All Windows ISO File Download [Windows 7 & 10]
It doesn’t really matter what version of Windows you have, the best way to get your system working at its full speed and as issue free as possible is with a clean install of the operating system. Simply using Windows over time will eventually degrade its performance. It’s also a good idea to clean install Windows 10 after upgrading so you are not transferring problems from your old Windows install.
It’s easy to get hold of a Windows 10 ISO image, burn it to DVD or write to USB and do a clean install. However, it’s more difficult to source official install media for older operating systems like Windows 7. Of course, there are many unofficial sources but the files have often been cracked, tampered with or altered in some way. Using a trusted source for the download is the preferable option.
The best way to guarantee you are getting a clean and untouched Windows ISO image is by going directly to Microsoft themselves. It used to be easy to download Windows 7 ISO images until they were all removed from Digital River after sales of Windows 7 were discontinued in 2014. Microsoft prefers consumers to download a Windows 10 ISO from the Media Creation Tool instead of a direct download.
Here we show you several ways to download the Windows ISO you need so your operating system can be installed cleanly and safely.Things to know about Windows ISO images and Reinstalling
- Your Windows license only allows you to reinstall the edition of Windows that you have a license for. If you have Windows 7 Home Premium, you must install Home Premium again.
- You can switch between 32-bit and 64-bit as long as the Windows edition is the same. For example, you can replace Windows 10 Home 32-bit with Windows 10 Home 64-bit.
- You need a legal Windows license or the new install will be in trial mode. Windows 7 users will have a product key sticker. Windows 8.1 or 10 users will either have a separate key if Windows was purchased as a standalone product or the key will be embedded in the system BIOS. It will be read automatically on reinstall if your computer is from a manufacturer such as Dell or HP etc.
- If you upgraded to Windows 10 for free the license is tied to the computer hardware or your Microsoft account. It will reactivate automatically on reinstall without entering a key (if you are reinstalling on the same machine you activated Windows on).
- If you are using Windows 7 with a computer purchased from a manufacturer and cannot read the product key on the sticker, it’s still possible to reinstall and activate without it. Read our article on backing up and restoring the Windows 7 license for help on what to do.
Download Windows 10 ISO With the Media Creation Tool
There are a couple of ways in which you can download a Windows 10 ISO. One is the Microsoft Media Creation Tool which downloads and builds the latest Windows ISO file, performs an in place upgrade or writes the installation files onto a USB flash drive.
1. Download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and run it. Accept the license agreement, select “Create installation media for another PC” and click Next.
2. The language, version and architecture type will be chosen that best matches the operating system you are running the tool on. To change these uncheck “Use the recommended options for this PC” and choose what you want from the drop down menus. Click Next when done.
If you also choose Both in the Architecture menu you’ll get an all in one ISO image with 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10 Home and Pro on the same media.
3. Select “ISO file” to download an ISO image file and click Next. You’ll then be asked to supply a save location and filename. The files will then start to download.
Once complete you can open the DVD burner directly or click Finish and create the install media later. An all in one image with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions included will not fit on a single layer DVDR and you’ll have to use either a USB flash drive or dual-layer DVDR. Once downloaded, you can burn the image to DVD, write it to USB or store the file for later use.
Download Windows 10 ISO Direct From The Microsoft Website
Although the Media Creation Tool works fine, it’s also easy to download the latest ISO direct. Where you download an ISO is actually the same page that offers the Media Creation Tool and it detects whether you are using a Windows web browser. If you are, the Media Creation Tool page is shown, if not, the download ISO image page is shown.
This redirection is done by checking the browser’s user agent string. Simply changing the user agent in your browser to a non Windows version will show the disc image page. It can be done from inside the browser and requires no external add ons. Here we’ll show you how to do it for Chrome.
1. Open Chrome and visit the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool web page and it will offer the tool for download.
2. Press F12 to open the Developer Tools pane. Click the “Customize and control DevTools” button which is the three dots at the top right of the DevTools pane. Select “More Tools” > “Network conditions”.
3. In the User agent section, uncheck “Select automatically”, click the drop down menu and select a user agent that is not Windows. Pretty much any Android, iOS, Blackberry or Mac string will work, including Googlebot and ChromeOS.
4. Keep the DevTools pane open and refresh the page (F5), it should now show the disc image page. Select the edition from the drop down, it will show the latest Windows 10 version and possibly the previous version as well. Click Confirm.
5. Choose the language and click Confirm. The 32-bit and 64-bit ISO images will then be offered for download. Press one of the buttons to start the download. Unlike the Media Creation Tool, the webpage does not offer a 32-bit/64-bit two in one image.
Once the download is complete, you can close the tab. The user agent settings are not permanent and are only applied to that tab. It’s quite easy to do the same in Edge but for Firefox we’d recommend installing an extension. User-Agent Switcher for Firefox is simple and effective.
Just select a mobile device or an operating system other than Windows and press refresh. If for some reason you want to use an extension instead of the manual method shown above, User-Agent Switcher for Chrome will also get the job done.
Download Windows 8.1 From The Disc Image Page
Some users still have Windows 8.1 installed and might prefer to keep it instead of upgrading to Windows 10. After all, it’s supported until 2023. There was a Media Creation Tool for Windows 8.1 but it doesn’t work anymore, you now only need to visit the Microsoft site and download the ISO directly.
1. Visit the Download Windows 8.1 Disc Image page, select Windows 8.1 from the drop down and click Confirm.
2. Select the language from the next drop down and click Confirm again. The download link will show for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Simply press the required button to start downloading.
The ISO images for windows 8.1 are from late 2014 and include the major autumn update. Their SHA1 checksums can be checked against the official ISO images to verify they are complete. See later in the article for help in doing that.
Download a Windows 7 ISO From The Disc Image Page
The last official Windows 7 ISO is from 2011 which includes Service Pack 1 and a minor install bug hotfix. There’ll be tons of updates after installation so creating an integrated ISO is worth considering. The one official method left requires entering a Windows 7 product key before downloading the image file.
1. Visit the Windows 7 Disc Image page at Microsoft.
2. Enter your 25 character product key into the box and click Verify. If the key is accepted you will be able to download a Windows 7 ISO that corresponds to the license key you entered. Select the required language and a 32-bit or 64-bit version then download the file.
Important Note: This page has a massive problem because it only accepts retail license keys which you get when purchasing a full copy of Windows 7. If your computer is from a manufacturer such as Dell your key will be of the OEM type and ineligible. The same applies to volume licenses and system builder OEM licenses. Most Windows 7 users are blocked from downloading an ISO image from the only official source available. Well done Microsoft!
On page two we look at some third party methods to get the Windows ISOs from Microsoft, how to get Windows 7 ISOs using virtually the only useful method left and how to verify your downloaded images.
Third Party Methods To Download Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 From Microsoft
Ever since Microsoft removed Windows ISOs from Digital River it’s been more difficult to find a clean and untouched image. There are ways in which you can get to the ISOs on Microsoft’s own servers using other means. Here are a few ways to do it.
Adguard.net Techbench Download Page
Adguard is a Russian website (not the ad blocker) that releases custom ISOs for Windows. They also have a page which is a simple frontend allowing you to download Windows ISO images from the Microsoft servers. This is an easy and quick way to get access to a number of Windows downloads at Microsoft without using hacks or separate third party tools.
Visit the page and in the drop down menus select the type, version, edition, and language. Also displayed are SHA1 checksums for the download so you can check the ISO file integrity once downloaded. Besides Windows 8.1 and a variety of Windows 10 versions, the Adguard Techbench page also offers downloads for Office and virtual machines. It is important to note that none of the Windows 7 options work anymore.
Visit Adguard Techbench Download page
Heidoc Windows ISO Downloader
Heidoc is a website that has been hosting ways to get ISO images from Microsoft for a number of years. They also have a dedicated tool which is able to download not only Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 ISOs but also ISOs for Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 (also 2011/16/19 for Mac). An ad window pops up on program launch which can’t be closed for a few minutes, you can minimize it though.
Run the program, select what you want on the right and after selecting from a few drop down menus to get the product you want, the image file will start to download. Some of the Office downloads are slightly different because they open and download the file in your browser.
Notes About Windows ISO Downloader:
- Most of the time the Heidoc tool can’t download the standard Windows 7 ISO images. It can on occasion by using its own set of retail license keys to get the ISO from the Disc Image Page mentioned above. However, they get blocked quickly by Microsoft.
- There’s an option to download a Windows ISO from Dell’s repository. This is good for Dell users but other users that download an ISO could find a number of extras such as drivers and software pre-installed. The ISO might cause problems or not work on your system at all.
- The August 2018 entry does actually contain some Windows 7 ISOs direct from Microsoft which have been updated to late 2018. However, they appear to be non standard discs of about 5.5GB in size and there’s very little information online about what they really are. You are welcome to try them but be aware they are an unknown quantity at this time. They also do not integrate updates correctly.
Download Heidoc Windows ISO Downloader
Download Windows 7 ISO From A Third Party Source
Downloading from torrents (or any other third party) is something we’ve mostly discouraged. Mainly because most ISOs are not identical to the images that came from Microsoft. However, because there is very little choice anymore, we have taken the unusual step of finding some torrent files that download completely clean and untouched ISO files.
The English versions of the files we point to have been downloaded and checked by us and they match the known SHA1 checksums of the official Windows 7 SP1 ISO files, so are totally safe to use. They are also reasonably well seeded so you should get an acceptable download speed.
Visit this website at the Internet Archive. It lists an old page which contains a repository of Windows 7 TechNet and Digital River ISO downloads using BitTorrent. The original webpage is no longer available but this cached page still contains all the .torrent files for download.
All the entries shown in yellow above are the standard English ISO files that can be downloaded. Click on the link for the required version to download the torrent file, load up a torrent client (or another method of downloading torrents) and add the torrent file to start downloading. There are many torrent clients available, qBitTorrent is one we’d recommend.
Once downloading is complete you can verify the SHA1 checksum against the official checksums from Microsoft. They are listed in the image but for ease of use, they can also be viewed or copied from the list below. Some other languages are also listed, we haven’t tested them but they should be untouched like the English versions.
Verify The SHA1 Checksum of Your Windows ISO
All Windows ISOs are over 2GB in size so it’s wise to check the download is not corrupt. You can do this by comparing the SHA1 checksum of the downloaded ISO with the checksum from Microsoft. If they don’t match there is a problem and you will need to download the file again. One good source for checksums is the Adguard Techbench page.
If you don’t already have a hash checker handy, we have a list of 10 File Integrity checking tools so you can download one of those. Then compare both SHA1 checksums and make sure they match.
For your convenience, we’ve listed some English language SHA1 checksums for Windows 7 and 8.1 ISOs. We haven’t included Windows 10 simply because it has major updates every six months and the ISOs you can download are constantly changing.
Windows 7 Starter SP1 32-bit
SHA1: E1653B111C4C6FD75B1BE8F9B4C9BCBB0B39B209Windows 7 Home Basic SP1 32-bit
SHA1: 080EC1DE94B88B0F7E8D000690A4AAAA031E2719Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 32-bit
SHA1: 6071B4553FCF0EA53D589A846B5AE76743DD68FC
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit
SHA1: 6C9058389C1E2E5122B7C933275F963EDF1C07B9Windows 7 Professional SP1 32-bit
SHA1: D89937DF3A9BC2EC1A1486195FD308CD3DADE928
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
SHA1: 0BCFC54019EA175B1EE51F6D2B207A3D14DD2B58Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 32-bit
SHA1: 65FCE0F445D9BF7E78E43F17E441E08C63722657
Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit
SHA1: 36AE90DEFBAD9D9539E649B193AE573B77A71C83Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 32-bit
SHA-1: 4E0450AC73AB6F9F755EB422990CD9C7A1F3509C
Windows 7 Enterprise SP1 64-bit
SHA1: A491F985DCCFB5863F31B728DDDBEDB2FF4DF8D1Windows 8.1 and Pro (Autumn 2014 update) 32-bit
SHA1: C7FA828E01E98B601E0ACA8019F1CB223EB23223
Windows 8.1 and Pro (Autumn 2014 update) 64-bit
SHA1: A8B5DF0B0816280AE18017BC4B119C77B6C6EB79Windows 8.1 and Pro (Autumn 2014 update) 32-bit (English International)
SHA1: 39C57B6D35EAAAB64A971C374FB35004709E1F2C
Windows 8.1 and Pro (Autumn 2014 update) 64-bit (English International)
SHA1: C99A6EC2DE4A71DEF522989D2242CB34AB860A0D
If any checksum you want isn’t listed, you should be able to find it using the Adguard database.
Unlocking Windows 7 Versions From a Single ISO
Each Windows 7 ISO contains all other available versions, except for Enterprise. For instance, the Home Premium 32-bit ISO also contains Starter, Home Basic, Professional and Ultimate, but they are hidden. To unlock the extra versions all you need to do is remove a file called ei.cfg from the image.
A simple way to do this is by using a small program called the ei.cfg Removal Utility which tells the file system of the disc to ignore the file. This is a handy and quick method because opening the file, deleting it and then resaving the ISO is not required, the process is nearly instantaneous. Below is a Home Premium 32-bit install disk with ei.cfg removed.
All you have to do is run the ei.cfg Removal Utility and locate the downloaded Windows 7 ISO, a small window will pop up to say the file is removed, running the tool on the same file again will restore the ei.cfg. Using this method means you can save time and bandwidth and get all Windows 7 consumer editions by downloading one 32-bit and one 64-bit Windows 7 ISO file.
Hello Raymond, Special thanks to you for this Wonderful article especially the SHA & md5 Checksum part. I’m just wondering if the torrent files present in this article are still safe to download & working or not. Thank you
The Internet Archive page for downloading Win 7 isos via torrent no longer functions, however this one does:
digitalrivermirror.com Plus by ussing the free third party software program WSUS to download Windows security updates, Win 7 is still viable to 2023! It howver does not have the ability to download specific ranges/dates of updates, and will download ALL of them, save prior to SP 1 if the option is checked. Also an earlier version of WSUS (1107) will need to be installed if using Win 7 OS to download, and not Win 8.1 or 10.
Windows 10 newer is no longer distributed as an ISO, but an update,
you can get a fresh ISO generated from those updated suitable for installing a new PC using a uupdump . net which gives you a download script, and aria2c to parallel download everything from MS. you can also choose preview versions or future version (21H2 and Windows 11), you can take that generated ISO and use Rufus to make your USB stick bootable. if you have MBR partitions at the end you can use KMS38 and for GPT use HWID you can always fallback to Online KMS activation (task to renew every 180 days) with github .com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
sir the key you mentioned is not working
What key, we don’t mention one??
Windows 7 Professional SP1 32-bit
SHA1: D89937DF3A9BC2EC1A1486195FD308CD3DADE928
Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit
SHA1: 0BCFC54019EA175B1EE51F6D2B207A3D14DD2B58
These are the SHA1 numbers for Win7pro – but in the torrent names its the other way around :)
The name says x86, but the SHA1 is 32bit according to this
Where is the mixup? :)
Best Regards,
I’ve downloaded both anyways, but just 4 clarification
Digital River Win 7 iso’s are STILL in Archive.org ia801300.us.archive.org/30/items/digital_river/xxx17index_file.txt and still downloadable, as files NOT torrents (do not need torrent loader to get them).
Sadly, large files from Archive.org are incredibly unreliable. The downloads are often slow or just fail during download.
We’ve tried Archive.org before for Vista install file downloads and most people couldn’t get them. The torrents are very reliable and perfectly legal so we went with that method.
Could I use a retail Windows 7 key (not SP1) to get an SP1 ISO? If not, does it get me a stock Windows 7 ISO?
Are you talking about direct from the Windows 7 download page at Microsoft? If so, I’m certain you will get an SP1 ISO.
Ah, good to know. How about HeiDoc?
If you can get it from there, it will be an SP1 ISO.
That’s why we had to resort to adding torrent methods, there are so few legit ways to get Win 7 SP1 these days.
For the Windows 7 Disk Image Page, Microsoft also looks to see how often a Retail Key is used (blocking keys that leak on the web) and also look to see the origin IP to block spam attacks. This last one can affect trying to get the image from a Virtual IP or other anonymous IP methods.
Do not expect this Image Page to be available forever. End of Life and Support for Win7 is set for January 2020. Expect Microsoft to remove KB Content for many aspects of Windows 7 and to do things like remove this download ISO availability.
Of course Microsoft is going to check those keys entered into the Disc image page, they are retail keys and are supposed to be unique. So if one key is being used to download several times, they know something is wrong.
Thanks for sharing this informative post regarding links for windows 7 sp1 ISO from Microsoft, This post will be useful for them those are expert and they want extra informative. Keep giving updates.
Iv a dell inspirion 1545 on wind 7 but got 2nd hand so wanted re-install wind 7 but no disk and am a beginer using the internet ,How do i no whitch i want use ? How do i download coz at the min the windows help keeps popping up wen i click open ? Or is there a way of downloading to my iphone then getting it on iv a 32b dell
The script works fine but when I choose language and confirm, show me this error:
Error
We encountered a problem processing your request. Please try again later.
Sir I am confused between Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 and Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 COEM. What is coem? Which one you will recommend to download from your given website- adguard.net. Thank You.
There’s very little or no difference between the two and both should work equally as well, but to avoid any unforeseen issues, use the non COEM version.
exelent resource here
This hack does not work anymore.
why not you use toolkit microsoft
SHA1 generated for windows 8.1 pro downloaded from media creation tool is not the same as the one that u provided, whats the diffrence ?
and does windows 8.1 pro downloaded from media creation tool contain latest major update ( update 3 ) ?
The article clearly states: “The Media Creation Tool ISOs for Windows 8.1 and 10 will not be the same though and will not match these checksums.”
thanks for the quick reply ray, one last question if u allow me,
whats the diffrence between windows 8.1 from media creation tool and techbench ?
and does windows 8.1 pro from media creation tool include update 3 ?
I don’t think there are many differences between the two if any. The media creation tool version installs from a .ESD file where the normal ISO installs from a standard .WIM file, that’s why the checksums don’t match.
Both have the latest major update from late 2014, I think that is classed as “update 3”.
thank you so much, by the way i figured out the diffrence, the iso from techbench is 4.02gb where media creation tool give us 3.27gb iso its because iso from techbench contain pro+core version, in the other hand media creation tool give separate iso for core and pro ( i think you mentioned that in your article i just didnt notice) i hope this will help others too, thanks again.
Hi….dears frindes
plzzzz solve my problem to download boot iso image from WDS (windows deployment server)
any one whoe solve my problem?
Hal, can you provide me sha-1 checksum of Windows 10 Enterprise 2016 LTSB ISO Eng?
Now the MSDN site requires login to even view SHA-1 hashes :(
There are several checksums because there are several ISO releases, your best bet is to Google it and go through the list of available checksums.
Thanks for this and for the exhaustive article
Can anyone confirm that downloading Windows 7 Pro using this technique *DOES NOT* work anymore?
If you want Win 7 Pro English, then that is technically correct. However, the Heidoc tool is able to download Win 7 Home Premium English, so you can get that and unlock the Pro version on the ISO as mentioned in the article.
in case you still need it. check this tool: win710isodownloader.blogspot.com
Just to point out none of the ISOs coming from that program come from Microsoft servers, so download the files at your own risk.
Using Heidoc Windows and Office ISO Download Tool for windows 10 iso, how do I get ” the specific ISO file code injected” since its not on a browser? Or if its already applied then how to I get to choose between Home and Pro when getting the windows 10 iso?
That’s telling you how the tool works, you don’t have to do anything. You simply choose which version of Windows you want on the right and choose the version of Windows 10 you want from the drop down menu in the program where it says “select edition”.
I understand how it works, after you click on your select edition….the iso’s are different builds of home/pro. Is there a way to choose home or pro on that iso, from my install memory I don’t think there is a choice when installing.
For the third day I received this message (and a Kitten drawing).
Oh, something went wrong.
Please retry the request later.
If this does not work, please contact the Site administration: adguard
Please tell me what to do?
forget it. sites such as Adguard and techbench dump are no longer working.
best bet is to use the latest version of the Windows ISO download tool from Heidoc.
Thank You ;)
There used to be a different method of downloading Windows ISO’s here. It involved copy & pasting some js into a Microsoft webpage. Is that method no longer a fix? Or am I missing it somehow?
Doh! Found it. Never mind (sorry).
Thanks RAY, for this wonderful article, i can’t think anything easier !
I don’t find Win7 Home Basic x64
For some reason Microsoft does not host a Home Basic 64-bit ISO but you can still download a HP/Pro/Ultimate ISO and use the ei.cfg removal method to get the Home Basic x64 version.
Thanks
Error
The product key you entered appears to be for software pre-installed by the device manufacturer.
the product key is valid, if used to install windows 7 professional x64
The slimey bastards just won’t allow you to download what YOU OWN, whether it was preinstalled or not, you still have a valid working product key, which should be more than enough to download a genuine copy of windows from the source, ie microsoft.
And they wonder why they are targetted all the time. This is not about who owns what, because it’s established i own the key and it cost microdickheads nothing to give me a digital download….yet it is ironic, windows 10 is completely free if you download the enterprise edition. after the trial you can keep on using it, nothing gets locked off…yet try to get software you should already own by having the key they tell you to do one.
The sooner we have a better operating system from a different company the better! it wouldn’t take much to kill off m$
There already is a better OS than Windows, and it is Totally Free for everyone, and includes loads of free open source software. LINUX !! there are hundreds of special editions as well.. I recommend Ubuntu for 1st timers, loads of software, support options and Forums for troubleshooting. :)
(and you can run lots of SteamPowered Games as well)
There are many reasons why Linux has not taken off, it’s had plenty of chances…;)
Brilliant! Thank you SO MUCH.
I needed an ISO for Windows 7 for my laptop. I had a legit key but could not download the ISO from the Microsoft site. This worked a treat.
Thank you so much again.
Hi, I don’t know where you live, I don’t know who are you but you are a good man. I bought a Dell laptop having a window 8 64 bit. I was very upset when I tried to install Illustrator and Photoshop. I want to install a clean copy of window 7 ultimate 64 bits and your instructions helped me a lot. I am your admirer since 1999.
May God bless you and your loved ones. I will contact you once I install the same.
Thanks & Regards,
Sharman Vishu
Downloaded w7 ISO easily, just wondering if you do a reinstall with one of these, it will not be considered genuine and will not be activated unless you have a product key?
Like with every Windows 7 install disc, you need a genuine product key to activate it. That can be a key from a sticker or if your computer was made by the likes of Dell or HP, you can backup the OEM key before reinstalling.
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/backup-and-restore-vista-oem-activation-license/
Thanks for the reply. Amazing site btw, a lot of great information. One more question. My windows is activated and i have a product ID: with the OEM in the 20 digit code, but i’m almost 100% sure my windows is not genuine, i think i got the CD from someone a long time ago… So can i reuse that ID with the guide you posted?
Thank for the nice words :)
No, you can’t use a Product ID number to activate Windows, only a legit Product key. If you use our Windows 7 OEM License Installer from the link I provided earlier, it will tell you if your license is an OEM type from a major manufacturer. You don’t have to do anything just launch the program and it will tell you.
It said… You are using:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
OEM Information in the Bios
Dell
Does that mean the copy i have can be used on a new machine (building a new pc)? My current PC was not prebuilt it was also assembled by me, i just don’t remember where i got the Windows Disk. I’m a bit confused since it’s activated, but i don’t have a Product key.
Sorry for bothering you :)
If it says Dell, you either have a Dell motherboard or someone has flashed your BIOS with Dell information to activate it.
If you use our tool after reinstall it should reactivate your Windows with a Dell license.
BEWARE, if you are running a Windows crack such as Daz loader, the tool will pick up that as the Daz tool emulates the BIOS. If that is the case your computer will not activate after reinstall.
Fantastic post. I have downloaded Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (Brazilian Portuguese) and it worked for me (04/01/2017).
Brilliant article and resource.
Just got a clean W7 32 bits thanks to you!
Great info, loved the java trick. Thank you – now i can reinstall my oem build from legit source.
Win7 Ultimate SP1 ISO is d/ling now, thank you very much….!
No, the Windows 7 ISO only has updates as far as Service Pack 1 which was 2010. Downloading and installing KB3020369 and the Rollup update KB3125574 will save a lot of time during updating though.
Great tutorial! I wanted a Win 7 SP1 ISO for a clean install instead of an OEM recovery. On a geek scale from 1-10, I’m maybe a 3. Everything I need know, in terms I can understand, and steps I can actually perform. I was able to create an all consumer editions bootable DVD. Solutions (or a link) to everything I needed to do from start to finish. Far more than I hoped to find in a single source. THANK YOU!
Amazing article, thank you so much.
This still works flawlessly as of 30 October 2016. At least with the 8.1 ISOs. Thanks a lot.
thanxxxx…..
This really is a superb article. Many thanks. It got me out of a hole as I needed to install a Win7-32bit Home Premium on a new hard disk for a friend’s laptop whose disk had corrupted horribly and which was unrecoverable. All he had was the Licence Key and no restore disk or anything.
The procedure you describe worked a treat, and thanks for having the forethought to provide the SHA1 checksums for the various ISO files downloaded. Microsoft seem to have taken that page down for some reason.
Congratulations for the fantastic article. Very good work. Very usefull
Thanks! working perfect!
now i have untouched windows 7 sp1 iso.
Microsoft seems to be watching when we download the ISO’s for Win 7 and 8.1 from the Win 10 download page. It seems to me that it would be a good idea to use a proxy to hide your IP address and to use a computer which does not have any MS products installed. (I would be very surprised if MS does not include spyware whenever one of their products is installed so that they can identify the computer .)
While downloading the two versions of 7 and 8.1 (a total of four ISO’s) I received an E-mail from MS saying that they have detected “something unusual about a recent sign-in” to my account, even though I had not logged in to any MS account recently. The E-mail from MS included my IP address and a link to log in to Live.com to view information about the “unusual” activity. It took many rounds of account verification and entering codes before it would finally let me log in to Live.com, and when I checked to see the unusual activity there was no additional information.
My conclusion is that by sending the E-mail, MS was really saying: “We know who you are and what you are doing.” I am not concerned about them knowing I have the ISO’s because I have no intent to use them for anything other than reinstalling software on systems that originally came with the products. But since there are few companies more slimy and sneaky than MS, I am concerned that they might do something like block access to their web site or product updates. Before this I had never thought I would have a need to use a proxy to hide my identity.
My downloads continued and the SHA1 checksums verified correctly. I did have trouble getting to the pages that had the links to download 7 and 8.1. Usually the web site would hang on the white page that says: “Validating your request. This may take a few minutes”….
In my opinion a “something unusual about a recent sign in” is not related to downloading ISO files in the slightest. There is actually nothing illegal or dodgy at all about downloading ISO files directly from Microsoft’s own website, even though you are using a small hack to get them.
I’ve had occasional emails like you mention long before downloading ISO files from that page and it could be due to a number of reasons including someone else trying to log into your account, which happens from time to time when hackers are running scripts on the Microsoft servers. The timing is unfortunate but they are not related, I’m 100% convinced of that.
Man U are a God in Human body ,thank a lot!!! Cheers!!!!
You’re amazing dude !
Since the time I search a clean version of win7, problem solved in few seconds (except the downlading ;) )
Thank you !
Thank You Brother Thank You So Much
what edition of Windows Vista do you have, prassri?
No free upgrades from Vista to Win7 are available.
Although Hewlett-Packard [HP] did have some free Windows 7 upgrade offers for qualified desktop & laptop computers for a limited time when Windows 7 was first released but it’s way too late for that now.
To good
Thnx. You’re the best.
great tips, thanks
Just great. Thank you.
Are these ISO files free of the windows spy/telemetry updates? Or do we have to surgically remove all that telemetry that Microsoft has slathered on these operating systems lately?
It depends which Windows you want, Windows 10’s ISO will have all the telemetry included as it’s built into the OS from the beginning. For Windows 8.1 and 7 the extra telemetry was added in updates over the last year or so, the ISO’s won’t have the telemetry but the updates you install will so will have to be careful when updating.
Microsoft don’t make full telemetry and no telemetry ISOs…;)
What a great discovery! :D Thanks!
Amazing, as usual! Thanks for sharing!:)
Haha that non-JS method is just hilarious. Let’s hope they’ll never stuff that hole. Although by tomorrow, I’ll probably have burnt 10 copies (just to make sure…) of Windows 7 updated as much as possible to use for my offline machine for years to come.
Thanks HAL9000!!!
This is really, really great info.
I was able to download Windows 7 SP1 Home Edition to reinstall in my system, just in case I need it.
Shame to Microsoft to dont provide easy ways to download past versions of his OS.
Thanks!
Thank you Raymond! You are the best as always ;)
Thanks!
Great resource in case your hard drive breaks and your computer didn’t include a rescue disk.
Thank you, I have also been facing this issue after misplacing my vanilla dvd’s…
Also thank you for detailing the pitfalls of torrent AIO ISOs, all one has to do is install one in a VM and have a peek with TCP View or Curr Ports and watch it calling home to mother Russia…
thanks a lot
thnks!
Great to hear from you again – Simply Awasome
Many thanks Mr. Raymond keep up the great work
Greetings from Germany, glad to see that you are back!! Cool stuff !
This is very good information, however, mostly I need OEM ISOs to reinstall corrupt systems. The full WZor script has Windows 7 “COEM” and Windows 7 “COEM GGK”. What is the difference between these? Are these different from “OEM”? I cannot find any information on this.
Which would reinstall a PC by Dell, HP, Acer, etc on a replacement hard drive that would allow the key code to be accepted?
There are three key codes. First there is an OEM code that can be found with Magic Jelly Bean. Next, in Magic Jelly Bean there is a “match to CD Key data CD Key:” Third, there is a key code on the label on the side of the PC.
Which ISOs, if any, will match which of these key codes? Microsoft makes this very confusing. If you can you shed some light on this, it would be very helpful?
The COEM ones are commercial OEM versions which are not required and only meant for major companies. COEM GGK is the same but includes the Get Genuine Kit which helps end users purchase a genuine Windows license. As these are not required for general users we left them out of the modified script.
The standard Windows 7 downloads will cover almost everything including retail and OEM so you can use the key from the sticker. The only thing they do not cover is the OEM pre installed keys, which if the computer was purchased from HP, Dell etc will be the key you find in Magic Jellybean and is different to the one on the sticker.
To reuse the OEM key requires extra steps, you can read about that here:
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/backup-and-restore-vista-oem-activation-license/
Thank you so much. Let me see if I understand this correctly.
If the hard drive is toast and the sticker on the side is unreadable, I can do this:
* Download the x32 or x64 Windows 7 ISO, as needed, per this article.
* Run the ei.cfg Removal Utility to unlock the versions.
* Burn the ISO to a DVD or USB stick.
* Replace the bad hard drive with a new one.
* Install the correct Windows 7 version.
* Do not enter a product key when prompted.
* Download the Windows 7 OEM License Installer
* Run the installer and click “Install Cert & Key”
* This will reactivate the OEM key from the BIOS and
will properly Activate with this downloaded Windows 7 ISO version.
That is quite correct, I have done similar many times. Just make sure the Windows 7 OEM License Installer tool supports the manufacturer of the computer you are using it on (Dell, HP, Lenovo etc).
I really really love your website, because it has no ads, and the download links are ‘to the point’. I mean, i don’t have to install anything after downloaded something, not like other websites :) OK, thanks, great website!! I appreciate your work, thank you very much :D
P.S:
Sorry if i had a bad sentences, i’m from indonesia :D
Thank you for link to Windows 7 Professional French.
Brilliant!!
This was very valueable information!!
Thank you for sharing your entensive knowledge, it is appreciated.
Hugo Atlanta, GA
Thanks mate, much appreciated. I have checked the SHA sums and they are the same as the “refresh” media that was released a while back (last year) I’ve already got two USB Flash drives for Universal install. I remember creating them ages ago and yes, I did use ei.cfg to remove the limitation, so now I’ve got x86 & x64 Super fast SUB Install. Have used WinUSB or WinToFlash.
Finally manage to download using flashget… tq for the article
That was awesome!