Install the Windows 8.1 Update for OEMs

Article
12/10/2014

Applies To: Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2

Update your existing Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM images to Windows 8.1 Update by installing the Windows Updates listed in KB2919442 and KB2919355. These update files include a rollup of all of the updates released between Windows 8.1 RTM and Windows 8.1 Update.

These instructions work for Windows Server 2012 R2 too: just change Windows 8.1 to Windows Server 2012 R2 as needed.

Important

Note: In this release, you can't just add the Windows 8.1 Update packages into an unattended setup answer file - you must update the entire image before installing it.

Start with your customized image

Start with your existing customized Windows image with Windows 8.1 RTM.
Consider adding language packs before you add the Windows 8.1 Update updates – it may save you time later. To learn more, see the notes at the end of this topic and Add Language Pack Updates for the Windows 8.1 Update.

Download the Windows 8.1 Update packages

Get the KB2919442 update, and on the KB2919355 page, get all of the update packs: KB2919355, KB2932046, KB2934018, KB2937592, KB2938439, and KB2959977.
- 64-bit versions of Windows 8.1: KB2919442 and KB2919355.
- 32-bit versions of Windows 8.1: KB2919442 and KB2919355.
- Windows Server 2012 R2: KB2919442 and KB2919355.

Update your images

Click Start, and type deployment. Right-click Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment and then select Run as administrator.

Create a mount directory for your Windows image (install.wim), and then mount the image.

md C:\mount\Windows

Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:"C:\Images\install.wim" /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\mount\Windows

Update your Windows images with the Windows 8.1 Update .MSU files, in this order: KB2919442, KB2919355, KB2932046, KB2934018, KB2937592, KB2938439, and KB2959977. Example:

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2919442-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\Windows /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2919355-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\Windows /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2932046-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\Windows /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2934018-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\Windows /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2937592-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\Windows /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2938439-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\Windows /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2959977-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\Windows /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Update the Windows RE image

Create a mount directory for your Windows RE image (winre.wim), and then mount the image.

Md C:\mount\WinRE

Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:"C:\mount\Windows\Windows\System32\Recovery\winre.wim" /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\mount\WinRE

Update your Windows RE images with the Windows 8.1 Update .MSU files. These are the same MSU files used to update the Windows images, and they should be updated in the same order.

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2919442-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2919355-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2932046-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2934018-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2937592-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2938439-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2959977-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Recommended: Clean up the Windows RE image. Use /StartComponentCleanup to clean up the superseded components and reduce the size of the component store. Use /ResetBase to reset the base of superseded components, which can further reduce the component store size. To see the file size reduction, you'll need to either recapture or export the image.
```
Dism /Cleanup-Image /Image:C:\mount\WinRE /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
```

Unmount the Windows RE image.

Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\mount\WinRE /Commit

Recommended: Export the image. After cleaning the image with Dism /Cleanup-Image, you'll need to either recapture the image or export it into a new file to see the reduction in file size.
```
Dism /Export-Image /SourceImageFile:C:\mount\Windows\Windows\System32\Recovery\winre.wim /SourceIndex:1 /DestinationImageFile:C:\Images\winre_updated.wim
```
Replace the winre.wim file in the Windows image with the newly-exported image.
```
Del C:\mount\Windows\Windows\System32\Recovery\winre.wim
copy C:\Images\winre_updated.wim C:\mount\Windows\Windows\System32\Recovery\winre.wim
```
Recommended: keep a copy of this updated Windows RE image file, because this file can be useful for other deployment methods, for example, creating quick versions of WIMBoot images.

Unmount the Windows image.

Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\mount\Windows /Commit

Recommended: Boot the image to complete the update process, and then clean up the image

Create Windows PE 5.1 bootable media: see Update WinPE 5.0 to WinPE 5.1.
Boot a reference PC to Windows PE 5.1, apply the updated Windows image, and boot the PC. For more info, see Samples: Applying Windows, System, and Recovery Partitions by using a Deployment Script.
Press CTRL+SHIFT+F3 at the OOBE screens to enter audit mode.
Clean up the Windows image. Open a command prompt window, and type this:
```
Dism /Cleanup-Image /Online /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
```

Note

You won't be able to clean up your Windows image until after you've booted it.

Use Sysprep to generalize and shut down the PC.

C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep /generalize /shutdown /oobe

Boot the PC to Windows PE 5.1. If the PC starts rebooting to Windows, you'll need to let it finish booting and then use Sysprep to generalize and shut down the PC again.
Create a temporary scratch directory for DISM on a physical drive, rather than the default Windows PE virtual drive, to avoid issues related to short file names. To prevent capturing the DISM logs in your image, choose a location that’s in your DISM Exclusion list, for example, inside C:\Recycler. For more info, see DISM Configuration List and WimScript.ini Files.
```
md C:\Recycler\Scratch
```
Recapture the Windows image. This captures the applied updates and removes any files that were marked as superseded during DISM /Cleanup-Image. Save the file to a location on a USB drive or a network (example: N:\Images), and give the image a name (example: "Enterprise_x64 with 8.1 Updates").
```
DISM /Capture-Image /ImageFile:"N:\Images\install_updated.wim" /CaptureDir:C: /Name: "Enterprise_x64 with 8.1 Updates" /ScratchDir:C:\Recycler\Scratch
```

Update Windows Setup bootable media

Copy your bootable media (DVDs or other bootable media for Windows Setup, Windows Deployment Services (WDS), or System Center) to a writable folder on your PC.
```
Xcopy D:\ C:\InstallMedia /s /h
```

Mount the file: sources\boot.wim.

md C:\mount\boot

Dism /Mount-Image /ImageFile:"C:\InstallMedia\sources\boot.wim" /Index:1 /MountDir:C:\mount\boot

Add the Windows 8.1 Update packages.

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2919442-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\boot /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2919355-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\boot /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2932046-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\boot /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2934018-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\boot /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2937592-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\boot /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2938439-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\boot /LogPath:AddPackage.log

Dism /Add-Package /PackagePath:C:\MSU\Windows8.1-KB2959977-x64.msu /Image:C:\mount\boot /LogPath:AddPackage.log

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the mounted image root folder and sort the list of files by Date modified. Copy everything that’s been recently modified (setup.exe, locale.nls, setupplatform.dll, setupplatform.exe, reagent.dll, and anything else that looks recently modified) to the root of the install media.

Unmount the boot.wim file.

Dism /Unmount-Image /MountDir:C:\mount\boot /Commit

Create bootable media (DVDs or other bootable media for Windows Setup, Windows Deployment Services (WDS), or System Center) using the files. To learn more, see Windows Setup Technical Reference.

Adding languages after adding Windows 8.1 Update

If you add language packs after installing Windows 8.1 Update, you'll need to add the language resources for Windows 8.1 Update as well. Otherwise, the Windows user experience might not be correctly localized, and users will be prompted to download the language resources for Windows 8.1 Update from Windows Update.

To add the language resources, you can do either of the following:
- Add the Windows 8.1 RTM language pack and then re-apply the entire set of update packages, either using the offline procedures in this topic, or through audit mode. If your PC has limited hard drive space, audit mode may not work – you may need to add the packages offline and perform all cleanup steps, as described earlier in this topic.
  
  - or -
- To save time, OEMs can add the Windows 8.1 RTM language pack, and then install the corresponding language pack update for Windows 8.1 Update. The language pack updates include only the language-specific resources for Windows 8.1 Update. These language pack updates are significantly faster to install than the full MSU update package. You can add these language pack updates using either an online or an offline update. For more info, see Add Language Pack Updates for the Windows 8.1 Update.