Windows 7 ISOs you can download

By Steven Rosenberg on August 8, 2010 2:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I was able to download an ISO and burn a Windows 7 installation DVD to use with the existing, legitimate Win 7 product key included with my Lenovo laptop. I originally found the links here, and now I'm presenting them below for those who want/need them.

The advantages and disadvantages of using these ISOs instead of the installation/recover discs that either came with your PC, or which you generated (or not) and burned after setting it up are:

I used a 64-bit image instead of the 32-bit Home Premium that came with my Lenovo. My product key allows for this.

No crapware. These images are, as far as I can tell, bereft of the mountains of crapware that ship with most computers.

No hardware-specific drivers. Like most computers preloaded with Windows, mine came with preinstalled drivers for every hunk of hardware. After installing from one of these "clean" ISOs, I had to get the drivers (about 9 of them) from the Lenovo site for everything from the ATI video card and Atheros wired and wireless network interfaces to the touchpad, power management, Web cam and sound chip. It's a pain, but not undoable. It shows how poor Windows is relative to the average Linux distribution in autoconfiguring hardware out of the box.

Anyhow, here are the links:

Windows 7 ISO Direct Download Links

32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate x86 ISO

Amazon.com: http://174.129.85.117/data/Windows7Ultimate32bit.iso

64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate x64 ISO

Amazon.com: http://174.129.85.117/data/Windows7Ultimate64bit.iso

32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium x86 ISO

Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65732/X15-65732.iso

64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium x64 ISO

Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso

32-bit Windows 7 Professional x86 ISO

Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65804/X15-65804.iso