Microsoft Releases Open-Sourced Windows 7 USB Install Tool

[Rob Williams]

Want to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 on a netbook, or another PC with no optical drive? Believe it or not, it's not that difficult to pull off manually, but to take as much hassle out of it as possible, Microsoft released a "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool" near the OS' launch to aide those who aren't so technically inclined, or who simply don't want to spend so much time on something that should be so simple.

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You can read the rest of our news post here.

 

[Kougar]

Was the article pulled? Link doesn't go anywhere.

I am definitely curious to see how much this improves installation times. Regardless of SSD or HDD I seem to ballpark 13-15 minutes or so, so I suspect the optical drive is the bottleneck. I'm keen on seeing just how much I can shorten that for when I finally migrate over to Windows 7 shortly...

 

[2Tired2Tango]

Was the article pulled? Link doesn't go anywhere.

I am definitely curious to see how much this improves installation times. Regardless of SSD or HDD I seem to ballpark 13-15 minutes or so, so I suspect the optical drive is the bottleneck. I'm keen on seeing just how much I can shorten that for when I finally migrate over to Windows 7 shortly...

Have you ever studied MS's installer scripts for Windows?

They aren't obvious but there are several points in the scripts where there are deliberate, built in delays... so you get more time to see the advertising that pops up while you're putting in the OS you spent your life savings on.

 

[Rob Williams]

Was the article pulled? Link doesn't go anywhere.

I am definitely curious to see how much this improves installation times. Regardless of SSD or HDD I seem to ballpark 13-15 minutes or so, so I suspect the optical drive is the bottleneck. I'm keen on seeing just how much I can shorten that for when I finally migrate over to Windows 7 shortly...

Fixed the URL... I renamed the title after publishing and forgot to update the URL.

 

[Kougar]

Have you ever studied MS's installer scripts for Windows?

They aren't obvious but there are several points in the scripts where there are deliberate, built in delays... so you get more time to see the advertising that pops up while you're putting in the OS you spent your life savings on.

There isn't any advertising during the Windows 7 install process. The only user delays are a few seconds pause before each restart. As I recall the only time Vista had "advertising" was a brief couple lines while the OS ran it's graphics system benchmark, thankfully something they did away with in Windows 7.

 

[madstork91]

When I buy a lapty here in Korea, I will most likely be using something along these lines.

Anyone find anything better so far?

 

[Kougar]

When I buy a lapty here in Korea, I will most likely be using something along these lines.

Anyone find anything better so far?

Nah, installing from the USB 2.0 drive is the best route to go. As long as you had the disc already (or bought the online Student promotion which gives the ISO files) it's great. It will install more quickly than using the DVD drive.