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OOTW / Chapter I - Foundation / 02. Virtualization / 05. Installation / 03. Win10

Win10

The entire course, including the exam environment, will use "Windows 10 Pro 22H2".

Windows 10 Pro 22H2 reached end of support on October 14, 2025 for standard servicing. We use it here as a stable lab baseline, not as a production recommendation.

Windows 10

  1. Download the Media Creation Tool.

  2. Click "Create Installation Media".

  3. Use default settings, e.g. English/US/64-bit.

  4. Generate an ISO file.

  5. Save it somewhere accessible.

  6. Head over to VMware (or whatever software you are using) and create a "New Virtual Machine". Select "Typical" (don't need "Custom").

  7. Click "I will install the OS later" (can save you from headaches sooner or later, trust me).

  8. When prompted for the Guest Operating System, select:

Microsoft Windows  
Windows 10 x64
  1. Give the VM a name and location. I personally keep all machines inside a dedicated directory structure:
OOTW  
└── VM  
	├── Kali  
	├── Ubuntu  
	├── Windows10

  1. Create a virtual disk with at least 80GB of storage and choose to store the disk as a single file.

  2. On the next screen, click "Customize Hardware". As mentioned earlier, allocating absurd amounts of CPUs rarely helps. I usually use 16GB RAM, 1 CPU and 8 cores.

Minimum settings I would recommend:

Windows 10 VM  
OS Type: Windows  
Version: Windows 10 x64  
RAM: 8 GB+  
CPU: 2 vCPU+  
Disk: 80 GB Thin Provisioned

  1. Leave the network adapter as NAT for now (we will revisit networking later).

  2. Enable "Accelerate 3D Graphics" and allocate 512 MB of video memory (or the maximum your virtualization platform allows).

  3. Once the VM is created, load the Windows 10 ISO into the virtual DVD drive.

  4. Boot the machine and proceed through the installer.

  5. Select:

Language: English (or your preference)  
Time and Currency Format: Your preference  
Keyboard Layout: US

  1. Click "Install Now".

  2. If prompted for a product key, select:

I don't have a product key

For lab purposes, Windows can be installed and used without immediate activation.

  1. Select:
Windows 10 Pro

Most enterprise-focused material throughout this course assumes Windows 10 Pro or equivalent functionality. This is important for the Active Directory setup.

  1. Accept the license agreement.

  2. Choose:

Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)
  1. Select the only virtual disk present and click "Next".

No manual partitioning is required.

  1. Wait for installation to complete. The machine will reboot several times.

  2. During Out-Of-Box Experience (OOBE), select:

Region: Your preference  
Keyboard: US

  1. When asked to connect to a network, connect normally.

  2. Click "Set up for personal use"

  3. Click "Offline account" (and "Limited experience")

Username: student  
Password: student

You may use any credentials you prefer, but keeping all lab credentials predictable helps reduce confusion later. Security questions are completely irrelevant, put some junk data.

  1. For Edge browsing data click "Not now"

  2. Disable all Privacy settings and continue

  3. Skip customization, skip Cortana, skip literally anything else

  4. Once the desktop appears, install VMware Tools or VirtualBox Guest Additions.

For VMware:

# Inside the VMware menu:  
VM -> Install VMware Tools

Then inside the guest:

D:\setup64.exe

Select "Complete" and reboot when prompted.

For VirtualBox:

# Inside the VirtualBox menu:  
Devices -> Insert Guest Additions CD Image

Then inside the guest:

D:\VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe

(Reboot when prompted.)

  1. Verify that:
  • Clipboard sharing works
  • Full-screen resizing works
  • Mouse integration works
  • Screen resolution adjusts automatically
  1. Run the following commands to update Defender signatures, reduce signature update activity, disable automatic sample submissions and disable cloud-delivered protection. This helps create a more stable and predictable lab environment while keeping Microsoft Defender enabled:
Update-MpSignature

Set-MpPreference -SignatureScheduleDay 8
Set-MpPreference -SignatureUpdateInterval 0

Set-MpPreference -SubmitSamplesConsent NeverSend
Set-MpPreference -MAPSReporting 0

# You can verify your current versions:
Get-MpComputerStatus | Select-Object AntivirusSignatureVersion, AMServiceVersion, AMEngineVersion
  1. Shut it down and create a snapshot called "FRESH".

This snapshot provides a clean baseline which can be restored later if something inevitably catches fire. Ensure this snapshot is AFTER the machine is turned off - that way you can clone the machine directly from this snapshot.