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Microsoft Finally Allows Customers To Legally Download Windows 7 ISOs
MojoKid writes: It's long been a pet peeve of many end users that Microsoft has made it such a challenge to procure a legitimate ISO image of its various operating systems. It seems like the company should have no problem offering them in an easy-to-find spot on its website, because after all, it's not like they can be taken utilized without a legal key. Sometimes, people simply lose the disc or ISO they had, and so it shouldn't be such a challenge to get a replacement. Fortunately, with a new feature on the Microsoft site, you are now able to get that replacement Windows 7 ISO. However, it's behind a bit of protection. You'll need to provide your legal product code, and then the language, in order to go through to the download page. If you've somehow lost your key but are still using the OS that it's tied to, you can retrieve it through a few different third party tools. However, it does seem like not all valid keys work properly just yet, since some users are reporting valid keys throwing errors or not enabling a download for some reason.
The last time I had to download one of their ISOs (through MSDN I think) I had to install wine, access the website through IE as it refused to work on real browsers, download and run their horrible download program, which of course depends on .net so I needed to install that as well, then finally download the thing. The only details needed were login/pass, but the process was anything but simple. Took me a good hour or so.
You're wrong. They had the ISOs publicly available at Digital River for yonks over FTP. Then they pulled them down.
MS just likes to make things harder for paying users than needs be.
MS is still paranoid about media distribution because, institutionally, they still link media control to piracy.. Even though that ship sailed looooooooong ago.
Of course, you can do fun things with windows activation..
Did you know you can install windows without a key and it will be completely fully functional for 30 days and not bug you once? This is called the activation "Grace Period" and it's a built in facility specifically designed to make deployments/testing/imaging/etc easier.
Did you know you can reset the grace period timer up to three times with a simple built-in command line tool?
Did you know that if you boot up in safe mode and apply a little registry hackery to reset the grace period "Re arm" counter?
Did you know you can automate all of the above with a clever batch file?
Did you know the best way to pirate windows is to ignore all that silly cat-and-mouse nonsense trying to subvert windows activation with special bootloaders and just use built in commands that shipped with windows?
While it don't really like their products, they are legitimate products that do what they claim to do and I use them. So when I do install Windows on a machine, instead of seeking the cleverest way to avoid paying the price, I just pay the price. It's easier and a heck of a lot more honest.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
Just let anyone download it. The ISOs are everywhere already, the key is the only security you have anyway, and you should rather people get it from the official source rather than a torrent.
I have MSDN so I can download it as many times as I want without specifying any key (even though I have limited keys I can install it with).
The first time someone's legitimate key doesn't let them download it, your plan has failed.