Installing Windows via CMD

This article describes an alternative method for installing modern versions of Windows that is faster, does not require an internet connection, and does not impose any services on you.

The entire process consists of the following stages:

1. Booting from installation media
2. Manual disk partitioning
3. Applying the WIM image
4. Installing the bootloader
5. Modifying the registry
6. First reboot
7. Launching system deployment
8. Creating a user
9. Additional registry work and two more reboots
10. Installation complete

Stage 1: System Installation

Opening the Command Prompt

Press the key combination Shift+F10 to open CMD during the installation process.

Disk Partitioning

You need to create two partitions:

• EFI partition: 512 MB, formatted as FAT32, assigned drive letter W
• Main partition: all remaining space, NTFS, assigned drive letter C

Diskpart commands:

select disk 0
convert gpt
create partition efi size=512
format quick fs=fat32
assign letter W
create partition primary
format quick
assign letter C

Applying the WIM Image

First, determine the available editions:

dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:D:\sources\install.wim

Then apply the image:

dism /apply-image /imagefile:D:\sources\install.wim /index:4 /applydir:C:\

Installing the Bootloader

bcdboot C:\Windows /s W:

Registry Configuration

reg load HKLM\mount_SYSTEM C:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM
reg add HKLM\mount_SYSTEM\Setup /v CmdLine /d "cmd.exe" /t REG_SZ /f

Parameters of the reg add command:

• /v — registry value name
• /d — data to place in the value
• /t — data type (REG_SZ for strings, REG_DWORD for numbers)
• /f — force change without confirmation prompt

Reboot:

wpeutil reboot

Stage 2: First Reboot

After rebooting, the system enters "setup mode" where only CMD is launched.

System Deployment

oobe\windeploy

Creating a User

net user /add uzver $tr0ng_p@$$
net localgroup Users /add uzver
net localgroup Administrators /add uzver

Disabling OOBE

move wwahost.exe wwahost.exe.bak

Waiting for windeploy to Finish

Check status:

tasklist | find "windeploy"

Final Registry Configuration

reg query HKLM\SYSTEM\Setup /t REG_DWORD

Set all DWORD values to 0 (except SetupType):

reg add HKLM\System\Setup /v <value> /d 0 /t REG_DWORD /f

Re-set cmd.exe as the installer:

reg add HKLM\System\Setup /v CmdLine /d "cmd.exe"

Reboot:

shutdown -r -t 0

Stage 3: Second Reboot

After the second reboot, run one more restart:

shutdown -r -t 0

After this, the system boots with the graphical login interface.

Screenshots of the Installed System

Conclusion

This method requires even fewer actions and less time than a normal installation and can be automated through batch files without the need to learn the unattend.xml syntax.