Create a bootable USB for Windows 10 using just the recovery image from the ISO.
Create a bootable USB for Windows 10 using just the recovery image from the ISO.
You're exploring a way to build a compact USB bootable W10 v1703 using just the Recovery portion of the ISO. It's worth noting that the Recovery image is typically found in either install.wim or boot.wim, though it can also reside elsewhere depending on the installation method. Using only the Recovery files should help trim down the overall size since they contain shared components across different OS versions. This approach can indeed lead to a much smaller ISO file without affecting other installations.
You can remove install.wim from a Windows installation drive since all necessary boot information resides in boot.wim. This should clear out several gigabytes of space. The recommended method is to employ the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to create your own Windows PE setup. Alternatively, you might consider using Hiren's Boot Manager.