Tip: Download Windows 7 and 8.1 ISOs

I’m not sure when this happened, but Microsoft now has ISO downloads available for Windows 7 and 8.1, and not just Windows 10.

This was a problem in the past: After I publicized the old method for downloading Windows 7 and 8.1 ISOs via Digital River, Microsoft removed them for some reason. And since then, it has only offered Windows 10 ISOs—and then only for the very latest Windows 10 version—from its download website.

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Well, that’s changed. You can now download ISO files for Microsoft’s other supported Windows versions from the Microsoft Software Download site too. Here are the links:

You must first enter a valid 25-digit product key before you can get a Windows 7 or 8.1 product key. That seems fair to me.

(If you’re not familiar, a Windows ISO is a file-based version of a Windows Setup disk. You can copy one to USB or DVD disc to install Windows that way. Or just mount the ISO (in Windows 8 or newer) to use it like a virtual disk.)

Anyway, thanks to Rafael Rivera for pointing out these downloads.

 

Tagged with

Share post

Please check our Community Guidelines before commenting

Conversation 59 comments

  • MikeFromMarkham

    04 December, 2018 - 4:25 pm

    <p>While I'm pleased Microsoft has made these available again, the cynic in me can't help but wonder how much extra tracking and telemetry crap has been added that wasn't in the original ISOs.</p>

    • troy

      04 December, 2018 - 4:40 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378085">In reply to MikeFromMarkham:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>lol the ISOs haven't been updated. You can take your conspiracy hat off.</p>

    • locust infested orchard inc

      04 December, 2018 - 8:01 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378085">In reply to MikeFromMarkham:</a></em></blockquote><p>When Microsoft open-sourced the underlying code to MS-DOS v1.25 and v2 in late September 2018 to GitHub, initially showcased in the Computer History Museum in March 2014 under a more restrictive open-source license, Microsoft quietly injected the code for telemetry. Gulp !!!!</p><p><br></p><p>Gosh, you must be correct, and Adoogle Chrime (pronounced as crime) data-harvesting is totally innocuous in comparison.</p><p><br></p><p>It must be fun to wear an asshat in public.</p>

      • MikeFromMarkham

        05 December, 2018 - 5:26 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#378158">In reply to locust infested orchard inc:</a></em></blockquote><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wow, that's quite a rant. Of course, it loses some steam with your obsessive ranting about all things Google when I never mentioned Google at all. Sure seems your asshat is on a just a little too tight there, Sunshine.</span></p>

  • waethorn

    04 December, 2018 - 4:29 pm

    <p>These have been there for a long time! The Windows 8 ISO can be obtained by NOT being on the site on a Windows machine, or else you can just use the URL handler to bypass the check, otherwise you get the Windows 8.1 Media Creation Tool instead, same as Windows 10.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • troy

      04 December, 2018 - 4:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378090">In reply to Waethorn:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Yep, entering your retail key to get Windows 7 ISOs via this website has been available for many months. Maybe even a year+ ? Same goes for the Win 8.1 ones, via creation tool.</p>

  • sfagundes76

    Premium Member
    04 December, 2018 - 4:33 pm

    <p>Doesn't work for OEM keys. Lame.</p>

    • Kevin Costa

      04 December, 2018 - 8:19 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378093">In reply to sfagundes76:</a></em></blockquote><p>Download through HeiDoc. Doesn't require a key.</p>

      • YouWereWarned

        05 December, 2018 - 1:34 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#378160">In reply to Kevin_Costa:</a></em></blockquote><p>While downloading and installing from pirate sites has appeal for some, it's easier to just loan your PC to the Nigerian prince for the weekend if you want a truly effed machine.</p>

    • MikeGalos

      05 December, 2018 - 6:56 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378093">In reply to sfagundes76:</a></em></blockquote><p>Contact the OEM who issued the key. Supporting their copies is part of why they paid less for their license.</p>

  • Sir_Timbit

    04 December, 2018 - 5:03 pm

    <p>Not sure how common it is for people to still burn ISOs onto DVD, but I noticed the most recent Windows 10 ISOs from Microsoft are now too big to fit onto one…. Not likely an issue for Win7 or 8 though.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      05 December, 2018 - 6:21 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378106">In reply to Sir_Timbit:</a></em></blockquote><p>I use a tool like Rufus to "burn" it onto a USB stick. It is quicker than using a DVD.</p>

  • euskalzabe

    04 December, 2018 - 5:13 pm

    <p>For some reason, my win7 license only lets me download it in French or Korean, nevermind it was always an English version. Oh well, at least I'll have the French version and make do if I need it in the future.</p>

  • Winner

    04 December, 2018 - 5:35 pm

    <p>Outstanding! Now if they just deprecate Win 10 and let us choose from those two, life would be good again.</p>

    • dontbe evil

      05 December, 2018 - 3:11 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378119">In reply to Winner:</a></em></blockquote><p>you can still choose whatever you want, no need to deprecate a modern OS used on 700 million devices</p>

    • MikeGalos

      05 December, 2018 - 7:05 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378119">In reply to Winner:</a></em></blockquote><p>Hey, if you want to use an unsupported OS you can use whatever you like. I suspect you can find a nice copy of CP/M-86 around somewhere if you like not having to learn new things.</p>

      • NT6.1

        05 December, 2018 - 8:37 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#378307">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Don't be a drama queen. Windows 7 was released in 2009. It is a modern 64 bit OS.</p>

        • Winner

          05 December, 2018 - 11:10 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#378316">In reply to NT6.1:</a></em></blockquote><p>…and it is also still supported.</p>

          • MikeGalos

            05 December, 2018 - 11:55 am

            <blockquote><a href="#378397"><em>In reply to Winner:</em></a></blockquote><p>It's still in extended support but not in full support. And nobody's saying not to use it until January 2020 when it becomes unsupported, stops getting security patches and becomes a hazard for everyone on a network with you. </p><p><br></p><p>What I replied to was wanting to kill new versions and go back to the old versions. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

            • Winner

              05 December, 2018 - 3:36 pm

              <blockquote><em><a href="#378429">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>The latest "feature updates" including dark mode and crashes and data deletion and inking are not exactly fabulous things that are improving Windows 10.</p><p><br></p><p>It would have been far better to extend 7 or even 8.1 with some decency. Win 10 was a grab for alternative revenue. Fact is Microsoft can't mine their Office and Windows cash cows forever, they need to truly put out new products in new areas to add revenue. Clearly they are doing fine in the Business space. In the consumer OS space they are just trying to foist ways to get consumers into cloud services, through their OS.</p>

      • Greg Green

        05 December, 2018 - 6:03 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#378307">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>My Win 7 got an update last month and the month before, as well as nearly each month before that. That doesn’t sound obsolete. </p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(60, 64, 67);">I&nbsp;do not think that word means what you think it means.</span></p>

  • NazmusLabs

    04 December, 2018 - 6:53 pm

    <p>These have been here for years. Nothing new.</p>

    • BoItmanLives

      05 December, 2018 - 1:36 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378138">In reply to NazmusLabs:</a></em></blockquote><p>Nowhere did he claim it was new information. It is however a good reminder since 7 is the last pure, unbloated version of Windows.</p>

  • Ronald Spencer

    04 December, 2018 - 6:55 pm
  • jmwoods301

    04 December, 2018 - 7:29 pm

    <p>Another alternative is the Windows ISO Downloader tool on Heidoc.com</p><p><br></p><p>bit.ly/2bGf2ol</p><p><br></p><p>Save your product key and activation using Advanced Tokens Manager v3.5 RC 5, and then use the restore feature to recover your activation after installing the ISO.</p><p><br></p><p>www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/advanced_tokens_manager.html</p><p><br></p>

  • Kevin Costa

    04 December, 2018 - 8:18 pm

    <p>Good tip!</p><p>It has been available for a while. The HeiDoc program is the best way to download the ISOs (doesn't require a 7 key to download), and the Media Creation Tool for Windows 8.1 still exists.</p><p>The only disadvantage is that the 8.1 and 10 ISOs downloaded through HeiDoc uses the WIM compression on the image. Media Creation Tool uses ESD compression, which is better to save space, a smaller ISO.</p>

  • sony06

    05 December, 2018 - 12:07 am

    <p>What does ISO mean? </p>

    • MikeGalos

      05 December, 2018 - 6:59 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378239">In reply to sony06:</a></em></blockquote><p>ISO is a standard's organization. What's meant here, though, is a standard CD/DVD image file (which uses the ISO standard 9660 format, hence the name).</p>

      • Jeffsters

        07 December, 2018 - 4:04 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#378302">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Wait is this an a Apple article? </p>

  • samtheham

    05 December, 2018 - 12:41 am

    <p>This page works about as well as it did the last time I tried: it will allow me to download Windows 7 in any language I want, as long as I want French or Korean! Trying to use the worthless MS Virtual Agent simply adds to the frustration, and working with actual MS Tech Support is even worse. The last time I tried that I found that MS does not exactly have their best and brightest people supporting Windows 7. I was having trouble with Windows Update and they kept trying to install updates for Embedded Windows, which didn't work very well on my desktop Windows 7 (non-embedded). Not only could they not even address my problem coherently, they screwed my Windows up so bad that event logging is still broken. No more Task Scheduler history for me!</p>

  • microsoftinsider

    05 December, 2018 - 2:52 am

    <p>They have always been available since release, just not from microsoft. I download mines from getintopc, I don't like Microsoft Downloader they make me put a key and tells me there is an error, I had Windows 7 Ultimate I can't download here, that's why I use GetIntoPC. </p>

    • microsoftinsider

      05 December, 2018 - 2:53 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378277">In reply to microsoftinsider:</a></em></blockquote><p>342DG-6YJR8-X92GV-V7DCV-P4K27</p><p>Just saying there was an error, this is why people use preactivated copies if windows.</p>

  • dontbe evil

    05 December, 2018 - 3:10 am

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">I’m not sure when this happened, but Microsoft now has ISO downloads available for Windows 7 and 8.1, and not just Windows 10."</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">that's because you're too focused on your beloved apple and google news</span></p>

    • Winner

      05 December, 2018 - 3:40 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378281">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>Don't know why your handle is dont be evil when you post crap like this.</p>

      • dontbe evil

        05 December, 2018 - 6:55 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#378289">In reply to Winner:</a></em></blockquote><p>Is it not true that this website is always late on ms news and sometimes wrong because don't even know enough ms stuff?</p>

        • dontbe evil

          05 December, 2018 - 9:07 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#378297">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>I take it as yes</p>

          • Greg Green

            05 December, 2018 - 12:57 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#378323">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p>Please just take it and go.</p>

  • LusoPT

    05 December, 2018 - 7:35 am

    <p>How exactly can you download Windows 10 ISOs? They force me to use the Media Creation Tool…</p>

    • EZAB

      06 December, 2018 - 10:34 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378310">In reply to LusoPT:</a></em></blockquote><p>The Media Creation allows to update your computer now or you can create media for another PC, ISO or install on a USB drive or burn to a DVD disc! I just did this with 1809. (Burned to a disc). You need this to do a clean install!</p>

  • dallasnorth40

    Premium Member
    05 December, 2018 - 8:55 am

    <p>Why in the world would I want to do this.</p>

    • Omegaman

      Premium Member
      05 December, 2018 - 11:16 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#378321">In reply to dallasnorth40:</a></em></blockquote><p>I don't know your personal situation to answer your question.</p>

  • compunut

    Premium Member
    05 December, 2018 - 1:38 pm

    <p>Requiring a product key sounds great until you find out that you can't use any old activation key. If a computer came with Windows, that activation key won't work, the site tells you to get the crapified version from the OEM instead. If you give it a volume license key, it won't let you download the ISO, you have to go to another site to get it. I have never successfully gotten an ISO from here, sadly. I ended up digging through old ISOs at home and found one from ActionPack that I use for production builds since they won't let me download one. Seriously… WHY Microsoft, WHY?</p>

  • truerock2

    05 December, 2018 - 6:55 pm

    <p>Yes, I downloaded the ISOs about 7 years ago. I won't be doing that again.</p>

  • macguy918

    06 December, 2018 - 2:27 pm

    <p>I followed this link and it verified my product key and said it was a good key and then gave me an option to download either the French or Korean versions only! Googled this and there are lots of complaints about it but no solutions that appear legit.</p>

  • jpr75

    08 December, 2018 - 9:23 am

    <p>I agree – why would anyone want to do this? Can you also download DOS 3.x and Netware?</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC