Windows 7 Question about making your own Widows Disk?

MikeHawthorne

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Microsoft Community Contributor
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May 25, 2009
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Hi

I was thinking about all of the people who post and complain about not getting a Windows 7 disk with their computer.
I just answered one yesterday from someone who wanted to hack the restore partition and remove all the bloatware because they didn't have a disk to do a clean install of Windows 7 and clean up their computer.

I installed Windows 7 from a disk made from a downloaded .ISO file when I beta tested Windows 7.

Is there any reason that people who didn't get a Windows Disk with their computer and have a Legitimate serial number can't download an .ISO file from Digital River and create their own Windows 7 disk.

And if they do will it have all the functions of a Microsoft disk, i.e. all the system restore features etc.

If there is no reason not to do this I will type up an outline of the process with links etc.
I'll add it to my info sheet of things I insert into posts here.

Mike
 
Solution
Hi again.

Funny I would think it wouldn't be hard to find an answer to this, but it is.

Here's what I've found so far.

You can't use a Dell or other brand of OEM disk on another brand of computer, it checks to see if you have a Dell etc, but you can use a Microsoft disk on any brand of computer.

I know that getting the ISO file is no problem anyone can download it from the approved Microsoft source with no limitations, you don't have to cheat to get it, it's available to anyone.

They are all generic, just like a Widows DVD. They have no serial number attached so any legitimate serial number will work with any disk and they will install on any computer that is already registered with Microsoft.

If you had a disk and...
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Abacus?
I learned to count, add and subtract on one of those when I was five.
My mom was great at tricking me into actually learning something from my toys.

There is one drawback to having a backup copy of your windows install, like a Ghost Backup and not an Install CD......
That is, that it will only work on that one PC. But for most of us, that's ok.

Ghost on CD or DVD? That must be a pretty late version. From the original release, in ~1997, to version 11.5 Ghost has been a DOS version which can be run from floppies and/or a Flash Drive. Ghost 11.5 is the oldest version that will backup and Restore Vista or W-7.
Actually, Ghost 11.5 is just a little too big to fit on a single floppy disk. There is also an 11.5 version "Ghost32.exe" that runs in Windows and a Ghost Explorer 11.5 which allows you to open up any Ghost backup to restore a single file or folder.
One Symantec expert that assisted in the original Ghost version, denies that Ghost 11.5 even exists. Go figure.

My friend and Computer Guru tells me that Ghost 11.5 backs up and restores Linux just fine. I've had no way to test that.

To Clifford and NMSUK,
There is a DVD, in the wild, that has all the Windows 7 versions on it, + SP1 and it does provide a menu from which you can pick the version you want to install. You still need a key to legitimize it though.
JFYI


 
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A legitimate Windows 7 RTM Key will work with a SP1 retail disc. For awhile now I've been creating custom windows 7 discs with all the latest updates pre installed. You can use an app call RT7Lite to modify your disc to include service packs, updates and drivers. You can also use it to create unattended installs. You can also use the windows automated installation Kit to achieve the same result. RT7 is just easier as it gives you a gui to play with and does all the hard work for you.

NmsUK
 
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I've experimented with the RT7Lite also. I like to have an up to date disk in case I need to do a repair install. XP was picky if your disk was very far out of date with Windows updates. The one thing to be careful with using RT7Lite is removing Windows features. A lot of people had problems with that in XP using NLite. Things are more interconnected than people realize. It's always a good idea to test the disk on a VM before actually using it for a real install.
Joe
 
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Thanks to some mentoring from nmsuk (cheers Rich!) I now have an install .iso disc/usb of my Home Premium x64 set up, upgraded to SP1 and fully updated to the end of August '11, and where all these small, but important, programs that I always install (but which are a pain to do so!) are now pre-installed.
I found with some programs I couldn't install them as the passwords are "user specific" but all the above have been installed for all users and are showing up and running just fine in a test Virtual Machine after setting up an account with my user name. This lot will just about fit on a standard DVD although I'm using a usb flash drive (quicker installation!).

Truth will tell when I load it up for real!!
 
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Elmer
Did you test the finished disk on a VM? VMware Player is free Link Removed . And now you can create the VM with it earlier versions wouldn't create it just play it.
Joe
 
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@Joe, Yes, tested in a VM (Well, VirtualBox really), only issue I have found is many of my reg hacks don't seem to have taken hold. That's no hardship with the command I've written to run them all at first boot though. Time to update the WIM file!! (Or just manually run the command first time machine runs)
 
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As an update to my post with the long list of extras added.

In a fit of boredom, I thought I'd try it out for real. All went well except (for me I'll add) when the install completed, I had an error that dotNET 4 had not installed properly and to not turn off my PC until the situation was remedied.

Well, to be honest, the time I waited for the situation to be remedied was about as long as actually installing dotNET 4, so I think I'll be removing that from the All-In-One install iso. Just a heads up, but it could well be just me!!
 
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That is a problem with adding and removing things in these customized disks. I settle for a clean up to date disk with just the Windows updates. I tinkered with this for several years in XP. The people that had the most problems were the ones adding and removing a lot of things. Maybe the VMware Player would be better for testing. I used to use VirtualBox and I think it did skip some things not supported. Where did you get your MS updates? I found a link on MSFN forums for software that will download the critical updates instead of searching them out yourself.
Joe
 
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Joe S said:
Where did you get your MS updates? I found a link on MSFN forums for software that will download the critical updates instead of searching them out yourself.
Joe
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the Windows Update Downloader, then that's the tool I used . I actually used to use that a lot when on XP and just assumed it would no longer be current. How (luckily) wrong I was! A cracking little prog!

I did also make an "initial" iso file, as you say, with just the important Windows updates added. Think that will be the way to go, but I enjoyed tinkering about!
 
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