The information in this article applies to: 

• Windows 2000 (all flavors except Datacenter Server)

• Windows XP (Home and Professional Editions)

• Windows Server 2003

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Microsoft has apparently changed the slipstreaming process for Windows XP Service Pack 2. If you want to slipstream SP2 into a Windows XP CD-ROM, please make sure to read the new Slipstreaming XP SP2 information below. But be sure to read the rest of the article first, as the instructions for SP2 are quite brief and assume that you are already familiar with many of the processes used in the original article below. 

When you buy a new computer, you usually receive an operating system CD-ROM with it. This allows you to re-install the operating system if you reformat your drive or have a bad system crash. However, Microsoft is almost constantly releasing bug fixes and security patches for Windows that quickly render that OS CD obsolete. Microsoft typically collects "bunches" of these fixes together in "service packs" - which can easily end up being a 50-200MB download. So in an average setting you typically re-install Windows then spend another hour (or more) downloading and installing the latest service pack. This is only a minor hassle if you’re re-installing Windows on one PC with a broadband connection, but a huge pain if you have to load several PCs or even just one with a dial-up connection. 

“Slipsteaming” is a process Microsoft developed that allows you to integrate service packs into your installation media (CD-ROMs). In a previous entry on my Geek Stuff page, I gave you a short introduction to what slipstreaming is but pawned off the actual “how to” bits to other websites. It now seems that those links are dead, but this is a good thing because I’ve developed a much easier way to slipstream a CD.

To slipstream an installation CD you will need the following: 

• WinISO (the full version, you can either pay for it or use a helper monkey)

• Your original Windows 2000, XP or Server 2003 CD-ROM

• A copy of the Service Pack Network Installation (not the smaller "Express Installation")

• CD burning software that supports burning from .ISO or .BIN files

• One (1) blank CD-R or DVD-R disc

• Around 2GB of free disk space (see below)

Summary:

We will use WinISO to create an .ISO file that is an exact duplicate of your original Windows CD. We will then apply the service pack to a copy of the i386 folder from your CD. We will then incorporate the updated i386 folder into the .ISO file and burn the new .ISO file to CD.   

Why?

Windows installation CDs are bootable. Simply copying the contents of the CD to your hard drive and updating the install files won't make the new disc bootable. Doing a "Disc Copy" from your CD burning software will copy the boot sector of the disc, but you won't be able to insert the updated files, which is the whole point of slipstreaming. Most of the online slipstream guides have you copy the entire disc to your hard drive, update the contents, recreate the bootable part of the disc and then burn to CD-R. This is all well and good, but it requires you to extract the boot sector of the disc and tweak 10 different settings in your CD burning software. This is not difficult to do, but it's easy to skip a step or setting that will render your resulting disc unbootable. It also requires me to provide directions for 5 different burning programs. While "my" version requires lots of disk space, it does have the benefit of being very easy for beginners and is agnostic when it comes to which CD burning software you use. 

Step By Step:

1) Install WinISO and prepare at least 2GB of free space on one of your hard drives. You will need this disk space only for the length of this exercise, however it would be a wise idea to retain the slipstreamed ISO file for future use.

2) Open WinISO.

3) Insert your Windows CD into your CD-ROM drive, then click Action > Make ISO from CD-ROM.  Like this:

4) You will be presented with the following screen. Make sure that you select the correct CD-ROM drive and pick a name and destination for your ISO file. You can choose any name you'd like, although I recommend using one such as "2000_pro_original.iso" so you will know that this is the original Windows 2000 CD. Click "Make" when ready:

5) When WinISO is done, make a new folder on your hard drive. This can be any name you'd like, but in this example I will be using the name Slip. Copy the entire i386 folder from the Windows CD-ROM to the new "Slip" folder, so that the path is x:\Slip\i386, where x: is the appropriate drive.

6) Using an unzipping program like WinZip or WinRAR, unzip the service pack. Again, you can extract these files to any location you'd like, but I unzipped them to the E: drive on my PC. If you don't have one of those programs installed, simply open a command-prompt, navigate to the folder where you saved the service pack file and type SERVICEPACKFILENAME -X. A box will appear asking where you'd like to extract the files.

7) Click on Start > Run and type X:\W2KSP4_EN\i386\UPDATE\UPDATE -S:E:\Slip, where X: is the appropriate drive and "W2KSP4" is the folder that contains the unpacked service pack files. What we're looking for is the path to the UPDATE.EXE file in the UPDATE folder, so your path might be different. For instance, your path might be W2KSP3_EN if you're installing Service Pack 3 instead of 4. In any case, the -S switch MUST be applied. Note also that the path after the -S switch is to the folder that contains the i386 folder and not to the i386 folder itself. When you are sure that the path to UPDATE.EXE is correct and the path to your i386 folder is correct, click "OK":

10) Open WinISO and click on File > Open to open the original ISO file you created in steps 2 - 4. 

11) Right-click on the "i386" folder in the ISO file and select "Delete".

12) Using Windows Explorer or My Computer, drag the updated i386 folder to the WinISO file window. 

13) The service pack installer created two new files in step 7 - CDROMSPx.TST and SPNOTES.HTM (where the x in CDROMSPx.TST corresponds to the Service Pack level in your new i386 folder). If you see ANY OTHER files called CDROMSPx.TST or SPNOTES.HTM in your original ISO file, delete them. Drag the two files into the root of the ISO file. To give an example, if you have a Windows 2000 CD-ROM that already has SP 1 integrated, you will have a CDROMSP1.TST file in the root of your original ISO file. Delete this so that the only CDROMSPx.TST file you have in the ISO file is for the service pack you just installed.

14) Once you have deleted the old i386 folder, copied the new i386 folder and any CDROMSPx.TST and SPNOTES.HTM files into the root of the image, click on File > Save As to save the file. Yet again, this can be any name you'd like although I recommend using something like "2000_pro_sp4.iso" so you will know that this is the "new" ISO file: 

15) Once WinISO has done its thing, you're almost done! Now you need only to burn the ISO file to CD. Using Nero, you would click on Recorder > Burn Image and select the 2000_pro_sp4.iso file. Instructions will vary for other burning software. If your burning software only supports burning BIN\CUE images, use the "Convert" menu in WinISO to convert your ISO to a format your software supports.

*    *    *

So now you're done! You have created a slipstreamed CD, so the next time you install Windows using the new disc it will have the service pack you integrated pre-installed. But that's not all - below are some additional tricks that are not necessary to slipstream a CD, but will save time in other ways. Obviously, you will need to read (and implement the changes if you desire) before you burn the new ISO file to CD.

GET THE LATEST SUPPORT AND DEPLOYMENT TOOLS: Microsoft always updates the support and deployment tools from the Windows CD with each service pack. Although only IT professionals typically use these tools, it takes only a couple of extra minutes to integrate them to your updated ISO image. To do this, go to the service pack homepage (here's the one for Windows 2000 SP4) and download the Windows 2000 SPx Support Tools and Windows 2000 SPx Deployment Tools. Unzip both of the downloaded files and copy the SUPPORT.CAB and DEPLOY.CAB files to the Support\Tools folder of your ISO image after deleting the ones that are already there.

DOWNLOAD THE LATEST VERSION OF IE: Microsoft doesn't include any "new features" with service packs - until SP2 for Windows XP anyway - so for a new Windows 2000 installation you will still need to install IE 6 SP1 on the computer. It's always faster to install IE from a CD than online, so go to this page on my site to find out how to download the "full version" of Internet Explorer. Once you've done that, simply copy the IE6 folder to the ISO file. NOTE: I find it handy to download IE for all available versions of Windows, not just the one on the slipstreamed CD. This way if I go to someone's desk that's still using Windows 98 or Windows ME, I can upgrade them off CD instead of online.

GET RID OF THE CD-KEY PROMPT (WINDOWS 2000 ONLY):  If you're slipstreaming Windows 2000, it's easy to tweak the setup process to skip having to enter a CD key. Open the original Windows 2000 ISO file with WinISO and extract the SETUPP.INI file from the i386 folder. Open it with a text editor like Notepad and change the PID value so that the last three digits are 270:

Original:

[Pid]
ExtraData=706B71676A7775627361F5CA69D138
Pid=51883000
 

Hacked:

[Pid]
ExtraData=706B71676A7775627361F5CA69D138
Pid=51883270

All you need to do at this point is save the changes, open the slipstreamed ISO file, delete the original SETUPP.INI file and replace it with your altered one. You can now install Windows 2000 without a CD key!

This tweak sort of works in Windows XP too. Instead of getting rid of the CD key prompt, hacking the PID value will change the behavior of the disc and what types of product keys setup will accept. In the list below, the first FIVE digits of the PID value tell SETUP which version of the disc you have. The last THREE tell setup which type of license keys to accept. These values are interchangeable. The first value is important because some versions of the XP CD-ROM - such as OEM versions - are made for full-installs only and will not allow you to upgrade from a previous OS like Win98. So if you have an OEM CD and OEM license key but want the CD-ROM to act like the full retail version, change the PID to 51882OEM. If you have an OEM version of the disc but only a retail key, change PID to either 82503335 (for an OEM disc that will accept retail keys) or 51882335 (for a retail disc that will accept retail keys).

Retail = 51882 335
Volume License = 51883 270
OEM = 82503 OEM

This hack is provided for convenience's sake only. 
You are still responsible for obtaining all necessary licenses for your Microsoft products!

Update!

A reader from Ars Technica emailed me to ask if there's any way to incorporate hotfixes or Windows Updates into the CDs. My short answer: "Maybe, but it's above my pay grade!"

I don't know of any easy way to add hotfixes or Windows Updates to the installation media, but someone might know. I seem to recall a method where you create folders within the i386 directory named after the KB article (i.e. x:\i386\Q12345) and then incorporate them by running the Hotfix there. But in my opinion, an easier thing to do in this case would be to use disk-imaging software like Symantec's Ghost along with Microsoft's Sysprep utility. What you would need to do is set up a test system with all the hotfixes and Windows Updates you require (and all other software like Office or Acrobat Reader, if desired) then run Sysprep to remove all identifying information from the Windows installation such as the machine name, IP address configuration and SID. You can then make a Ghost image of the hard drive and image it to as many PCs as you need. When you first boot the imaged machines you will then run what MS calls "mini-setup" - a short process that will ask you for machine name, IP configuration and product key. Mini-setup will then reboot the computer and the PC will be ready to use. Keep in mind however that Sysprep only works on similar machines - you can't install 2000 or XP on a dual-processor Pentium 4 box and then image it to an old single processor Pentium II box and expect it work - without a lot more tweaking, of course. 

Sysprep is available on Windows 2000 and XP CDs in the DEPLOY.CAB file in the Support\Tools folder.

Slipstreaming XP SP2

Microsoft has apparently changed the slipstreaming process slightly for Service Pack 2 (SP2). I have not had any success slipstreaming SP2 using the method I developed above, although my version apparently still works with Windows XP SP1 and all flavors of Windows 2000. So if you want to slipstream SP2 for Windows XP, be sure to use the following alternate method instead.

• Your original Windows XP CD-ROM

• A copy of the Service Pack Network Installation, not the "Express Installation"

• ISOBuster (Shareware, but the free functionality will work)

• Nero Burning ROM (other burning apps may work, but instructions will be provided for Nero only)

• One (1) blank CD-R or DVD-R disc

• Around 1GB of free disk space

One Quick Note: The downloadable "network installation" of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP has the filename WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe and the version distributed on SP2 CD-ROM is simply called xpsp2.exe.  For convenience's sake, I will be using XPSP2.EXE in these directions.  However, note that as far as these directions go, they are completely interchangeable.

1) Download and install ISOBuster, accepting all default options.

2) Download the "Network Installation" of Service Pack 2. You may save it any location, but I will be using e:\sp2 in this example.

3) Create a new folder on a drive with lots of spare space; I'll be using e:\xp in this example. Copy the contents of your entire Windows XP CD-ROM to this folder.

4) Click on Start > Run and use the "Browse" button to locate the XPSP2.EXE file, which should be located in the e:\sp2 folder. DO NOT CLICK THE "OK" BUTTON YET! Add the following to the path: /integrate:e:\xp so that the full path looks like this:

e:\sp2\xpsp2.exe /integrate:e:\xp 

When you are sure the paths to both the XPSP2 executable and the XP installation files are correct, click the "OK" button. You should see the same windows shown in steps 8 and 9 in the "original" slipstream instructions above.

5) When the slipstream is complete, put your XP CD-ROM in the drive (if it's not there already) and start ISOBuster. (If you have more than one optical drive in your system, make sure that the correct drive has been selected using the drop-down box on the left-hand side of the screen!) On the left-hand side of the ISOBuster window, select the node of the CD named "Bootable CD". You will see a file called Microsoft Corporation.img.Right-click on the IMG file and choose "Extract Microsoft Corporation.img". Choose a location to save the file. Lastly, note the "Volume Name" of the CD-ROM - usually something like WXPVOL_EN or WXPFPP_EN  - and then close ISOBuster.

6) Open Nero Burning Rom and select New -> CD-ROM (Boot) from the options screen. Click on the "Boot" tab and make sure that the screen looks exactly like this:

Note that you will need to click the "Browse" button and locate the Microsoft Corporation.img file you extracted in step 5, so the path might be different from what's shown above.  However, you will need to be absolutely sure that the rest of the dialog box looks exactly the same as what's shown above, or else your new CD won't boot!

8) Click the "New" button. In the file browser window that appears, drag-and-drop the contents of the updated XP folder to the CD layout.

9) Burn the new CD. For best results, test on a spare computer or virtual machine before using in the field.