Gola NTLoom: Build Windows 11 Installation Media That Is Yours, From ISO to USB Stick

Gola NTLoom turns a Microsoft Windows 11 ISO into installation media set up the way you want it: the newest updates already inside, ads and nags off, your settings in place, Windows Setup asking only what it needs to, and, if you like, the USB sticks written at the end. It is for repair shops and for companies with their own IT and customizations (tools, monitoring, policies). It is for sale, from Gola Services, priced by build machine (prices below); contact us for a demo.

Where the name comes from

Weaving on top of the NT kernel. NT is the kernel at the heart of Windows, and a loom is what weaves threads into cloth. We chose the name for two reasons. The first is cultural: weaving is a living craft in Tunisia, such as the margoum and kilim rugs, and we wanted a product from here that carries something of that. The second is what it does: a weaver lays threads over a frame that stays fixed, to a pattern, the same way each time. NTLoom does the same with Windows: the kernel stays exactly as Microsoft made it, and your updates, settings and files are woven over it, thread by thread, to a pattern you can reuse.

Our tools are named after textile crafts, weaving and sewing, which are living crafts in Tunisia. NTLoom is the loom, Shuttle is the part of the loom that carries the thread across, Stitch joins the pieces into one garment, Bootlace laces up a computer's start-up over the network, Bobbin is the spool that holds several threads at once, so one USB stick carries several installers, and Kit is the technician's toolkit.

What makes it different

• NTLoom never deletes files from the Windows image or from Setup. It changes defaults and adds what you ask for. Some settings ask Windows itself to act, through Microsoft's own policies: for example, "Remove the Microsoft Copilot app" is a Microsoft policy that uninstalls that app once, only where Microsoft documents it. Each setting says what it does.

• Every setting explains itself, and how to undo it. The catalog holds 175 settings. Each one says what every state does, what Windows does by default, whether the person using the PC can change it back, and exactly which registry values it writes.

• Reproducible profiles. Everything you choose is saved in one profile file, with the files it needs beside it. Home and Pro, and every language, are built from the same profile, so they cannot drift apart. The program carries nothing that belongs to one company: yours stays yours.

• It can stay current by itself. Switch it on and NTLoom checks every day whether Microsoft published a newer cumulative update than your newest ISO, and rebuilds it with the same settings. It never starts on battery, while a build runs or when the disk is too full.

• The whole chain in one program. ISO in, updates integrated, settings applied, answer file written, boot files signed for the Secure Boot certificate you need, and up to three ISOs written to each USB stick through Gola Bobbin, for any number of sticks.

• Technician tools inside Windows Setup. Press Shift+F10 at the Setup screen, type gola, and back up a person's files, look at the disks, test the network or repair the boot files, without leaving the installation media.

• A report of what was done. An optional small web page left on the new PC lists what the profile asked for and the PC does not have, what the build left out and how the first-start steps ended. The build itself leaves a log, a history and a support bundle.

• Light, and a light footprint. The two programs are about 8 MB each and the helper programs travel in the same folder, with no Windows ADK to download. The finished PC carries the minimum: what stays is under a Gola folder and the scripts delete themselves.

• In your language. The window speaks English, French and Arabic, the last one mirrored right to left, and the text size can be changed.

From ISO to USB stick

One profile and one ISO go in; at the end of the chain you have ISOs, and if you want them, sticks. Each step below is done by NTLoom, in order, with one Windows administrator prompt for the whole build.

Every feature

Starting from your ISO: the Image and Updates pages

• Read the ISO. Add a Windows 11 ISO on the Image page: NTLoom reads its editions and language, and you choose the editions to build. The first read copies the image into a work folder, which should be on a fast local disk with about 100 GB free.

• Updates built in. The Updates page shows what Microsoft's catalog still offers for your image: the cumulative update, .NET, and the recovery and Setup updates. A build downloads them from the catalog, checks them and installs them into the image. Nothing is bundled with the program: the list is fetched fresh.

• Microsoft Defender and winget. Tick the option to refresh the Microsoft Defender update for installation images too, and to add the newest winget.

• Preview updates. An option includes the preview cumulative update, and a check tells you which updates an image still needs without building anything.

• Home and Pro, and more. Build them in one ISO or one ISO per edition; the edition lists also know the other 64-bit client editions of the ordinary ISO, such as Education, Pro N and Pro for Workstations. Drag and drop ISO files onto the window, or add them with the button.

What to change: presets, settings, Group Policy and Windows features

• Presets. The What to change page offers fourteen ready-made choices; each one says what it does and how many settings it sets. Every setting they set stays visible and editable on the Settings and Group Policy pages.

• 175 settings in plain words. The Settings page groups them by theme: Copilot and AI, ads and suggestions, Start menu, taskbar, Explorer, privacy, diagnostics, security, Windows Update, scheduled tasks and more. There is a search (Ctrl+F), an Only changed view, and the risk of a setting shows in the list. Settings that lower security carry a risk note. A button resets every setting to the Windows default, after asking.

• Group Policy as a last resort. The Group Policy page reads Windows' own policy templates and lists more than 1,400 simple on/off policies on a current Windows, with Microsoft's explanation, a search, a category tree and an Only chosen view. Anything that goes through a policy is labelled, because the person using the PC cannot change a policy back.

• Windows features. The Features page lists the optional features of your own ISO, with the real defaults read from it.

• Windows 11 on older PCs. Optional switches make Setup skip the TPM, Secure Boot, memory and processor checks. Microsoft does not promise updates or support on such PCs, and NTLoom says so.

• Import an XML preset. Already have presets in the XML format? Import one (Ctrl+I): NTLoom converts what it can into a profile and lists every item it could not.

Your own files, commands and look: the Files and commands page

• Files and commands. Copy files into Windows, run your own PowerShell at the end of setup, add your own .reg files, or choose ready-made commands such as turning hibernation off, keeping the clock in sync, using the High performance power plan or installing the DirectX End-User Runtime.

• Your Start layout and Task Manager layout as files next to the profile, your own desktop theme and wallpapers, and a Make a theme from pictures dialog that writes the theme file for you.

• Missing files are caught early. The page lists every file the profile uses, found ones in green and missing ones in red. A build stops before it starts, with the name of the missing file. The program never falls back to somebody else's file.

• Drivers for Windows Setup. Add a driver folder for a disk or a card that Setup does not know. NTLoom refuses to write an ISO that holds the same driver package twice, a mistake that would stop Setup before its first page.

Setup screens your way: the Unattended and Answer file pages

• What Setup asks. Skip the pages you do not need, set the time zone, put your name and support details in System > About, and decide the computer name: ask the technician, let Windows pick, or build it from a prefix plus a generated part.

• Fully unattended installs. For new single-disk PCs, Setup can run from start to finish without a person. A warning tells you what that means.

• The answer file. The Answer file page shows the file Windows Setup will read, so nothing is hidden.

Building: the Apply page

• A summary before you build. The Apply page shows what will be built, what is not ready, the output folder and the compression. One Windows prompt starts the elevated build and the page follows it, with a friendly log. A build keeps running if you close the window, and several ISOs can wait in a queue behind the same prompt.

• Secure Boot media, 2011 and 2023. Windows boot managers are signed through a certificate, and PCs trust the older one, the newer one or both depending on their age. NTLoom can sign the boot files through the 2011 certificate, the 2023 certificate, or write both ISOs. Every ISO also carries a small script that shows which certificate a USB stick uses and switches it either way. Nothing is downloaded and no Windows ADK is needed.

• A review before you build. ntloom review (and the review in the window) lists everything a build would do, as a page or as text, with a version written for your client.

• Test builds. A test group on the Apply page, or a test tag on the command line, starts Setup at once and numbers the ISO, to try it in a virtual machine before real PCs.

• A manifest and checksums beside every ISO, and Build it again on the History page, which turns a past build into a new profile with the same options.

• Free up space. A button lists what NTLoom left in the work folder, with sizes and tick boxes, and deletes what you tick. The finished ISOs are never touched.

USB sticks, written for you

• Sticks written at the end of the build. Before the build, Choose the sticks... opens Gola Bobbin's chooser: you pick the sticks and which ISO goes on each, up to three ISOs per stick. When every build of the queue has ended well, NTLoom writes exactly those sticks.

• Any number of ISOs. A queue may make as many ISOs as you like. When it makes more than a stick holds, NTLoom first asks which ISOs go on the sticks; the others stay in the output folder.

• Safe by design. The sticks are written only if every build succeeded, the plan is the file you chose, and Bobbin can do the step. Otherwise nothing is erased, and the summary says why.

• Bobbin stays current. An Update Bobbin button updates it.

Technician tools in Windows Setup

Optional and off by default, switched on in the profile. At the Setup screen press Shift+F10 and type gola. Nothing is downloaded and nothing is removed from Setup's environment: files are only added.

• Back up and restore user files. Finds the Windows installations, lists the people, counts what will be copied and refuses when it does not fit. The old Windows is only read. A restore never overwrites an existing file.

• Disks. Disks and volumes in plain words, details of one disk, a letter for a volume. A wipe tool exists only if the profile also allows destructive disk actions; otherwise it is not in the image at all.

• Network and shares. Addresses, a connection test, connecting a share (the password is never stored or logged) and loading drivers into the Setup environment.

• Recovery. Boot configuration, disk and system file checks, and repair of the boot files, with the old configuration backed up first.

• Your own extra tools from a folder named in the profile, listed in the menu and run by number.

• A technician window. The same tools as a real window, from Gola Kit, in English, French and Arabic, with the text menu as the fallback.

• Safe by habit. Every action that writes asks for a typed confirmation, and every action writes a log. The menu follows the language of the image and can be switched on the spot.

After the install: apps, report and tidy defaults

• Apps at first start. The image is built offline, so the apps you choose are downloaded on the new PC and installed by Gola Stitch before the first desktop. Pick winget package ids, or load a Gola Stitch profile. It needs a network connection at that moment, and a PC that is not connected yet gets one more try at the first sign-in. Microsoft Store apps are not installed this way.

• Gola Stitch and Gola Shuttle on the PC. Tick them to leave both programs on the new PC with a Start menu shortcut, and, if you like, a desktop shortcut.

• Licenses on arrival. For Stitch and Shuttle, Setup can fetch both licenses for the PC and write them into the new Windows before the first restart. It uses a revocable technician token that you keep with the ISO.

• Report for the technician. The small web page described above, made in the background at the first sign-in. It never holds a password, a token, a license, a hardware identifier or a path of the build PC.

• Defaults that hold. A few values that Windows rewrites when an account first opens its desktop, such as the desktop icon size and the taskbar search, are written again so every new account gets them. Only the PC's own accounts are touched.

• A small footprint. What stays is under a Gola folder; the setup scripts and scheduled tasks delete themselves.

Profiles

• One file, yours. Name, notes, settings, features, OEM details, answer file choices, files, commands, theme and the optional parts are all in the profile. Paths are relative, so the profile and its files can be copied together.

• The profile bar. Open, Save, Save as, New profile and a list of the last ten profiles, always at the top of the window. Export without personal data makes a copy for sharing, with no account, password, support details or folder paths.

• Several profiles, several looks. Start a new profile, or save one under a new name with its files, for each client or each model.

History, checks and staying current

• Every build is kept. The History page lists the builds. Select one to see how it ended, two to see what differs between them.

• Check the files. Verifies the ISOs against the checksum written beside them.

• Compare the ISOs. Shows what differs between two ISO, WIM or ESD images.

• Test report. After a test install, the report of what the installed Windows has and what the plan asked for. The command line can also make the small ISO that runs that check on the installed PC.

• Support bundle. One zip to send with a question or a bug report.

• Stay current. The panel on this page asks Microsoft's catalog, without downloading anything, whether your newest ISO is behind. Build it again opens the same settings. Switched on, a daily task does it for you: at the time and on the days you choose, with a number of ISOs to keep for each profile and language, the free space it needs, and never on battery. Every decision is written to a log and a finished or failed rebuild shows as a Windows notification.

The command line does everything the window does

ntloom is a command line with a --help for each command, so a build can run without a person at the PC.

• Read and plan: media (editions and language of an ISO), plan (what a profile does to one image), review (everything a build would do), updates and fetch-updates, features, import-preset.

• Build: build and build-queue (several ISOs, optionally writing USB sticks), and cleanup.

• Check: verify, compare-images, verify-media, test-report and support-bundle.

• Stay current: stay-current and stay-current-task.

• Program: tools and where (the helper programs), bobbin-update, licence and update, and gui to open the window.

Comfort and updates of the program itself

• Three languages and a theme. English, French and Arabic, chosen from the menu, applied at once, with System, Light or Dark.

• Text size. Smaller, Default, Larger or Largest.

• Keyboard and tooltips. Ctrl+1 and the following numbers open the pages, Ctrl+S saves, Ctrl+B builds, F1 lists the shortcuts, and the buttons have tooltips.

• It follows the build. The navigation folds by itself while a build runs, and the window follows a build that was started from the command line or from a scheduled task.

• One license per PC. NTLoom needs a license tied to the PC. The check works without a connection and sends nothing; see below.

• Updates from the program. The About box has a button that looks for a newer version, shows what changed and installs it. Both programs update together after their checksums are checked, and ntloom update --rollback goes back to the previous version.

Who it is for

• IT shops and technicians: the same Windows on every PC you install, without the same clicks every time.

• Companies with a fleet of PCs: one standard image for the office, with your support details in System > About.

• PC builders and resellers: new or refurbished PCs that leave clean and consistent, with no ads waiting for the customer.

We use NTLoom ourselves, at Gola Services, to prepare the Windows on the PCs we deliver. It takes care of the repeatable part; we still finish each PC by hand where it matters: drivers, your files backed up and restored, and the firmware set-up.

Get NTLoom, priced by build machine

NTLoom is for sale, and the price is simple: you buy a one-time license for each PC that builds your installation media, which we call a build machine. Each build machine can make as many installation media as you like, and the first year of updates is included.

What it costs

The price per build machine depends on how many you license. Volume prices count the build machines of one business, added up over time: 3 now and 2 later make 5. Licenses for different businesses are priced separately. The euro price is for customers outside Tunisia, the dinar price for businesses in Tunisia.

• 1 to 3 build machines: €399 each, or 990 TND each for businesses in Tunisia.

• 4 to 9 build machines: €329 each, or 825 TND each for businesses in Tunisia.

• 10 to 24 build machines: €269 each, or 660 TND each for businesses in Tunisia.

• 25 build machines or more: contact us for a quote.

Launch offer for our first 10 businesses: 30% off. It is for businesses in Tunisia (dinar prices) and abroad (euro prices), counted together as one group of 10; after that, the list prices apply. For example, the price for 1 to 3 build machines becomes €279 each instead of €399 (693 TND instead of 990 TND in Tunisia). The launch price follows you: your yearly renewal and any replacement license are based on the discounted price you paid.

Updates after the first year are optional and cost half of the price you paid. If you do not renew, the version you have keeps working. If a build machine's hardware changes, a replacement license costs about 20% of the price you paid.

What you get

• A license that does not expire with the year, tied to the build machine, with the first year of updates included.

• The whole program described above: the window in English, French and Arabic, the command line, the 175 settings, profiles, stay current, Secure Boot media, USB sticks through Gola Bobbin, the technician tools for Windows Setup and the report left on the PC.

• Licensed copies of Gola Kit and Gola Bobbin are included. Gola Kit is the technician window inside the installation media NTLoom builds, reached in Setup with Shift+F10. Gola Bobbin writes the USB sticks, up to three ISOs per stick.

• Shuttle and Stitch are separate. Gola Shuttle and Gola Stitch are products of their own, with their own licenses. NTLoom is glad to install them for you at the first start of each PC, and each PC that carries them needs its own license for them.

• Updates from the program itself: a button in the About box, or ntloom update, with a way back to the previous version.

• A demo before you decide.

What counts as a build machine

• A build machine is a PC that runs NTLoom, the window or the command line. The license is tied to that PC and checked on it, without a connection.

• One build machine can make as many installation media as you want. The count is of the PCs that run NTLoom, not of the media they make.

• A license code works for one PC. For a second build machine, you request a second license.

• Windows licenses are separate: NTLoom changes how Windows starts, not whether it is licensed.

A quick sum

Two examples, to show how to work it out. Replace our numbers with yours.

• Example A, a repair shop setting up 30 PCs a month. One build machine costs €399 once, first year of updates included (990 TND in Tunisia). Our own installs of Windows from an NTLoom image take around 30 to 40 minutes, unattended; as little as 20 minutes on a good machine with a good connection, and up to 45 to 90 minutes on slower machines. It depends on the machine, and with the fully unattended option nobody has to touch the PC after it starts. Your sum: PCs per month × the hands-on minutes you spend on each PC today. With NTLoom, what is left is starting the install and a look at the report.

• Example B, a company with its own IT and its own customizations. Your tools, your monitoring agent and your policies and settings go into the profile: files are copied in, your commands run at the end of setup, Group Policy and registry settings are applied, and apps install at the first start. Three build machines, one per site, cost 3 × €399 = €1,197; ten cost 10 × €269 = €2,690, once.

• Your sum: build machines × the price per machine, once; then PCs per month × the hands-on minutes you spend today. The PCs install on their own, in the times above, depending on the machine.

How to get started

• 1. Ask for a demo. Contact us and tell us how many build machines you need.

• 2. We confirm the price for your number of machines and give you the program, as a folder to unpack on each build machine.

• 3. License each build machine. On the PC, ntloom licence request prints a request code. Give it to us, and we send back a license or an activation code. ntloom licence status tells you whether the PC holds a valid license.

• 4. Build. Open an ISO, load or make a profile, and press Build.

Questions, a demo, or a quote for 25 build machines or more? Contact us. We would be glad to show you NTLoom at work.

Good to know

• Windows 11, 64-bit. The settings catalog follows build 26300 (26H2).

• Disk space. A build needs a fast local disk with about 100 GB free per language, and administrator rights. How long a build takes depends on your machine.

• Apps at first start need a network connection on the new PC, and take only winget package ids.

• What is new in this version and has been tested mostly in virtual machines and with simulated tools: writing sticks through Bobbin, the 2023-signed ISO on a PC that only trusts the 2023 certificate, and the daily stay-current task. Try each on one PC before you rely on it for a fleet. We say so rather than promise more than we have measured.

• Revoking the 2011 certificate in a PC's firmware is not something NTLoom does; it cannot be undone from Windows.

• The first-run pages such as the Phone Link and OneDrive offers cannot be hidden yet: no setting is known to do it.

• Group Policy settings cannot be switched back by the person using the PC, and the page says so.

• Updating the program replaces the two programs; the helper tools in the folder (Kit, Shuttle, Bobbin, Stitch) come with each full release. There is no installer program yet: the program is delivered as a folder.

It pairs well with Gola Bobbin, which writes the sticks, Gola Stitch, which installs the apps, and Gola Bootlace, our free and open-source network boot server: put the ISOs NTLoom builds in its folder and install them over the network.