Install any version of Windows using any Windows disc you can find - crowderdinduch

Reader Chris needs to reinstall Windows 7 Home Basic connected his laptop computer. Just one problem: He lost his recovery discs.

A more joint problem is when you need to reinstall Windows and you never had recovery discs to begin with. Few manufacturers leave them anymore, and many new PCs don't have optical drives even if they did.

Thankfully, there's a agency approximately this. All you postulate is a Windows ISO file (basically the entire Windows operating system in a single container) and the free Ei.cfg Removal Utility. The latter deletes a key file cabinet in spite of appearanc the former, thus allowing you to install any version of Windows.

Let me explain that a bit further. Windows 7 and 8 installation discs are version-specific; they're designed to match up with your product key. That's why you toilet't use, say, a Windows 7 Home Premium product key to install Windows 7 Occupation, even if you have a disc for the latter.

Likewise, even if Chris somehow set hands happening a Windows 7 Plate Premium platter, his Household Basic license key wouldn't work. That's where Ei.cfg Remotion Utility comes in: It effectively creates a "universal" Windows ISO, one that will install whatever version matches your product Francis Scott Key.

From a high perspective, the process would work like this: Borrow a friend's install DVD, copy the ISO file from it to your hard private road, then run Ei.cfg. When IT's done doing its affair, wont the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool around to couch that tweaked ISO on a flash force back.

Like a sho, just boot from that winkle drive and choose the interlingual rendition of Windows you want to install. Enter your license key and you're upstanding to endure. (Don't devil trying to stealthy an ascent; remember, your central will work only with the version of Windows that came with your PC. In Chris' instance, that's Windows 7 Home Basic.)

Can't find an install disc or don't have an optical motor? ~~There are "prescribed" Windows 7 SP1 ISO downloads available from the Windows 7 Forums.~~ Update: Digital River links, the long-time source for Windows 7 ISOs, no longer work. Visit Microsoft's Software Recovery Central for official Windows 7 ISO downloads, Beaver State Microsoft's installation media foliate for Windows 8.1.

Contributing Editor Rick Broida writes about business and consumer technology. Ask for help with your PC hassles at hasslefree@pcworld.com. Sign up to have the Hassle-Free PC newsletter e-armoured to you hebdomadally.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/452865/install-any-version-of-windows-using-any-windows-disc-you-can-find.html

Posted by: crowderdinduch.blogspot.com