Feature Request : Microsoft ImageX WIM File Comparison

[BarryM]

Hi guys.

One handy feature that would be nice to see is a Microsoft ImageX WIM archive decompression capability with BC4.

You can manually mount and view these files with the Microsoft IAK's filter driver, but it's kinda inconvenient. Some other applications like 7-Zip File Manager also let you view them without using the filter driver.

BTW, the new 3-way Folder Merge feature in BC4 is pretty great. Saved me a lot of pain today doing an initial analysis of some files I had to research for a project.

[Zoë]

Hi Barry,

Have you tried viewing the WIM archives in BC? We use 7-zip's DLL to provide read-only support for a bunch of archive formats and WIM is one of them. I haven't tested that type specifically, but it is enabled by default for both *.wim and *.swm file extensions.

[BarryM]

Hi Zoë.

Thanks for the tip. I just tried it with the "Folder Comparison" and it works pretty good. When comparing images inside a multi-image WIM file all you have to do is use the "Set As Base Folder" option to adjust the comparison, so seems to be working pretty good to me.

I didn't find any reference to WIM (or alternate compression formats) listed in the Product's Help files. Any chance you could document somehow what is supported? I wouldn't have thought to use BC4 for this type of operation and others may find it of interest.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback. We mention it more generally in the What's New article, near the bottom, that we've expanded our archive support. BC4's support is greatly expanded, but it's a less glamorous feature and does not lend itself well to a screenshot. Since so many new formats were added, we hope users will give the trial a shot. If their archive is missing, then let us know.

[Aaron]

Also, do your files work if they are a sub folder, rather than the base folder? As Zoe mentions, we have not been able to test every combination/construction of an archive, but are always on the look out for any example files we can add as test cases.

[BarryM]

I'm not sure I understand the distinction, but I can load non-multi-image WIM files with the Folder Comparison and perform direct comparison on the differences without issue. Is that what you're asking?

The one thing I did notice now about the Folder Comparison windows is that the text entry field for the Folder Path doesn't recognise the fact that it is able to interpret .WIM files and thus doesn't provide it as an automatic file open offering suggestion. This is unlike say a .Zip file, which it will provide auto text suggestion for. But if I go through the Directory Picker GUI routine it does show it as a clickable option. Having that auto-hint capability might make it more obvious.

re: additional file formats, all I was thinking was just a brief one line addition to the F1 accessible Help File that says something like what's on the 7-Zip website (subject to whatever restrictions you folks apply):

Additional support is now provided for:
Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR and Z.

[Aaron]

Thanks for the feedback. We'll look into updating the Help file to make this more discoverable. As for the auto-completion, we aren't able to auto-complete into archives without opening them, but the auto-complete does give us some paths (such as into .zips) for free. If we're able to expand on this behavior due to upgrading this area, we'll consider these additional enhancements.