24H2_esd2iso
1.0.3
24H2_esd2iso is a utility to automate the creation of Windows 11 ARM 24H2 installation ISOs for use with VMware Fusion on on Apple Silicon Macs. This utility uses command line tools found in VMware Fusion 13.5 and later to download an ESD file from Microsoft and create the installation ISO.
Note
VMware Fusion 13.6.1 fixed issues relating to the download of Windows 11 24H2 and proper creation of the ISO when using the "Get Windows from Microsoft" feature. This utility is no longer required as a workaround for problems found in VMware Fusion 13.6.0 and earlier. It remains available for those of you that want to automate the steps needed to download Windows 11 24H2 ARM ISOs from the macOS Terminal app (UNIX shell).
Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 13 or later.
VMware Fusion 13.5 or later must be installed and located at /Applications/VMware Fusion.app.
Download this project from GitHub: https://github.com/Technogeezer50/24H2_esd2iso. The latest released version can be found in the "Releases" section on the right hand side of the project page. You can download either the .zip or .tar.gz format file.
Extract the downloaded file.
Move or copy the file 24H2_esd2iso to a location of your choice (preferably an empty folder where you will build your ISO)
Open the macOS Terminal app, and cd to the empty folder.
Change permissions on 24H2_esd2iso to make it executable (it does not require root permissions).
Run 24H2_esd2iso and follow all prompte.
24H2_esd2iso attempts to clean up after itself. In the event that a download of the ESD from Microsoft should fail (and their servers have been a bit flaky lately), you should remove the partially downloaded ESD file if it exists before rerunning the command.
Sorry, but there's no "restart interrupted network transfers from the point of failure" available for 24H2_esd2iso. If the transfer doesn't complete, you'll need to wait for the entire ESD file to download again. Trying to keep things simple and not require open source utilities (such as aria2) means that the restart capability isn't available.
Both have some similar heritage (and needs for their existence). The big differences are:
24H2_esd2iso only requires the installation of VMware Fusion. w11arm_esd2iso requires several open source utilities to be installed.
24h2_esd2iso injects the VMware vmxnet3 virtual network driver into the Windows installation ISO (which makes it easier to go through the Windows OOBE setup as a network will be found). w11arm_esd2iso does not install any of the VMware drivers, so network drivers must be installed manually during the Windows Setup process.
24H2_esd2iso only works on Apple Silicon Macs. w11arm_esd2iso works on Macs and Linux (both Intel and ARM architectures).
24H2_esd2iso has no ability to restart interrupted downloads. w11arm_esd2iso uses a different utility for downloading from Microsoft, and can restart interrupted network transfers from the point of failure -- preserving what's been downloaaded already.
22H4_esd2iso is Copyright (C) 2024 Paul Rockwell.
You may freely use and modify this utility for use in your own projects. If you do modify 24H2_esd2iso, please provide attribution, and offer it with the same freedom to use as I've offered it you.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
