[MicroWin] Preparation for 2025

[CodingWonders]

Type of Change

• New feature
• Bug fix
• Security patch

Description

A new year is coming, and so does a new MicroWin PR. This mainly focuses on fixes to most issues reported by users.

Key features:

• Boot Manager entry will no longer have a timeout of 30 on default, single-boot installations of Windows
• User passwords are now encoded in Base64 (yes, that's the only way to protect this important info, according to Microsoft)
• You can now include the contents of the VirtIO image in your image.
  • The VirtIO driver ISO is downloaded using BITS
  • The files will be copied to <ISO Root>\VirtIO
  • Instructions are provided after copying the VirtIO files

Here are some screenshots:

Note

The ability to add them automatically will be introduced later

• Removed some jargon related to the scratch directory
• It fixes issues related to Windows Hello drivers and printing with the Print command of the context menu
• It fixes conflicts between the MicroWin image and Ventoy drives with a config file

Testing

Testing has concluded successfully on a 24H2 image but, given that this is a draft, more testing will be done in the future

Impact

Primarily to reduce the issue amount and make it more reliable

Issue related to PR

• Resolves Boot Menu on Fresh MicroWin #2562
• Resolves Winutil error while printing photo #2851
• Resolves Windows 11 24H2 / MicroWin 24.10.07 - After fresh install device manager shows "HelloFace" driver missing. #3059
• Resolves Microwin admin password stored in plain text in unattend.xml #3064
• Resolves MICROWIN - Scratch Space Directory Typo (trivial) #3104

Additional Information

Documentation updates are required, but they will be done on the Hugo-powered website

Checklist

• My code adheres to the coding and style guidelines of the project.
• I have performed a self-review of my own code.
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas.
• I have made corresponding changes to the documentation.
• My changes generate no errors/warnings/merge conflicts.