Just to add more confusion, we are removing MDT from all customers and replacing with intune using the already created json templates we have plus then also deploying chocolatey with intune then calling powershell from intune to install other software. I'd say only 20% of our customers have on-premise AD the other 80% are all Microsoft Business Premium licensed unless over 300 staff, and that's why we have been transitioning customers to only that for the last few years.

MDT is the right tool for AD on premises though so don't be dissuaded from that, just more, you should know.

You can use MDT to capture the image, it provides the scripts to do so. Just deploy a windows 11 image on a VM and use said script to capture it to the deployment share.

You'll need WDS to install the captured image on the network though but it's all not as difficult as it may appear.

I haven't done imaging for a few years now, but it used to be that you needed at least one volume license for imaging rights. (The license center only allows you to buy five licenses, but you can do one VL and four of the cheapest thing you can find.) I think you should be able to use the builtin OEM licenses for activation.

Personally, I wouldn't bother messing with custom images, unless there's a particular setup you want them all to have right away. I'd just use a plain image and script everything else. I'd use WDS if you want to use the full Windows stack, or FOG if you prefer.

I think you might be referring to pulling out the install.wim file from inside the ISO, no? If so, I think it's located in the sources folder of the ISO. It's 3am and I'm still up cause I can't sleep, so forgive me if I'm totally off base.

There are different solutions depending on the scale and scope.

At the minimum, you can look at just modifying the unattend.xml file to automate a USB install. This will give some simple features like configuring licensing and generally being able to skip the oobe (out of box experience) wizard.

Next level up is modifying the install.wim file on that USB install. This will afford some more customisability like taking a sysprepped captured image, like what you're describing. You don't need a WDS server for this, but if you're going this deep you might as well move up to one for the automation it brings to that captured image workflow.

Next level up is setting up a WDS (Windows Deployment Services) server, which can just be a dedicated VM or a dedicated physical machine somewhere on the network. This has all the benefits of the above but with better automation and network booting (which replaces your USB with just needing a network connection) and automatic AD join.

At the top of those enterprise scale solutions is SCCM (now called MECM) or InTune, depending how you want to work things. Setting up one of these is probably way beyond your scope though.

Things get more complicated the further up you go, but come with more benefits. If you're looking for a minimum effort solution, I'd just build a bootable USB with rufus and modify the unattend.xml, save that file somewhere so you don't have to do it again and just copy it onto any new drive you build.

I might be forgetting something so hopefully something in the comments here helps you in your current situation. cheers

Everyone suggesting WDS or MDT is overlooking something very important- both are being phased out, and have limited or no support for Win 11.

If you are building a new workflow, you should not build on these tools. You should build on something supported going forward.

Thick/captured WIMs are generally not recommended anyway due to their higher maintenance needs. What are you trying to do in the first place? There are probably better approaches to solve that instead of capturing an image.

Really depends on your scale and needs, but when we were in the process of transitioning from Ivanti to Intune we had a gap between them. I set up a FOG project server and a couple remote nodes and that worked really well as an interim solution. I actually started using it at home even though I don't really need imaging too often.