Using Full Flash Update (FFU) files to speed up Windows deployment

What if you could have a Windows image (Windows 10/11/Server/LTSC) that has:

• The latest Windows cumulative update
• The latest .NET cumulative update
• The latest Windows Defender Platform and Definition Updates
• The latest version of Microsoft Edge
• The latest version of OneDrive (Per-Machine)
• The latest version of Microsoft 365 Apps/Office
• The latest drivers from any of the major OEMs (Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft) (yes, the latest, not some out of date enterprise CAB file from years ago)
• Winget support so you can integrate any app available from Winget directly in your image
• ARM64 support for the latest Copilot+ PCs
• The ability to bring your own drivers and apps if necessary
• Custom WinRE support

And the best part: it takes less than two minutes to apply the image, even with all of these updates added to the media. After setting Windows up and going through Autopilot or a provisioning package, total elapsed time ~10 minutes (depending on what Intune or your device management tool is deploying).

The Full-Flash update (FFU) process can automatically download the latest release of Windows 11, the updates mentioned above, and creates a USB drive that can be used to quickly reimage a machine.

Updates

2509.1 has been released to preview! This is a major update that brings a new user interface to preview.

Docs are coming, but will take a bit to write them. The youtube video is a must watch for a complete demo on how to use the UI and the changes made to apps (InstallAppsAndSysprep.cmd is gone) and drivers. I'll be recording a more formalized deep dive with slides that go a bit deeper into how things work, but the UI walkthrough should get most people going.

Getting Started

• Download the latest release
• Extract the FFUDevelopment folder from the ZIP file (recommend to C:\FFUDevelopment)
• Watch the Youtube video (updated docs for the UI coming soon)

YouTube Detailed Walkthrough

Here's a detailed overview of the new UI process.

Chapters:

00:00 Begin

01:07 Prereqs

06:32 Demo Begins

07:16 Running the BuildFFUVM_UI.ps1 script

08:15 UI Overview

10:13 Hyper-V Settings

16:04 Windows Settings

22:35 Updates

24:49 Applications

29:39 Install Winget Applications

45:29 Bring Your Own Applications

54:14 Apps Script Variables

57:43 M365 Apps/Office

59:01 Drivers

01:01:22 Drivers.json example

01:02:07 DriverMapping.json explanation

01:06:08 Driver WIM Compression

01:10:50 Build

01:12:41 Build USB Drive

01:20:07 Monitor

01:20:32 Setting up the Demo Build

01:24:10 Save/Load Config Files

01:25:11 Kicking off the Demo Build/Going over the monitor tab

01:32:26 Demoing the new FFU Builder Orchestrator

01:35:25 New captureffu.ps1 console output

01:42:29 Demo Build Complete

01:42:42 How to configure a VM to test your newly built FFU

01:48:58 The moment of truth: What does the new deployment experience look like?

01:53:13 How to bypass OOBE using a provisioning package

01:55:49 Preview Focus Areas

02:04:04 Known Issues/Things to fix before GA

02:05:38 Providing Feedback

02:06:43 Thank you