Gola NTLoom: Build Your Own Windows 11 Installation Media, Updates and Settings Included
Date Published
Gola NTLoom is the program we use to turn Microsoft's Windows 11 ISO into installation media set up the way you want it: updates already inside, ads and nags switched off, your settings in place, and Windows Setup asking only what it needs to. It is a commercial product from Gola Services, available now: contact us for pricing and 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.
Why we built it
Setting up a Windows PC by hand is the same list every time: install, wait for the updates, switch off the ads and suggestions, turn off what you do not want, set the taskbar, rename the PC. For one PC it is a chore. For twenty, one forgotten tick box means two PCs that behave differently, and a client who notices.
NTLoom does that list once, inside the installation media. Every PC installed from it starts the same, with the newest updates already in, and nobody has to remember anything.
Same Windows, better experience
NTLoom never removes anything from Windows. Every change is a default that the person using the PC can switch back, and the text says so for each setting. It starts from Microsoft's own ISO and uses Microsoft's own updates. Windows licences are sold separately: NTLoom changes how Windows starts, not whether it is licensed.
What it does
Open an ISO, tick what you want, press Build. Behind that:
• Updates built in. It fetches the newest cumulative update, .NET, and the recovery and Setup updates straight from Microsoft's update catalog, checks their checksums and installs them into the image. Microsoft Defender and winget can be refreshed too. Nothing is bundled with the program: the list is fetched fresh at every build.
• About 170 settings, in plain words. Ads and suggestions, Copilot and the AI features, diagnostics, the desktop, the taskbar, privacy, security and more. Each one explains what every state does, what Windows does by default and exactly which registry values it writes.
• Group Policy as a last resort. More than 1,400 simple policies read from Windows' own templates, with Microsoft's explanation. Anything that uses a policy is labelled, because the person using the PC cannot change a policy back.
• Windows features of the ISO's own image, with the real defaults read from it.
• Your files and commands. Copy files into Windows, add apps, run your own PowerShell at the end of setup, and bring your own Start layout and desktop theme.
• Setup screens your way. Skip the pages you do not need, ask the technician for the computer name or generate one from a prefix, set the time zone, put your name and support details in System > About, or run a fully unattended install on new single-disk PCs.
• Home and Pro in one ISO, per language. We build and test in English and French; the language of the ISO you start from is the language you get.
• Ready for the new Secure Boot certificates. It can write a second ISO signed with the 2023 certificate for newer PCs, and a small tool to switch a USB stick between the two.
• Windows 11 on older PCs. Optional switches skip the TPM, Secure Boot, memory and processor checks. Microsoft does not officially support those PCs, and NTLoom says so every time.
• Made to be tested. A test build starts Setup at once and numbers the ISO, so you can try it in a virtual machine (Hyper-V or VirtualBox) before using it on real PCs. We check our own builds by installing the result in virtual machines and comparing the values.
• Nothing extra to install. It writes the ISO with Windows' own tools, so there is no Windows ADK to download. Several ISOs queue behind one administrator prompt, and a build keeps running if you close the window.
Three looks, one profile
Simple shows three steps: choose Windows, tick what to change, build. It has about fifteen plain tick boxes: no ads and suggestions, no Copilot, less data sent to Microsoft, file extensions shown, taskbar on the left, dark mode, install without internet or a Microsoft account, Windows 11 on older PCs. Guided shows every setting with its explanation. Compact is the same without the explanations. All three edit the same profile, so you can switch at any time.
Every setting says what each state does, what Windows does by default, whether the person using the PC can change it back, and what it writes.
Updates have a page of their own.
So do your files, your apps and your commands.
The Unattended page decides what Setup asks, including the computer name.
And the last page builds: one ISO holding Home and Pro, and a second one signed for the 2023 Secure Boot certificate if you want it.
Profiles keep your choices together
Your choices are saved in a profile: one file, with your own files next to it. Home and Pro, English and French are built from the same profile with small differences per edition, so they cannot drift apart. NTLoom ships with no company's customisation: yours stays yours. Already have presets from another tool? Import the XML preset: NTLoom converts what it can and lists every item it could not.
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 it internally for our own PC set-ups at Gola Services, where it prepares the Windows on every PC we deliver, and we will use it more and more. It replaced the tool we used before, and it does the job a lot better for the way we work. 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.
Good to know
• It is version 0.9: complete enough for daily use, still before 1.0. We fix what customers find, and we say what has not been tested on real hardware yet.
• Windows 11, 64-bit. The settings catalog follows 26H2.
• What it needs: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) to run, administrator rights to build, and about 100 GB of free disk space per language. How long a build takes depends on your machine: its processor, its memory and the speed of its disk.
• The 2023-signed ISO has been tested in virtual machines: try it on one of your own PCs before a fleet roll-out.
• Settings that lower security carry a risk note, and the ones that go through Group Policy say that they cannot be changed back.
Not free, not open source
NTLoom is a commercial product and its source code is not public. The price depends on how you would use it. Contact us and tell us how many PCs you set up: we will send you a price and show you NTLoom at work.
It pairs well with Gola Bootlace, our free and open-source network boot server: put the ISOs NTLoom builds in its folder and install them over the network.