Difference between TechBench and Media Creation Tool

DustSailor · 19 Nov 2015

Hey all,

Just as the title says, what is the difference between TechBench: Tech Bench and the regular Media Creation Tool: Windows 10 ?

Thanks!

AndreyT · 19 Nov 2015

As far as I know, if you ask Media Creation Tool to download an ISO (as opposed to burning it directly to DVD or USB), the downloaded ISO will be the same as the one from Tech Bench.

Moreover, if you follow your "Media Creation Tool" link using a non-Windows device (Android, iOS, Linux etc.) the interface you will see there will look pretty much the same as the Tech Bench page. No Media Creation Tool. Just like on Tech Bench, you will have to select Edition and Language and will end up direct-downloading the same ISO file.

Ztruker · 19 Nov 2015

Techbench ISOs don't fit on a 4GB flash drive, at least they didn't for me.
The ISO from MCT does.

I'm going to do some testing on this in a bit. Will report back with results.

Edit: Well, that turned out not to be true. No idea what happened at the shop today but both the 32 and 64 bit Win 10 ISOs fit on a 4GB flash drive just fine.

lopedoggie · 19 Nov 2015

Techbench has a glitch free download IMO. Always use it and it also contains the right files (source files)to perform a corrupt file system restoration using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) service) using the command line interface if necessary.

topgundcp · 19 Nov 2015

Techbench version includes \sources\install.wim (~3.5GB)
MCT includes \sources\install.esd (~2.7GB) which is a compressed version of install.wim, smaller file size, faster download but cannot be used with DISM to mount directly. To use install.esd with DISM, will require an extra step. See this post:
Source to use for DISM on Windows 10 - Page 3 - Windows 10 Forums

Other than that, install Windows using either versions will result the same.

Kyhi · 20 Nov 2015

Also techbench ISO does not contain MediaMeta.xml
which we have found the file to cause issues with extraction when creating PE

So techbench is the better option for ISO

Peter B · 20 Nov 2015

Just a quick question, please...if I downloaded the iso from Techbench today, would it install the latest build 10586.11?

Or aren't the iso files updated that often? And therefore would a clean installation revert to a specific point in time?

Kyhi · 20 Nov 2015

No, the build.servbuild is 10586.0
there are two windows updates to the servbuilds after the build release.. .03 .11

OldMike65 · 03 Dec 2015

Question on the ISO from TechBench for Windows 1511 I've seen folks who have file dates of 11-12-15 inside their ISO after downloading from TechBench, which is the newer release. Everytime I try to download that ISO the file dates are always 10-30-15
How are they able to get the newer release, and I don't seem able too??

lx07 · 03 Dec 2015

OldMike65 said:

Question on the ISO from TechBench for Windows 1511 I've seen folks who have file dates of 11-12-15 inside their ISO after downloading from TechBench, which is the newer release. Everytime I try to download that ISO the file dates are always 10-30-15
How are they able to get the newer release, and I don't seem able too??

If you mean the last modified date as seen here that is the date I converted the esd to wim (from MCT ISO). I've only seen October 30th for creation date for either Techbench or MCT.