Note: The latest Windows ADK and Win PE addon available from Microsoft as of this current 07/21/2023 date is Windows ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (10.1.22621.1, released in May 2023). This version of the ADK is ONLY compatible to install with NovaBACKUP 20.1; it can't be installed with 20.0.
This KB article explains the NovaBACKUP Advanced Boot Media Instructions requirements, especially concerning newer ADK versions that were released after Windows ADK for Windows 10, version 1809 (10.1.17763, released in September, 2018), that made the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) a separate addon install, in regards to the NovaBACKUP installation requirements for components that must be installed on the same machine that you intend to create the Advanced Boot Media on; however the NovaBACKUP Advanced Boot Media dialog, when it comes to the "Browse and Install" dialog functions, located on Page 4 / Step 4 (detailed below) in that "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow in the backup client, was created prior to the point that Microsoft decided to make the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) a separate addon download. In that case, now with the newer ADK versions (released since 1809 in September 2018), two applications are required to be installed prior to being able to build the Advanced Boot Media, the first is the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) and the Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) is the second (ADK versions older than 1809 had the later PE part integrated, but it is now a separate download since version 1809). Note: This KB article is pending content to be added.
Get the latest Windows ADK (10.1.22621.1, released in May 2023):
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Download the Windows ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (10.1.22621.1) [the direct link is to a file named "adksetup.exe", this is the ADK and it needs to be installed first]
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Download the Windows PE addon for the Windows ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (10.1.22621.1) [the direct link is to a file named "adkwinpesetup.exe", and this WinPE addon needs to be installed after the first "adksetup.exe" file is installed]
The above are the two downloads that are required to manually install the latest ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2, so and in that case you also will need to install the Windows PE addon for that ADK version. The ADK components that the NovaBACKUP Advanced Boot Media method requires are to install the "Deployment tools", and the Windows PE addon for the ADK will require to install Windows PE. Note: The Windows ADK and WinPE addon version that is linked above for download can also install on Windows 10, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2016, which are all currently supported x64 OS's by NovaBACKUP 20.1. There are older versions of the ADK that can be installed, but those would lack the latest driver support; it is not absolutely necessary to be on the latest version of the ADK however. You can only have one ADK version and one Windows PE for ADK addon installed at one time; Windows does not allow installing multiple versions of those two apps.
Important Note: Windows ADK versions prior to Windows ADK for Windows 10, version 1809 (10.1.17763, released in September, 2018) had the Windows PE addon components integrated into the single "adksetup.exe", so in that case you do not need to install Win PE addon separately for those older ADK versions, older than version 1809 that is. Also know that it is not 100% necessary to have the latest ADK installed to utilize with the NovaBACKUP Advanced Boot Media method, but if you do have the latest version then you mainly have the advantage of the latest drivers integrated for Win PE (the drivers that will be utilized when you boot to the NovaBACKUP image backup recovery environment) and some fixes.
Note: In the "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow (in the backup client), the dialog that comes after the "Download ADK" dialog, which I believe is the third dialog in that workflow, that asks you to browse to the "adksetup.exe" does not have a secondary prompt / field to also browse to the "adkwinpesetup.exe" file, so for customers that do not have any ADK or Win PE addon for the ADK installed, they can utilize that browse to "adksetup.exe" dialog to both install the "adksetup.exe" file AND then the "adkwinpesetup.exe" file, in that order, or they should just install the ADK first manually then install the Win PE addon second manually after that, and in that case they will restart the "Advanced Boot Media" function dialog and it should then detect that the ADK components are installed properly and allow you to proceed to the next "Create Boot Media" dialog which follows the "browse to adksetup.exe" dialog. Those customers who manually installed the ADK and the Win PE addon themselves outside of NovaBACKUP backup client application, in the "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow, will just need to make sure to do a typical or default installation of both the ADK and the Win PE addon (the Win PE addon for Windows ADK is only needed for Windows ADK versions 1809 and newer). For Windows ADK 1803 and older, the later "Win PE addon for ADK" is not needed and so our dialog when it comes to the "browse to adksetup.exe" dialog portion of the "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow (in the backup client) should work for you. The workflow in the client would look like this, in this order:
1. This is the first dialog after entering the "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow, on this dialog the user chose "Advanced" as the Boot Media Type:" choice, as "Simple" would have been the default choice:
2. Download Windows Components dialog, we call it the "Download" dialog for short, in that case the "Go to Download Site" button function on this "Download" dialog takes you to our KB article, the same KB article that you are reading now:
3. Install downloaded Windows components dialog, we call it the "Install" dialog for short, allows you to browse to the "adksetup.exe" file and click "Install" button after that to install the ADK:
4. At the point above, if you are installing a Windows ADK that is newer than version 1803 (the last version that had the Win PE components integrated into the single "adksetup.exe" installer file, you will need to know that this dialog will not work for you, and you can pause here on this Step 4. Confirm the version of the ADK, which you can do by checking the version in Programs and Features area of Windows, and you can also confirm by if you install "adksetup.exe" (and you don't have an ADK installed currently) then the default seelcted features to install WILL NOT list one feature "Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)" as a listed feature to be able to enable to install (using the primary adksetup.exe installer file that is). That would look like this if that were the case:
So because of that, due to the version of the ADK that you are attempting to utilize and install, you will need to perform the two ADK and Win PE addon installations completely manually by yourself, using the default / typical install options for both. If that is the case that you are installing a Windows ADK version that is newer than version 1803, stop here and exit the "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow in the backup client, and then you will need to download and manually install the adksetup.exe and the adkwinpesetup.exe files using either the default / typical install options, or for the adksetup.exe just choose "Deployment Tools" as the single feature to enable which will also work, seen below:
for both of those two installers, just know that both of these installers require internet access to complete the install as they download additional components from Microsoft.com, as and then exit out of the "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow (by clicking on the "Close" button on the bottom extreme left of any "Advanced Boot Media" dialog that may be open) and then go back in to the "Advanced Boot Media" dialog workflow from the Image Backup Tools menu, or exit the NovaBACKUP client software altogether (or end the "NovaBackX.exe" task via Task Manager) and the backup client again then go to Home tab > Image Backup > Image Backup Tools > Boot Disc and then click on "Advanced" for the boot media type, then click "Next" and it should automatically detect that you have the ADK installed already, and that dialog will be the "Create Boot Media" dialog, and in that case Steps 2 through 4 will not even be visible as dialogs in the workflow for you, and you will just be taken to the next dialog that will be detailed, which is Step 5.
5. The final dialog in the workflow is the "Create the customized bootable image" dialog, or the "Create" dialog for short, which is where you will click on the "Create Image" button to create your Advanced method boot media. It does not mean that the boot media will be able to create successfully, it just means that our code detected that you do have a Windows ADK installed, however it doesn't know the version details of that ADK to know if the required "Windows PE / "Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)" component installed. You can try to "Create Image" but if you do have a newer Windows ADK that requires you to install the Win PE addon separately, then that function will fail (the error message is seen in the screenshot below this one): Note regarding Step 5, which is the final dialog in the workflow: You will need to know that although you made it to this "Create Image" dialog, that the NovaBACKUP client currently has no way of detecting if you have the required "Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)" component / feature / addon installed for Windows ADK versions newer than 1803 that is, which would be required if you currently have the Windows ADK 1809 or newer version installed, so if the latter is the case you will 100% need to install the Win PE addon for that version of the ADK now if you have 1809 or newer version of the ADK installed, otherwise the "Create Image" button function will fail nearly immediately with the error message text "oocode:CEngine:AssembleBootableImage:CreateSpecificWindowsImage : result = General Failure, error =" that would appear at the bottom of the current dialog, under the "Create Image" function once that function is clicked on, that relates to the single "Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)" feature, or the Win PE addon (required for Windows ADK's starting with 1809 and newer) that contains that feature, component not being installed currently. Note: If you see this error when the Windows ADK version less than 1809 is installed, so for the 1803 or older ADK versions, then that just means you have to go back and add in the "Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE)" feature during the ADK portion of the "adksetup.exe" installation in that case to correct this issue, and then retry the "Create Image" function again; and if you have the Windows ADK starting with 1809 and newer installed, you will now want to go to Programs and Features and search for "Windows Assessment" text and look to see if you have TWO apps installed that meet that exact search criteria, and that one of those two apps is named as "Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit - Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE)"; and if the second app is not listed, you will now need to download and install the matching "Windows PE addon for the Windows ADK" on either this website, which is the current version, or if you locate and then download the correct Windows PE addon for the Windows ADK per your exact Windows ADK version via the single Microsoft website URL hyperlink in the section below, marked as "Other ADK Downloads", and then retry the "Create Image" button function again.
Note: If you have a Windows ADK installed that is version 1809 or newer, and in that case you don't have the separate Win PE addon installed, then you will be required to install the above mentioned Win PE addon in order for the "Create Image" button function to work for you, otherwise you will get an error for the single error message seen in the screenshot below (and mentioned already in Step 5 above); in this example we only have the latest 22H2 ADK installed but no Win PE addon installed, and so the search for "Windows Assessment" text only finds one search result for apps installed, which has to be corrected for the above mentioned "Create Image" function to be able to work:
After installing the separate "Windows PE addon for the Windows ADK", now we can search for that same text as above and the result now is that two ADK related apps are installed, after pressing "F5" to refresh that dialog to confirm things; only now can you retry the "Create Image" function in the above Step 5 to get the boot media to build:
Other ADK Downloads
Besides the latest 'Windows ADK for Windows 11, version 22H2 (10.1.22621.1, released in May 2023)' version linked above, there are other older ADK downloads available if needed, that are available for download at this Microsoft.com website: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install#other-adk-downloads.
Here is a Windows 10 ADK version history chart showing the "Other ADK" versions that Microsoft at the above website link as of 07/21/2023 has currently available to download on that website. Note: From this version history chart Microsoft only makes available the Windows 10 ADKs dating back to Windows ADK for Windows 10 v1607 as the oldest listed ADK to be able to download):