Tiny11 builder, which lets you unlock any Windows 11 with PowerShell, adds ESD support

On By Vaseline

It looks like NTDEV, the developer that publishes tiny11 builder, is on a roll. The tool has been receiving almost daily updates lately. This is just a few days after telemetry was disabled.

If you like using PowerShell and scripts, then you will probably also like using tiny11 builder. With this tool, the developer aims to help users automate the creation of debloated and streamlined Windows 11 images using Microsoft’s own DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management) command-line interface.



With this latest release earlier today, tiny11 builder can now support ESD files in addition to WIM. It also completely removes all elements of Microsoft Edge and also fixes a logging bug. The release note for the latest update states:

Tiny11 Builder – Release 5/24/01

This new release of tiny11 builder makes it possible to use images that have ESD files instead of the standard WIM. It also suppresses some of the output, making it a little easier to track what’s going on.
It also cleans up the last remnants of Edge! Last but not least, it fixes a logging issue.

The developer also left instructions on how to use tiny11 builder:

Instructions:

  1. Download Windows 11 from Microsoft website (https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11)
  2. Mount the downloaded ISO image using Windows Explorer.
  3. Select the drive letter the image is mounted on (just the letter, no colon (:))
  4. Select the SKU you want to base the image on.
  5. Sit back and relax 🙂
  6. When the image is complete, you will see it in the folder where the script is extracted, named tiny11.iso

More details are available on the official GitHub repository.

In case you may not know, ESD or Electronic Software Download, like WIM or Windows Imaging Format, is an image format for the purpose of distributing Windows OS. Unlike WIM, ESD is encrypted and this is generally how WIM files are published to Windows Update.

ESD images are created from WIM using the LZMS compression algorithm and this is done using what is called ‘solid compression’. This means that the files are not compressed individually. Therefore, unlike WIM, ESD files are not mountable or easily modifiable or customizable. The advantage, however, is that ESD files are smaller than WIM.