Media Creation Tool updated

Ronc said:

I have read all 18 of the above posts and I get the impression that the original question amounts to whether or not there is any benefit to downloading a copy of a particular MCT at a later date than when originally offered. I get the impression that the answer is "no"....

There is just one benefit in using an older MCT to make an ISO over getting an ISO through Heidoc or TechBench. The MCT makes an ISO with an install.esd while an ISO downloaded any other way will contain an install.wim. The install.esd is always less than 4GB and can fit on a Fat32 USB, meaning you can make a bootable USB just by copying the files from the mounted ISO to a USB. An install.wim is almost always larger than 4GB and cannot be used to make a normal install USB (you'd need to use Rufus or similar).

But in order to use an older MCT you would also need the older Products.cab it need so that you can run the MCT in SelfHost mode. If that's something you want to do, then go to GitHub and download MediaCreationTool.bat. This allows you to choose any version you want, downloads the appropriate MCT and Products.cab, then runs the MCT in SelfHost mode to build the ISO.

Universal MediaCreationTool wrapper for all MCT Windows 10 versions from 1507 to 20H2 with business (Enterprise) edition support . GitHub

I've recently done just that to make an x86/x64 ISO with install.esd for 2004 build 19041.508

Download any Windows 10 version ISO from Microsoft - post #9

Bree said:

An install.wim is almost always larger than 4GB and cannot be used to make a normal install USB (you'd need to use Rufus or similar).

I'm not clear on why an ISO with install.wim would be a size problem for USB flash drive install media...if it were 8GB or larger.

I have the 20H1 ISO with install.wim on an 16 GB USB flash drive as install media.

Total space used is a little over 5 GB, which definitely would not work for a single layer DVD.

The GitHub tool looks a lot like Fido, which does essentially the same thing.

GitHub - pbatard/Fido: A PowerShell script to download Windows retail ISOs

Fido is what Rufus uses for its download functionality.

It doesn't use the actual Media Creation tool...it simply downloads the ISO from a Microsoft URL.

OldNavyGuy said:

...The MCT changes with every release...so only the current release is downloaded...

I thought so too, until I saw this recent article:
Tip: Download Any Version of Windows 10 - Thurrott.com

OldNavyGuy said:

I'm not clear on why an ISO with install.wim would be a size problem for USB flash drive install media....

An install.wim that's larger than 4GB hits the Fat32 maximum 4GB file size limit. If you want to have an install USB that's identical in use to the universally bootable Legacy/UEFI one that the MCT makes, then you need a Fat32 USB. With Rufus and similar you have to choose carefully what boot type you want to make.

The GitHub tool looks a lot like Fido, which does essentially the same thing.

Not quite the same thing. Fido downloads your choice of the official retail ISOs direct from MS (which will always have an install.wim), while the Media Creation Tool Wrapper uses the MCT to download the ESD component files from MS to construct an ISO containing an install.esd.

As long as the USB flash drive is formatted as NTFS, which is what I do, there is no issue.

I burn them myself and it's never been an issue with install.wim.

I only use the MCT for downloading new versions from MS, which contain install.esd.