Discord: Failed to Validate Product Key during Setup - OS Cannot Install

Windows Utility
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Discord: jaratii: All ISOs created using Win11 Creator are giving me a product key verification failure, despite clicking “I don’t have a product key.” The OS cannot be installed. I have tried this with and without driver injection, writing to USB vs ISO creation, all the same result.

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Discord: jaratii: Failed to Validate Product Key during Setup

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Discord: jaratii: I inspected install.wim from the host PC and discovered that its WIM metadata has been broken:


Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.26100.5074

Details for image : E:\sources\install.wim

Index : 1
Name : Windows 11 Pro
Description : Windows 11 Pro
Size : 24,354,379,074 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.26100
ServicePack Build : 7920
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : <undefined>
Installation : <undefined>
ProductType : <undefined>
ProductSuite : <undefined>
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 32064
Files : 139371
Created : 3/6/2026 - 8:07:05 PM
Modified : 5/1/2026 - 2:00:28 PM
Languages : <undefined>
The operation completed successfully.
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Discord: jaratii: Win11 Creator is Breaking WIM Metadata - OS Cannot Install

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Discord: jaratii: Adding additional info as I discover it (or have time to look into it). I exported the image into a fresh WIM container to see if that might help. The relevant output:

DISM /Get-ImageInfo:
Edition      : <undefined>
Installation : <undefined>
Languages    : <undefined>

yet:

DISM /Image:C:\Mount\Win11Mod /Get-CurrentEdition:
Current Edition : Professional

DISM /Image:C:\Mount\Win11Mod /Get-Intl:
Default system UI language : en-US
Installed language(s): en-US

The mounted OS still seems to know that it is Windows 11 Pro, but the outer metadata that Setup reads is missing several fields. That would explain this line from the setupact log:
Some image info for WIM D:\Sources\Install.wim, index 1 is missing from WIM XML; trying to get it from registry.