Imagex (Wimlib)

Imagex, otherwise known as Wimlib, is an application that you can use to manage Windows Imaging (WIM) files.

The package includes the Winlib C library and API, which enables you to read, write and extract files in WIM format, as well as the Imagex application, a command line utility that helps you manage this type of files.

Aiming to serve as an alternative to Microsoft's WIMGAPI, ImageX, and DISM, Imagex (Wimlib) can handle archives in Windows Imaging Format, providing compatibility with various compression formats, such as LZX, XPRESS, and LZMS, and high compression rates that make it a competitive tool.

The command line tool can perform various operations using WIM files. Running it without any parameters displays a list of all the available commands and their syntax.

You can easily capture, delete, export, extract, join, optimize, and split WIM archives, including ESD files. As such, you can work with WIM files without actually mounting them (you cannot mount WIM files with this application). There are options for appending WIM files and getting information regarding the input files, checking their integrity, and more.

It is also possible to rebuild and update archives, and recompress them using higher compression rates to gain storage space.

Alongside the library and the console application, the distribution also comprises batch scripts that are, in fact, shortcuts to some commands you can execute with Imagex (Wimlib). Documentation is also included to help you get started and learn about the capabilities of this library.