How to activate S-Mode on your Windows 10 ISO file

With Windows 10 version 1803, Microsoft now allows OEMs to treat Windows 10 S as a mode and ship their own discrete versions of Windows 10 with Windows 10 in S mode.

While home users can’t easily convert a Windows PC to a Windows 10 in S-Mode device, you can alter a Windows Image (ISO) file as long as it is Windows 10 Version 1803 or later, and is Windows 10 Home or Pro to make it a Windows 10 S enabled version.

Naturally, if you couldn’t give a rats ass about ISOs and DISMs and XMLs, you can use the Windows settings app to replicate the S-Mode experience on your Windows 10 PC by limiting app installations to the Microsoft Store only.

Otherwise, read on.

How to convert a Windows 10 Home or Pro image to S-Mode

1. Download and Mount a Windows Image (ISO).
2. Use the Windows System Image Manager to modify or create an unattend.XML file to the image file.
3. Add the amd64_Microsoft_Windows_CodeIntegrity component to Pass 2 offline Servicing.
4. Set amd64_Microsoft_Windows_CodeIntegrity\SkuPolicyRequired to 1. The offline servicing pass in your unattend.xml file should look like this:<settings pass=“offlineServicing”> <component name=“Microsoft-Windows-CodeIntegrity” processorArchitecture=“amd64” publicKeyToken=“31bf3856ad364e35” language=“neutral” versionScope=“nonSxS” xmlns:wcm=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State” xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”> <SkuPolicyRequired>1</SkuPolicyRequired> </component> </settings>
5. Save the answer file in the Windows\Panther folder of your mounted image as unattend.xml.
6. Use DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool)  to apply the unattend file and enable S Mode: dism /image:C:\mount\windows /apply-unattend:C:\mount\windows\windows\panther\unattend.xml

When the Windows image is used to set up a PC, it will now boot with Windows 10 in S Mode enabled.

Via Microsoft.