Image Assist hangs at "Please wait for the Dynamic Image to finalize." when using VMWare ESXi

The following issue has been seen.

Since ESXI isn’t a supported virtulization platform, this issue likely won't be resolved. To work-around it, disable the auto-capture process and capture the image manually using the ISO of the USB drive. To disable auto-capture, update the following line in the config file before launching the tool. After doing this, when you run the tool, it will Sysprep the system and shutdown. It will not auto-capture.

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To manually capture > create an ISO of the USB (for mounting to your VM as the CDROM so you can boot into WinPE and manually capture the sysprepped & shutdown system).

From the gear icon at the top right, select additional tools then run the USB drive creator and select the Bootable ISO option. The ISO will be generated on the root of the Windows partition of wherever you run the tool from. Copy that ISO to a network share and import it into your ISO DATA store, then mount it as the CDROM for booting.

*TIP - take a snapshot of the VM while it's shut down, before booting to the CDROM. If not, you risk missing the CDROM boot option and Windows setup will begin. There's an option in ESXi settings, boot options, set next boot to load EFI firmware settings. This will ensure it doesn't boot to Windows setup and you can manually select the CDROM as the boot device.