instalI.wim install.wim in a ISO I downloaded from Microsoft

Never seen this before. Downloaded a 18362.239 ISO from Microsoft by adding this useragent string for microsoft.com to Firefox:

Name: general.useragent.override.microsoft.com
Value: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 10_1_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/602.2.14 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/10.0 Mobile/14B100 Safari/602.1

Then when I went to the MS site I was taken directly to the ISO download page. When the download finished I got the instali.wim (i instead of l) which I have never seen before. Anyone know what the deal is with this or seen it before?

Name: Win10_1903_V2_English_x64.iso
Size: 5369317376 bytes (5120 MiB)
SHA256: 0560E2840CA076EC1777C178FCD1DD200DEE0C3E712314F5146D224D1BC3EC0E
From TechBench > TechBench by WZT (v4.1.1)

Kyhi said:

Name: Win10_1903_V2_English_x64.iso
Size: 5369317376 bytes (5120 MiB)
SHA256: 0560E2840CA076EC1777C178FCD1DD200DEE0C3E712314F5146D224D1BC3EC0E
From TechBench > TechBench by WZT (v4.1.1)

So this is something others have seen? It doesn't install but comes up with a weird error message which I am sure is due to not finding install.wim.

Edit: I can't reproduce it, tried a couple times.

This has been a known technique for some time: it involves changing the "user agent" data that the browser presents to MS servers to be "something other" than IE or Edge. If you run this Google Search you'll find articles from WinHelpOnline, Winaero.com, HowToGeek, BleepingComputer, and many other players who explain how this works and how to do it.
HTH,
--Ed--

PS: AFAIK, this also gets you ISO files with .wim image files inside them, rather than .esd image files.

Why would I have gotten this from Microsoft though? I downloaded the ISO 3 times over about 40 minutes and in each case got the instali.wim.

Now when I try to reproduce this using the same exact process I can't.

I solved my problem by using MCT to download the x64 and x86 versions and letting it create the USB flash for me but I'm still annoyed it happened, especially when I don't understand how it happened from a Microsoft server.

I'm not going to waste any more time on it but it sure is strange.

NavyLCDR said:

Certainly you don't believe that Microsoft is infallible, do you? Sounds like it was a mistake that got past their QC until it was discovered and then they corrected it.

For example:
Mars Probe Lost Due to Simple Math Error - Los Angeles Times

@Ztruker,

You know.....
I'm Ready to Give Up Trying to Install

I wonder? Same issue?

Could be, but Microsoft?

I think I still have the ISO at the shop. Anyone interested in looking at it? If so I can upload it to a file sharing site for a bit.

Downloaded a 18362.239 ISO from Microsoft

Right now downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...d/windows10ISO using iso downloader:

Name: Win10_1903_V1_English_x64.iso
Size: 4939528192 bytes (4710 MiB)
SHA256: 9846DFBDD7C39EB8D025E0F28E180C6F4084ECF87ECD11805CD19C205F7A3B4E

Name: Win10_1903_V2_English_x64.iso
Size: 5369317376 bytes (5120 MiB)
SHA256: 0560E2840CA076EC1777C178FCD1DD200DEE0C3E712314F5146D224D1BC3EC0E

Immediately after installation in VM (no problem with .wim file name), winver says:
18362.30 (v1)
18362.356 (v2)

No way to get 18362.239 version ISO, furthermore corrupted. Weird.




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EDIT: Tried firefox & changed useragent string for download: no change, same v2 ISO file, same hash.

Then when I went to the MS site I was taken directly to the ISO download page.

Very suspicious, never seen: some hijacker malware? It can be the culprit.

Agree. It was only there for a few hours then gone.