If you are installing Windows 10 on a PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista, or if you need to create installation media to install Windows 10 on a different PC, see Using the tool to create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) to install Windows. Use the media creation tool to download Windows. This tool provides the best download experience for customers running Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. To learn how to use the tool, go to the Installing.
You can reinstall Windows from scratch using the product key that came with your PC, but you’ll have to find installation media yourself. Microsoft offers free ISO files for downloading; you just have to know where to look.
There area few ways to do this, but they’re all on the straight and narrow–you won’t have to visit a shady BitTorrent site to download ISOs that may be filled with malware. Instead, you get official installation media straight from Microsoft.
NOTE: Depending on the OEM version of Windows that you are running, you might run into an issue using the OEM key with a retail version of Windows. If it won’t activate, you can always install and then call Microsoft to get them to straighten it out and allow your copy to activate. The most important thing is that you have a valid license key.
Download the Windows 10 or 8.1 ISO Using the Media Creation Tool
If you’ve got access to a Windows machine, the official method for downloading ISOs for Windows 8.1 and 10 is the Media Creation Tool. The process for using the tool is largely the same for both versions of Windows, so we’ll be using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool for our example. We’ll just note where anything differs.
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One caveat you should be aware of up front is that you can no longer download an ISO for Windows 8–just 8.1. And the product keys are different for Windows 8 and 8.1, so if you have a Windows 8 product key, you can’t just use it to install Windows 8.1. Instead, you’ll have to install Windows 8, then do a free upgrade to 8.1. After you do the upgrade, Windows will assign the new product key to the installation. You can find that product key in a number of different ways and save it for the future. After that, you should be able to do a clean installation of Windows 8.1 using the new product key and won’t have to worry about installing Windows 8 first and going the upgrade route.
Start by downloading either the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool or the Windows 8.1 Media Creation Tool. Once the file has downloaded, just double-click it to start the tool and then click “Yes” to give it permission to make changes to your PC. When the tool starts, click “Accept” to accept the license terms. Note that the Windows 8.1 version of the tool does not ask you to accept license terms.
(If you don’t want to use the Media Creation Tool and just want to download an ISO file directly, just change your browser’s user agent to a non-Windows browser like Apple Safari on iPad while you’re viewing the download page. Microsoft will offer you a direct download of the Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 ISO file instead of the standard Media Creation Tool, which only runs on Windows.)
When the tool asks what you want to do, select “Create installation media for another PC” and then click “Next.” The Windows 8.1 version of the tool also does not provide this option; it just defaults to creating installation media for another PC (which is what we want).
The tool will suggest a language, edition, and architecture for Windows based on information about the PC on which the tool is running. If you’re going to use the installation media on that PC, go ahead and just click “Next.” If you’re planning to install it on a different PC, clear the “Use recommended options for this PC” check box, select options that are more appropriate for the license you have, and then click “Next.” Note that if you’re using the 8.1 version of the tool, you actually start with this screen. The tool also won’t recommend options; you have to select them yourself.
Remember, your license will only work with the correct version of Windows–if your license is for 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, you can’t install 32-bit Windows 10 Home with it, so ensure your selections here match what’s listed on your product key.
Next, select whether you want the tool to create a bootable USB flash drive with the installation media, or just create an ISO file that you can use or burn to a DVD later. We’re going with the ISO file in this example, but the process is much the same either way. If you go with the USB option, you’ll need to provide a USB drive with at least 3 GB of space. Also, the USB drive will be formatted during the process, so make sure there’s nothing on it you need. Select the option you want and then click “Next.”
Choose a place to save the finished ISO file (or point the tool toward the right USB drive if that’s the option you chose).
At this point, the Media Creation Tool will begin downloading the files and assembling your ISO, which can take a fair bit of time depending on your internet connection. When it’s finished, you can click “Open DVD Burner” if you want to go ahead and create a disc or just click Finish if you don’t want to make a disc right now.
Now that you have your new ISO saved, you’re ready to make use of it however you see fit. You could go ahead and perform a clean installation of Windows (which technically you don’t even need a product key to do), use the ISO to create a virtual machine, or just save it for when you need it down the road.
Download the Windows 7 SP1 ISO Directly From Microsoft’s Website
Microsoft makes the Windows 7 SP1 ISO available for direct download through their site. The only catch is that you’ll need a valid product key in order to download the file–and OEM keys (like the one that came on a sticker under your laptop) won’t work. If that’s you, proceed to the next section.
If you do have a valid retail key, head to the Windows 7 download page, enter your product key, and click “Verify” to start the download process.
After your product key is verified, select the product language you want to download and then click “Confirm.”
Next, choose whether you want the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows 7. When you click whichever version you want, the download will begin. Note that download links generated by the site are only valid for 24 hours. Of course, you could always come back and walk through the verification and selection process again to generate new links.
After downloading the ISO file, you can burn it to a DVD by right-clicking it in Windows Explorer and selecting “Burn disc image” to burn it to a disc. If you want to install Windows 7 from a USB drive, the best way is to use the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool to put that ISO file onto a USB drive.
The downloaded ISO you’ll get from Microsoft includes Windows 7 with Service Pack 1. When you install Windows 7, you can avoid the hassle of downloading and installing the hundreds of updates that came out after SP1 by installing the Windows 7 SP1 Convenience Rollup. Even better, why not take a little extra time and slipstream the Convenience Rollup right into your Windows 7 ISO? That way, whenever you install Windows 7 in the future, you’ll have one ISO with all the updates (at least up through May 2016) already included.
Download Any Windows or Office ISO Using a Free Third-Party Tool
Microsoft used to make all these ISOs available through a site called Digital River, but it doesn’t anymore. Instead, they’re stored on its TechBench site. The ISOs can be hard to find, though, and for versions of Windows other than the most current, the site tries really hard to push you into using the Media Creation Tool instead. Enter the Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool. This free utility provides a simple interface that lets you select the version of Windows you want, then downloads an ISO for that version straight from Microsoft’s download servers. This includes various builds of the Windows 10 Insider Preview. You can also use the tool to download ISOs for certain versions of Microsoft Office.
First, head over to HeiDoc.net and grab the Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool. It’s free and it’s a portable tool, so there’s no installation. Just launch the executable file. In the main window, choose the version of Windows or Office you’d like to download.
Click the “Select Edition” drop-down menu and then choose the edition you want. Note that in addition to the regular editions of the product (such as Home or Professional), you can also download regions specific editions such as Windows N (which is sold to the European market and does not include multimedia apps like Media Player and DVD Maker) and Windows K (which is sold to the Korean market).
After you select the edition you want to download, click “Confirm.”
Next, use the drop-down menu that appears to choose the product language you want to download and then click the “Confirm” button under the language drop-down menu.
Finally, choose whether to download the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the product. Clicking either download button will initiate the download using the ISO download tool, so you’ll need to keep it open until the download finishes. Alternatively, you can use the “Copy Link” buttons to the right to copy the direct download link to your clipboard and then download the file using your browser. Either way, note that most links generated by the tool are only valid for 24 hours, though you can always come back and generate new links.
And that’s all there is to using the Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool. Yes, you could accomplish some of this by digging around the TechBench site, but using this clever little utility is quicker and saves a lot of hassle. Plus, for some products, like Windows 8.1, finding the direct download on the site is next to impossible.
Microsoft also provides other software via the TechNet Evaluation Center. For example, you could download a trial version of Windows Server 2012 R2 and enter a legitimate product key to get the full version. Just click the “Evaluate Now” header on the site to see what trial versions of software are on offer. You will need to sign in with a Microsoft account before downloading.
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Updated: June 10, 2019 Home » Freeware and Software Reviews » Microsoft Windows & Office
One of the reason to create a bootable version of Linux Distro or Windows is to use it as a sandbox or try a new operating system. Windows is the most popular desktop and laptop operating system, thus for those looking to explore Linux without installing it onto your system, these bootable USB solution enables you to try a new OS without messing up your current system.
Alternative Article ➤ 15 Free Bootable Antivirus Rescue Disc – Fix Unbootable Windows
To begin, prepare a 2GB thumb drive and proceed to download the latest .iso version of the Linux or Windows operating system for desktop PCs and laptops. Below is a list of the most popular OS in .iso format. It can be especially useful for cases where you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.), or you need to work on a system that doesn’t have a full fledge OS installed (e.g. ChromeBook).
Microsoft Windows 7 Media Creation Tool
↓ 01 – Etcher
Burn images to SD cards & USB drives, safe & easy. Here at resin.io we have thousands of users working through our getting started process and until recently we were embarassed about the steps that involved burning an SD card. There was a separate track for each Mac/Windows/Ubuntu and several manual and error prone steps along the way. To our surprise there was nothing out there that fitted our needs. So we built Etcher, a SD card burner app that is simple for end users, extensible for developers, and works on any platform.
↓ 02 – WinToUSB
WinToUSB (also called Windows To USB) is the best free Windows To Go Creator that allows you to install and run Windows operating system on an external hard drive or USB flash drive, using an ISO/WIM/ESD/SWM/VHD/VHDX image file or CD/DVD drive as the source of installation, or you can clone current Windows OS installation (Windows 7 or later) to a USB drive as a Windows To Go Workspace.
WinToUSB also supports creating a Windows installation USB flash drive from a Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/2008/2012/2016 installation ISO file, so you can install Windows from the USB flash drive easily. Finally WinToUSB supports creating a bootable Windows PE USB drive, it can help you transfer the contents of Windows PE to a USB drive and make the USB drive bootable. WinToUSB’s key features include:
↓ 03 – Windows USB/DVD Download Tool
The Windows USB/DVD Download tool allows you to create a copy of your Windows 7/8 ISO file on a USB flash drive or a DVD. To create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive, download the ISO file and then run the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool. Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 or Windows 8 directly from the USB flash drive or DVD.
The ISO file contains all the Windows installation files combined into a single uncompressed file. When you download the ISO file, you need to copy it to some medium in order to install Windows. This tool allows you to create a copy of the ISO file to a USB flash drive or a DVD. To install Windows from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.
↓ 04 – Rufus
Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc. Despite its small size, Rufus provides everything you need! Rufus is fast. For instance it’s about twice as fast as UNetbootin, Universal USB Installer or Windows 7 USB download tool, on the creation of a Windows 7 USB installation drive from an ISO. It is also marginally faster on the creation of Linux bootable USB from ISOs.
↓ 05 – RMPrepUSB
RMPrepUSB is a user-friendly Windows graphical front-end which calls it’s brother application RMPartUSB (which does all the hard work!). RMPartUSB is a Windows command line utility and does not have a GUI and can be used in batch/script files (type RMPartUSB to see help/usage text in a Windows command console). RMPartUSB makes a partition of any size and is primarily intended for USB Flash Drive (UFD) memory sticks, although it can be used on USB hard drives or USB card readers to create a bootable partition or even non-USB drives.
RMPartUSB also places boot code on the USB device for either XP/WinPEv1 (ntldr), Vista/WinPEv2/Win7 (bootmgr), MS-DOS (io.sys) or FreeDos (kernel.sys). RMPartUSB does not place any files on the UFD – you must copy these over yourself or set the Copy OS Files option in RMPrepUSB to copy over the contents of a folder of your choice.
↓ 06 – UNetbootin
UNetbootin allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu and other Linux distributions without burning a CD. However, it can be used to create other bootable OS. UNetbootin doesn’t use distribution-specific rules for making your live USB drive, so most Linux ISO files should load correctly using this option.
However, not all distributions support booting from USB, and some others require extra boot options or other modifications before they can boot from USB drives, so these ISO files will not work as-is. Also, ISO files for non-Linux operating systems have a different boot mechanism, so don’t expect them to work either.
↓ 07 – Universal USB Installer
Universal USB Installer aka UUI is a Live Linux USB Creator that allows you to choose from a selection of Linux Distributions to put on your USB Flash Drive. The Universal USB Installer is easy to use. Simply choose a Live Linux Distribution, the ISO file, your Flash Drive and, Click Install.
Upon completion, you should have a ready to run bootable USB Flash Drive with your select operating system installed. Other features include; Persistence (if available) – note that casper persistence will only work with fat16 or fat32 formatted drives. IMPORTANT NOTE: Your USB drive must be Fat16/Fat32/NTFS formatted, otherwise Syslinux will fail and your drive will NOT Boot. Bootable USB Flash Drive Creation Requirements:
↓ 08 – MultiBootUSB
MultiBootUSB is a cross platform software written in python which allows you to install multiple live linux on a USB disk non destructively and option to uninstall distros. Try out the world’s first true cross platform multi boot live usb creator for free.
MultiBootUSB supports many distros and still counting. There are no pre-configured distro-specific files included in MultiBootUSB. The configuration files are modified dynamically during installation so that the user receives all available default boot options for each distro.
↓ 09 – WinSetupFromUSB
WinSetupFromUSB is a Windows program, which prepares multiboot USB flash or fixed disk to install any Windows versions since 2000/XP, boot various Linux and *BSD flavors, as well as many Windows, Linux, DOS based and other utilities. Since version 1.1 program can create USB disk with Windows versions which support (U)EFI (Vista x64 SP1 and later x64 versions), which USB disk can be used in both (U)EFI and Legacy BIOS modes.
Multiple sets of Windows setup files- XP, 2000, 2003, Vista, WIndows 7, Server 2008, Windows 8, Server 2012, both 32 and 64 bit versions are supported. As of version 1.1 program allows to create a USB disk which can boot both in BIOS and (U)EFI mode. Single WinPE1 source, such as BartPE, UBCD4Win, LiveXP and similar WinBuilder projects, WinFLPC etc. Multiple Linux-based distributions and utilities from ISO files- Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS to name a few, this includes most Antivirus Rescue Disks
↓ 10 – SARDU MultiBoot Creator
SARDU MultiBoot Creator is a useful application designed to help you create an emergency rescue CD or USB drive. These drives can be used to check and to repair your system in case of a failure. Most computer users have dealt with a situation when the computer simply cannot start the operating system. Although every one of us hopes to avoid this type of event, it is better to be prepared by having a recovery disk at hand.
This program intends to help you create a recovery disk with the tools required to diagnose and to repair the issues that prevents your computer from starting properly. The disk can be customized by creating multiple boot options and by adding the utilities that you need for your system configuration.
You might need to include an antivirus, a partition manager and a network diagnosis tool. The program allows you to fetch the bootable images from the internet and to include them on your disk. The recovery tool can be customized by adding any bootable image from an ISO file.
The boot menu can be personalized with folders, files and other items that are useful for the diagnostics. Unfortunately, you cannot preview the menu which means that you have to keep track of the inserted items. The recovery disk can be saved as an ISO file for burning it to a DVD or by creating a bootable disk from a removable USB device. The app automatically detects the connected USB device and turns it into a bootable recovery toolbox.
↓ 11 – Deepin Boot MakerWindows 7 Media Creation Tool For Mac
Deepin Boot Maker is a boot maker developed by Deepin Technology Team. It is simple in interface and easy to operate. It helps users to easily make deepin boot disk.
↓ 12 – Win32 Disk Imager
This program is designed to write a raw disk image to a removable device or backup a removable device to a raw image file. It is very useful for embedded development, namely Arm development projects (Android, Ubuntu on Arm, etc). Anyone is free to branch and modify this program. Patches are always welcome.
This release is for Windows 7/8.1/10. It will should also work on Windows Server 2008/2012/2016 (although not tested by the developmers). For Windows XP/Vista, please use v0.9 (in the files archive).
↓ 13 – Easy2BootMedia Creation Tool Windows 8.1
A new USB multiboot solution (Legacy+UEFI). Just copy the ISO files to the USB drive and boot. For UEFI-booting you must convert ISOs to .imgPTN files first. Each time you boot, the E2B scripts automatically find all the payload files (.ISO, .IMA, .BIN, .IMG, etc.) on the USB drive and dynamically generate the menus. Each file is run depending on its file extension.
Directly MBR-boot from the USB drive to unmodified files: .ISO, .IMA, .IMG, .VHD, .VHDX, .WIM, WinBuilder WinPE ISOs, Windows Install ISOs, Linux ISOs, FreeDOS, Hirens ISOs, MemTest86, diagnostics, repair software, Anti-Virus cleaners, etc. etc. etc. The file extension determines how E2B will boot from it. E2B recognises many additional ‘special’ file extensions.
Windows Media Creation Tool
UEFI-booting (incl. Secure Boot) is possible by converting UEFI-bootable payloads (ISOs, disk images, flash drives, etc.) into .imgPTN files (partition images). Use the MPI Tool Pack to make .imgPTN files for MBR+UEFI booting (supports Secure Boot).
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