Windows 7 ISO

Head_The_Ball

My Windows 7 installation DVD is 6 years old and contains the first release.

Naturally, when I use this to do a clean install, it takes quite a long time and many restarts to download all the necessary updates that have been introduced since first release.

Sometime soon I will probably do another clean install on my laptop.

Should I download an ISO from Microsoft here and use that or is there a better option or a better way of reducing reinstall time and effort?

And no, I don't want Windows 10 yet. Or Ubunto etc.

Thanks

OneADay

Slipstream it or take a backup immediately after next install/update and use that to restore.

But why bother? Microsoft are going to push windows 10 upgrade automatically soon. And as Windows only grows ever slower with each upgrade (in my experience), you should really look at linux if you have old hardware.

bsod

install, update, (google how to stop w10 downloading, otherwise your machine will start to fill up with crap), and then create a backup image http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

If there is a next time, it will take minutes to get to the same stage rather than hours. You can also do differential backups to keep the image upto date. You might want to do some of these at various stages throughout the update process in case it screws up or installs a sneaky w10 updater.

esuhl

I've completely borked my Windows 7 installation, so I'll be reinstalling as soon as I get an extra hard drive. I was also wondering how to slipstream hotfixes and service packs into Windows 7. In XP, I used nLite, which was amazing.

I found NTLite a while back, which sounds like "nLite for Win7". I haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising:

https://www.ntlite.com/

OneADay wrote: »

But why bother? Microsoft are going to push windows 10 upgrade automatically soon. And as Windows only grows ever slower with each upgrade (in my experience), you should really look at linux if you have old hardware.

Why bother upgrading to Windows 10? Win7 is nicer and less bloated and has extended support until 2020!

If Microsoft are "pushing" you to do something... do you mindlessly obey?

Anyway, they'll stop "pushing" it in several months when the free OEM upgrade period ends.

bluesnake

here are 34 free backup solutions
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/backup/tp/free-backup-software.htm

Number 1 rated is Comodo Backup http://pcsupport.about.com/od/backup/fl/comodo-backup-review.htm


My newbie favourite is Redo Backup. Pros: Really hard to mess up. simple, it only does 2 things, and very hard to mess up and get it wrong. Cons:you have to restore to the same size disk or larger, Cant restore individual files. Tip: do not use use full capacity of the disk, but make the partition a few meg smaller before backing up. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/backup/fl/redo-backup-review.htm

Macrium Reflect - free version. Pros: easy to backup. Cons: Many people seem to lose their boot dvd, or it becomes corrupt, lots of restore options that may not work and can be confusing.

DriveImage XML is my favourite, but would not recommend it. Pros: Free, works very well, does live backups, able to restore individual files. Cons: On restoring, not once out of many, ever managed to get the disk to boot and had to always use windows installation cd to fix boot sector.

Meh, heard of nLite, but looked amazing, but too fiddly. Possibly good for rollouts. Many people just want a working system back asap.

prowla

If it's a Dell, you could see if you can pick up a newer media set.

esuhl

bluesnake wrote: »

Meh, heard of nLite, but looked amazing, but too fiddly. Possibly good for rollouts. Many people just want a working system back asap.

nLite (the XP version) is quite straightforward if you just want to slipstream service packs and hotfixes, but you can spend a lot of time fiddling with the extra options. It looks like NTLite (for post-XP Windows OSes) is similar.

The problem with the backup solutions you mentioned is that, by the time you want to do a "clean" reinstall, Windows will have had so many updates that your image will be out of date anyway.

Fightsback

There are a couple of ways to do it, either integrated at install time as you say using nlite or similar:

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/create-an-integrated-up-to-date-windows-7-install-disc/

Or post install using autopatcher or similar:

http://www.autopatcher.net/forum/

OneADay

esuhl wrote: »

Why bother upgrading to Windows 10? Win7 is nicer and less bloated and has extended support until 2020!

If Microsoft are "pushing" you to do something... do you mindlessly obey?

Do you mindlessly post things and assume that everyone is like you and wants to live in the past?

Fightsback

OneADay wrote: »

Do you mindlessly post things and assume that everyone is like you and wants to live in the past?

Are you aware MS have pulled threshold ?

http://www.winbeta.org/news/microsoft-has-pulled-the-windows-10-november-update-from-windows-update

It has little to do with living in the past and a lot to do with proven codebase stability.

Some people value stability over brittle new shiny baubles.

http://www.tenforums.com/windows-10-news/29580-windows-10-threshold-2-november-update-installation-problems-11.html

esuhl

OneADay wrote: »

Do you mindlessly post things and assume that everyone is like you and wants to live in the past?

Ha ha -- how ironic. Do you just ignore whatever anyone says and assume that everyone is like you and wants Windows 10? From the OP:

Head_The_Ball wrote: »

And no, I don't want Windows 10 yet. Or Ubunto etc.

Try reading more slowly in future -- it might improve your comprehension.