Win7 RTM ISO Files - One per version?
Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE, 24 Aug 2009
by John Savill
(One must be online to view included graphics)
Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE, 24 Aug 2009
by John Savill
(One must be online to view included graphics)
Q. Do I need to download all the different versions of Windows 7 from MSDN?
A. MSDN has a different ISO for each version of Windows 7 (e.g. Ultimate, Professional, Starter) but they're all the same ISO. The only difference is that there's a file (ei.cfg) in the sources folder that tells the setup routine which image to select. You could, therefore, open the ISO, remove this file, and save the ISO. You'd be prompted for which version of Windows 7 you want to install, as shown here. You do, however, still need to download the x64 and x86 versions of Windows 7 if you want both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
You could also create multiple ISOs and modify the content of ei.cfg. The format is
[EditionID]
<version>
[Channel]
Retail
[VL]
0
Q. Is there any way to automate the removal of ei.cfg from a Windows 7 image, instead of modifying the ISO manually?
A. Nifty utilities are available that strip out ei.cfg from a selected ISO file. Note that it replaces the existing ISO, so you may want to copy your ISO before running the utility. To download, go to:
<http://code.kliu.org/misc/win7utils/>.
Copyright 2009, Penton Media, Inc.
[Dale Note: There are separate Win7 RTM files from MSDN for x86 and x64 for each of the Win7 versions.]
(Win7_RTM-Ei-cfg.htm)