Windows 10 Clean Install

dst11 said:

1. I downloaded the ISO (Win10_1909_English_x64.iso, 5GB) with the 'UA switcher' trick and burned it to a USB stick with Rufus (MBR, BIOS). When the Windows 10 installer asks where to install, if I select the SSD then my Windows 7 installation won't be changed, right? Just making sure my Windows 7 installation stays as it is.

If you select the current Windows 7 partition as installation target partition, existing Windows 7 installation is replaced with a clean install of Windows 10, and your personal files from user profile folder will be moved to Windows.old folder. All software installations will be removed.

If you select any other partition, in your case any partition on SSD as target, existing Windows 7 installation will remain intact, Windows 10 will be installed as a dual boot OS, and a boot menu will be created to allow you to select at boot which OS, W7 or W10 to boot.

dst11 said:

2. When the download menu asks you to select the language of the ISO, the options are 'English' and 'English (International)'. 'English' is 'English (US)' and 'English (International)' is 'English (UK)', right? Just making sure I downloaded the right ISO.

Correct. In Microsoft terms, English International is the real English, UK English or as Microsoft labels it EN-GB. Colours instead of colors, favourites instead of favorites, personalise instead of personalize, and so on.

English is then the colonial (US) English, in Microsoft terms EN-US.

Kari

NavyLCDR said:

What is the UA switcher trick? Why not just use the official Microsoft Media Creation Tool to create a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive?

Changing User Agent on MCT download page to download a WIM based ISO instead of ESD one. Option Three in this tutorial: Download Windows 10 ISO File

Kari

zbook said:

What are the advantages / disadvantages using WIM versus ESD iso?

Basically, nothing.

The only difference is that if using DISM to service the offline Windows image, in most cases it must be WIM instead of ESD (install.wim instead of install.esd).

To give a typical example, here's a note from beginning of this tutorial Apply unattended answer file to Windows 10 install media:

   Note

This method requires Windows image in a WIM file. An ISO or USB flash drive created with Windows Media Creation Tool contains Windows image in install.esd file instead of install.wim, and therefore it cannot be used.

To download a WIM-based ISO, open Windows Media Creation Tool page in browser, press F12 to open developer tools, select Emulation tab, and change user agent string to Apple Safari. Wait the page to refresh. You can now download a WIM-based ISO:


(Click to enlarge.)

Full instructions to get WIM-based ISO, see Option Three in this tutorial: Download Windows 10 ISO File

When downloaded, delete install.esd file in Sources folder of your USB install media. Mount the WIM based ISO, and copy install.wim file from its Sources folder to Sources folder on USB.

Anyway, ESD can easily be converted to WIM: Convert ESD file to WIM using DISM in Windows 10

Kari

zbook said:

What are the advantages / disadvantages using WIM versus ESD iso?

from Download Windows 10 ISO File:

"An ISO file from the Media Creation Tool (MCT) uses sources\install.esd which is a compressed version of install.wim, but can still be used as a source image for DISM."

dst11 said:

from Download Windows 10 ISO File:

"An ISO file from the Media Creation Tool (MCT) uses sources\install.esd which is a compressed version of install.wim, but can still be used as a source image for DISM."

In most cases it cannot. See my previous post for one example.

Kari