A few months ago I wrote a post on how to take a Windows 7 ISO image and install it to your USB drive to make a bootable Windows 7 Install USB Flash drive. The process wasn’t that difficult, but for some of you dropping to the command prompt might be a bit scary, or if you are not tech savvy at all, it’s like I was speaking a completely different language!
Microsoft actually made a really cool tool that makes this process easier for the average Joe. Their tool takes you step by step through taking a Windows 7 ISO file, and either using it to burn it to DVD, or to install it directly to USB. It really is so easy, than I’m sure your Grandma could probably do it!
The tool is called the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. There are some system Requirements to run the tool such as:
-
Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit)
-
Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
-
50MB of free space on your hard drive
-
DVD-R drive or 4GB removable USB flash drive
For Windows XP Users
The following applications must be installed prior to installing the tool:
- Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.
- Microsoft Image Mastering API v2 must be installed. It can be downloaded here.
Pretty easy right? Just a quick 4 step process, and boom! You can have a bootable Windows 7 USB Installer so you can install Windows 7 on your computer from USB! I’m pretty sure it doesn’t get easier than that!
[Via The Microsoft Store]