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The following steps form a good guideline of what to do while creating your image:

1. Run Windows Update - Reboots are OK. It before saving an image.  It's OK if the computer needs to reboots.  It can take 4-6 minutes for the computer to reboot before you can connect via RDP again.
2. Install your applications. Here are some suggestions/tips on loading software to the remote machine:
   • If you have access to enough network storage, it may be easiest to copy the software installation files in network filespace and access them from the remote machine.
   • Install from media on your local Copy the software from your local computer to the remote computer by sharing your local drives through Remote Desktop Connection. However, installing with this method frequently does not work (network protocol latencies can cause the installer to timeout).Copy the media from your local computer (by sharing your drives through Remote Desktop Connection) to the remote machine and then run the installer from the copied files  The shared drives show up in Windows Explorer on the remote machine.  Do not run the software's installation program directly from the shared drive.  Copy it to the remote computer first, run the setup program, then delete the installation files.
   • If you have an ISO image of the software, copy the ISO file to the remote machine using a shared drive then mount the ISO image as a drive letter.  The freeware program MagicDisc does this very well:
     http://www.magiciso.com/tutorials/miso-magicdisc-overview.htm
     Install MagicDisc, mount the ISO file, and then run the application's installation program from the mounted drive.  When the installation is done, unmount the drive and delete the ISO file from the remote machine.  Uninstall MagicDisc before saving your image if you don't want it included.
     If you have a physical CD or DVD, you can create an ISO image using a program such as LC ISO Creator:
     http://www.lucersoft.com/freeware.php
   • If you have access to enough network storage, you can copy the software installation files to the network filespace and access them from the remote machine.
   • Copy the media contents through using SCP from the remote computer.  If you have a personal machine running an ssh SSH server you can use this method.  You could also do the same thing using FTP.
3. Post install of software:
   • remove Remove any copies of software media (needlessly takes up space in the image which increases the loading time for new reservations of the image)
   • make sure all wanted desktop icons are in "All users" desktop.
   • Configure any application customizations
   • perform customizations to the default user profile
4. Save the Image