I have a laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 8 Single Language. I was able to install Windows 8.1 Single Language on it and it activated using the OEM key in the laptop's BIOS just fine. Which version should I download to achieve the same effect?
Hello excel0, and welcome to Ten Forums.
You would want to download the Windows 10 Home Single Language edition ISO. :)
Helping another member, I came across this, I have not tried it though
Download Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel from Official Microsoft Download Center
It might be of some help for members upgrading a Windows 7 machine.The Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel utility enables users of Windows XP, Vista, and 7 to mount ISO disk image files as virtual CD-ROM drives. This can be highly useful for reading disk images to install software or recover backup files. Notes: This tool is not supported by Microsoft; use at your own risk. Windows 8 users do NOT need this tool. Windows 8 natively supports ISO files. In Windows 8, you can simply open an ISO file and Windows automatically assigns it a drive letter and reads it as a virtual drive.
Windows 8.1 has native ability to mount ISOs, so that tool is not necessary.
Step 8 might be modified to skip creating external install media and just mount the ISO to run setup from inside Windows.
Mounting the ISO to do the upgrade might get some members past the question "Should I boot the install the media?" ... the answer to that question is No, an upgrade is accomplished from within a running system.
Members can burn the ISO to DVD or create a bootable USB from the ISO using Rufus after the upgrade
Since Win10 has 'Burn to Disc", members won't need another tool.
Sorry I can't provide more infroamtion on the tool, my Win7 box is already upgraded.
Side note: The upgrade never asked for a key. This was on a Windows 7 Dell OEM box.
I have not upgraded my Retail Win8 box yet, so the answer I give members is "The upgrade might ask for a key" - similar to the Media Creation Tool for Window 8.x
When all was said and done, the box showed a partial key (= last part of the TP key for the edition upgraded) and authentication was in firmware.
I think of Win10 'keys' the same way I think about previous Windows OEM keys.
MS installs with a generic key, then hashes out authentication. The generic key has no bearing on genuine Windows, Win7 uses the OEM key and the SLIC table, Win8 stores authentication in firmware.
Windows 10 also stores authentication in firmware and possibly on the MS authentication server(s).
That's the just best way I can wrap my head around it. This ancient, but not quite decrepit, brain might dig into the new authentication later, but I don't think it will be necessary.
The folks over on Sysnative (many also members of TenForums) might have a better understanding of all of this than I do.
I have a question that may have already been answered, but please bear with me. Can I download the ISO and create my own installation media to first upgrade my laptop and then do a clean install? Or do I need to do the upgrade first before downloading the ISO?
Thanks for the info mate! I was hoping that might be the case. I used the Media Creation tool to upgrade W7 on my PC, but when I created an iso from the esd file and did a clean install, I noticed that I had component store corruption and running DISM didn't fix. I tried doing a reset and that didn't help either. So now I want to try the iso download and use it to fix the W10 install on my PC and also upgrade my laptop, without doing a lot of extra downloads.
Is there any way to directly download the ISO file? this media creation tools seems to be too slow.
Hello Bindoksala, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)
The tool does a direct download. It's just that Microsoft servers are overloaded, and it may take longer than usual. I would recommend to try downloading during off peak hours for better download speeds.
Some members, including myself, have improved the download speed by disconnecting from / reconnecting to the Internet while the MCT is downloading the ISO. Mine got 'stalled' at 11% and when I disconnected then immediately reconnected, the percentage jumped to 36 % and then 49 % very quickly. The download finished and the ISO was valid.
I'd say the total time to download on an average cable connection is around 30-40 minutes.
Of course everything depends on the server load and the path to the server. If either are overloaded then the download will be slow. Brink's recommendation to try during off-hours is good advice if you continue to have slow downloads.
Hi there,all consumer ISOs are available here:Tech Bench
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