Microsoft improves Windows 11 22H2 custom images with WinPE, Image Manager, WPA upgrades

An image with a colorful Windows 11 22H2 logo and a dimmed background

Microsoft has announced an update to the Windows ADK (Assessment and Deployment Kit) for Windows 11 version 22H2. The new release brings improvements to the Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), WPA (Windows Performance Analyzer), and Windows System Image Manager SIM).

In case you don't know, ADK helps in the large-scale deployment of custom Windows images, and tools like the Windows Assessment Toolkit and the Windows Performance Toolkit, of which WPA is part, help to evaluate the performance and quality of the images before they are deployed.

WPA now is built on .NET 6 and brings native ARM64 support; speaking of which, WinPE now has x64 emulation on ARM64 WinPE. The full release notes for the September 2023 Windows 11 22H2 ADK update are given below:

What's new in the ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (updated September 2023)

Windows PE

Added support for x64 emulation on Arm64 WinPE as an optional component

Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA)

WPA is now built on .NET 6, which includes native ARM64 support.

New UI

Diagnostic Console

Trace Processing with Select Table

Settings

Addressed a ETL trace processing issue related to .NET 7, see ETW Trace Processing Fails with Error Code 0x80070032

Windows System Image Manager

x86 version of SIM can create catalogs for Windows images of all supported achitecture types.

Assessment toolkit known issues

On ARM64 devices, the WPA executable is not automatically added to the PATH environment variable.

When maximizing WPA in fullscreen on a secondary monitor, the top left right-click menu appears on the incorrect monitor.

You can download the necessary files from the following links:

Download the ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (updated September 2023)

You can use the Assessment and Deployment Kit for Windows to install Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022.

Get the Windows ADK:

Download the Windows ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (updated September 2023)

Download the Windows PE add-on for the Windows ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (updated September 2023)

You can read more about it here on Microsoft's official website.