220-1102 Operating Systems Practice Question
A technician needs to deploy a Windows 10 image to a new laptop that uses a different storage controller driver than the reference computer. The technician has preloaded the driver onto a USB drive. Which tool should the technician use to inject the driver into the offline Windows image (WIM file) before deploying?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse DISM's /Add-Driver (which requires a mounted image) with the standalone /Add-Driver command, or they mistakenly think Sysprep /generalize can inject drivers, when it actually removes driver-specific information to prepare for imaging.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) with /Mount-Image and /Add-Driver
The technician needs to integrate a third-party storage controller driver into the offline Windows image (WIM) before deployment. DISM with the /Mount-Image and /Add-Driver commands allows the technician to mount the WIM file, inject the driver from the USB drive into the offline image, and then commit the changes. This ensures the new laptop can access its storage during Windows setup, avoiding a boot failure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
DISM with /Add-Driver
Why it's wrong here
DISM's /Add-Driver option only operates on an offline image that has already been mounted to a writable directory; issuing it against a .wim file directly will fail because the offline image is not exposed as a file system. The correct procedure requires first using /Mount-Image to mount the WIM, then adding the driver, and finally committing and unmounting. Therefore, specifying /Add-Driver alone is incomplete and does not successfully inject the driver.
- ✗
Sysprep with /generalize
Why it's wrong here
Sysprep /generalize prepares a Windows installation for duplication by stripping machine-specific state such as the security identifier (SID), computer name, and cached drivers, so that the image can be deployed to diverse hardware. It does not add or insert any driver packages into the image; it only removes system-specific data. Consequently, running Sysprep alone would not place the required storage driver into the WIM. The correct approach is to service the image with DISM to add the driver.
- ✗
Windows System Image Manager
Why it's wrong here
Windows System Image Manager (WSIM) is a component of the Windows ADK used for authoring and validating unattend.xml answer files, which control automated setup options and can specify driver paths for installation during deployment. It does not directly modify a WIM's contents; it only creates XML configuration files that are consumed by Windows Setup. Thus, WSIM does not inject drivers into the offline image itself and cannot solve the driver injection problem. For offline servicing, you must use DISM.
- ✓
Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) with /Mount-Image and /Add-Driver
Why this is correct
The correct procedure to inject a storage driver into a Windows 10 WIM is to first mount the offline image with DISM /Mount-Image to a temporary folder, then run DISM /Add-Driver with the /Driver parameter (or /Driver/Recurse for a directory) to add the driver package, and finally use /Commit and /Unmount to save the changes. This workflow is the standard method for adding necessary drivers to boot.wim or install.wim, enabling the image to boot on hardware with a different storage controller. Without the mount step, the image cannot be serviced; without the add and commit steps, the driver is not persisted.
Go deeper
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Key term
Image
An image is a complete snapshot of a system's operating system, applications, and settings, used to deploy or restore computing environments quickly.
Key term
Universal Serial Bus
A Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a standard interface that allows you to connect devices like keyboards, mice, storage drives, and printers to a computer for data transfer and power delivery.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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