Things to consider for capturing and deploying a Windows 11 image

Products

• Ghost Solution Suite
• Deployment Solution

Issue/Introduction

This article provides informaiton Windows 11 and how to capture and deploy an image of this OS version. 

Environment

GSS (GSS) 3.3 RUX
DS 8.x

Resolution

As far as the process goes, it is similar to what is currently done with Windows 10 capture and deployment. See Microsoft's article Ways to install Windows 11

The following provides guidance on imaging with both Ghost Solution Suite (GSS) and Deployment Solution (DS):

• For GSS refer to KB article Prepare Windows 11 or Windows 10 to run Sysprep through Ghost Solution Suite Capture Image Task
  
  
• For DS refer to KB article Preparing Windows 10 or Windows 11 to run a 'Prepare for Image Capture' (sysprep) task using Deployment Solution 8.x

WinPE 11 should also be used if capturing/deploying a Windows 11 Image in a pre-boot environment.

Having TPM 2.0 turned on (since it is required by Windows 11 now) should not be a problem. An image installed with Windows 11 will not check for the following requirements:

• TPM 2.0 (at least TPM 1.2 is required) and CPU family and model. You can always turn this off in the BIOS. 

Secure boot and BitLocker are the possible ones that could give problems during capture and deployment. If BitLocker is turned on, disable it. Run command "manage-bde -status" from the command prompt as Administrator on the desired machine to see the actual status of BitLocker. In some cases it may show "turn off" in Windows UI, but is actually enabled but waiting for activation. in this case it is required to go to Control Panel > Bitlocker and do the following:

• click on: enable Bitlocker and set a password
• Once the drive is encrypted go back and disable BitLocker to decrypt the drive

If the imaging is running slowly then refer to this KB article Image capture taking much longer than usual and creating a very large image

NOTE:  If Secure Boot is enabled and BitLocker is shown in the GUI as being turned off in the GUI, but actually, encryption is performed. So customers should take into account such Microsoft behavior.

One more thing to mention, it seems that enabled secure boot causes mentioned use case when BitLocker is shown as turned off in GUI, refer to KB article Ghost Solution Suite support for secure boot.

Additional Information

Windows 11 Support Statement