then WinDiff'ed the two .md5 files.

I guess we don't have to go thru this trouble, there were people saying that the GA release is a "windows 8.1 new final version". By showing that the GA rollup are actually treated as "installed updates" in control panel, it is evident that it is not the case.

 

An update could only be installed on one build, namely, the RTM(or final version), and RollupA could only be installed on build 9600.16384 - if control panel didn't show any installed updates, then we can say the GA release is a final version, but since it is not the case, that means the GA release is actually build 9600.16384 plus RollupA updates. :)

[Raa]

So this is the current ISO from Technet/MSDN?

[FaiKee]

So this is the current ISO from Technet/MSDN?

Yup, downloaded thru setupbox, if you have it, you could check it out yourself with the DISM command : DISM /Online /Get-Packages

:)

 

[Raa]

Awesome, i'll update my ISOs from Technet. I still have the RTM ones.