Win Toolkit is a program much like RT7Lite that allows the customization of a Windows deployment by adding in different bits and pieces to the install.wim located on a Windows 7 or above installation disk or ISO. Win Toolkit is free and is available here (you will have to register for a free account): http://www.wincert.net/forum/files/file/5-win-toolkit/

In this post I'd like to show how to slipstream Microsoft update installers into the install.wim so that your Windows deployments don't take hours downloading and installing patches after the initial deployment process. For this tutorial you will need Win Toolkit (download link above) and a Windows 7 or above installation disk or ISO. I prefer the ISO as it is easier to work with. I would also recommend following this tutorial from a Windows 7 or 8 computer. If you are running XP or Vista you will need to download the DISM installer and dotNET 3.5 in order for Win Toolkit to work.

The first thing we need to do is get an updated listing of available Microsoft updates. This is done in the Main tab by clicking the Update Catalog button:

Select which OS patch listing you would like to view by selecting the appropriate operating system from the Type drop down menu. In this tutorial I will be downloading updates for Windows 7 x64:

Note: "McRip" is the name of the user from the Win Toolkit community that has offered to host MS patch catalogs on their server.

Recommended and Optional updates will be displayed by their KB number. If you are uncertain of what a particular update is you can search the KB number on TechNet and find more info. Once you have selected the updates you would like to include in your deployment and selected a location for them to be stored, click the Download button on the lower left corner of the UI to initiate the download from Microsoft's file servers. Depending on how many updates were selected, this can take up to a couple of hours before it finishes.

Protip: Right-click on the Name header to select or deselect all patches.

Once the download process is complete, close the Update Catalog window to go back to the main menu. This time we are going to click on the All-In-One Integrator button to modify the Windows 7 deployment.

At this point you will want to extract your Windows 7 ISO file if you have not done so. If using Windows physical installation media, copy the contents to a local disk so that the files can be modified. Now click Browse > Browse for WIM and select the WIM located at ...\sources\install.wim

Note: If the WIM you selected does not have SP1 installed, Win Toolkit will ask if you would like to download a Microsft Refresh ISO of the selected OS type that includes SP1.

Select the OS install that you would like to modify and then click the Select button in the lower right corner of the UI:

Unless you have downloaded a Preset configuration (this tutorial assumes you are new to Win Toolkit and that no preset was downloaded) click Continue (No Preset). Then click the Updates + Languages button to choose which updates to integrate into the source media's installation WIM file. Click the green '+' symbol on the left side of the UI to browse to and select update packages that were downloaded previously.

Note: Some downloaded updates will be in a folder named "Not integratable to Offline image". Patch files in that folder cannot be deployed using the process outlined here.

Once all of the patches you would like to have integrated have been added, click the Start button in the upper right corner of the UI to initiate the rebuild process of the install.wim. Once the process has completed, navigate back to the main menu of Win Toolkit and click the ISO Maker button to compile your modified installation media into an ISO file. Done!

Win Toolkit can also add or remove Windows features to make installation faster and more customized. Feel free to explore the available options and also check out the Win Toolkit community.