GETTING AN iso FILE OF WIN 7 PRO IS NOT EASY

Hi: 

There is a website called Heidoc.net, and you can download the Windows ISO file downloader and generate a W7 Pro English US ISO file if you select the W7 August 2018 option.

The file is too large to fit on a standard DVD, so you either need to burn it to a DL DVD or use an 8 GB USB flash drive to transfer the ISO file to.  I usually use Rufus for this purpose.

There are also Dell ISO's on there for various operating systems including W7 Pro.

@BADboy 

Please press the blue Accept as Solution button below if this post answers your question.

You should not be using 7 since its end of life.
After 10 years, support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. If you continue to use Windows 7 after support has ended, your PC will still work, but it will become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses because you will no longer receive software updates, including security updates, from Microsoft. Microsoft strongly recommends that you move to a new PC running Windows 10 to avoid a situation where you need service or support that is no longer available.

If you still want support buy a retail windows 10 usb flash drive soon because they will go away forever in october when windows 11 is released.

Install Windows Clean on new drive and recover your data if possible via a dock.

When you set your bios to AHCI you can boot OEM WIN10 recovery DVD and install using Generic Key.

WIN10 Home

YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7

WIN10 PRO

VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

They can be used to INSTALL but not activate.

For that you install then go online and activate using the SLUI 3 admin command prompt or change my key to activate windows.

Dell only supports the OS that your model shipped with.  The OEM DVD's are forever disks that will continue to work well past october 2021 and EOL of WIN10 in October 2025.

You use the COA Key for Home or Pro on your dell to do this.

OEM WIN10 Recovery DVD

A newer model may ship with 7 but has a key in bios

Dell models with windows genuine label no 7 COA

Recover your data using a USB Doc after installing on a new hard drive.

What size that is depends on what model dell you have.

Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 3.5 inch

Seagate BarraCuda 2.5 Drive

USB Drive Dock for data recovery

@speedstep 

You can still download the W7 ISO August 2018 files from the Heidoc site using the downloader app, because I just did it.

@pjtikkanen 

"W7 ISO August 2018 files" are not DELL OEM WIN7 and will not activate via the SLP 2.0 bios key in machines made by Dell."

Microsoft has pulled the public downloads of Windows 7 and Office 2010, which means, they're currently no longer available via the Heidoc download tool.

This is no longer an option.

 

@BADboy 

@JOcean 

Please press the blue Accept as solution button below if this post answers your question.

It is a problem to give users false hope of using WIN7, any version  Installing and supporting WIN7 is no longer an option. Microsoft has removed service packs and security software for download and windows update no longer works for WIN7.

Windows 7 is no longer supported by DELL or Microsoft or any other OEM or Retail.

@speedstep 

That's news to me, because I give the link to the W7 August 2018 files I generate from the downloader.exe program to members on the HP support forum, and it activates just fine using the HP OEM product keys on the W7 COA sticker.

@pjtikkanen 

The assertion that you can use the August 2018 media on ANY OEM systems is false hope for a user who cannot find COA or COA is missing / unreadable.  Which is why OEM SLP 2.0 key in bios only works with OEM DELL Windows 7 HOME or PRO.

DELL OEM Win7 SLP Keys

This is not a DELL or Microsoft support issue because windows 7 is EOL EOS.

@BADboy 

@JOcean 

Please press the blue Accept as solution button below if this post answers your question.

OEM Keys on the COA Sticker are not the same as OEM SLP BIOS KEY.  The reason for SLP Activation was to prevent the need for Dell and every Dell user from calling Microsoft to Activate or Reactivate their Windows Product. One of the reasons that this is important is because the DELL OEM COA stickers are fragile and easily defaced rendering them useless. If your Windows Product Key label is worn off or unreadable you can forget about getting any help from Dell or Microsoft. You are basically on your own. Microsoft will send you to Dell for OEM support. Dell will send you to Microsoft. Microsoft will require buying Retail Windows. Dell will cannot help with COA Keys.

Unreadable Key

Introduced in February 2020, a polymer substrate replaced the paper based substrate. The artwork and anti-piracy feature were also updated.   Introduced in February 2021, Microsoft released an updated version of the COA label with revised anti-counterfeit features. For COAs affixed to systems preinstalled with or licensed for Windows after February 1, 2021 the COA may feature the product name printed on the label and also contain anti-counterfeit security features.

@speedstep I am more than a bit confused as I never replied to this post. Did I possibly have some sort of reference in a related post? And I always try and steer users away from Windows 7 since it is now unsupported and dangerous to continue to use due to security issues. I did Kudo your post since I was in complete agreement with your statements.

@JOcean 

Users are still asking for WIN7 reinstall.  OEM Reinstall is relatively painless but none of the service packs or windows updates are still available including microsoft security essentials.

You did reference several items a few years ago which is why I looped you in.  There is zero compelling reason to keep using 7 other than people being annoyed with having to learn all over again.  The same painful learning curve is going on again with windows 11. I find zero compelling reason to use windows 11 until 2025 when they kill off 10.  I think the outcry will be such that they might extend it a bit more like a year or 2 but I doubt past that.

IMHO users still wanting to use 7 can do so but should not be doing this while Online due to no security updates etc.

The main driver behind microsofts push for windows 11 is to force people to buy new machines,  stop them from cloning installs by encrypting the drive after oobe, which is why they REQUIRE TPM.

The next step will be to change all bios so that secure boot MUST BE ON to use windows which locks out older hardware and software so that users are FORCED to update to newer hardware with security certificates in UEFI BIOS.

Thats going to be a hard sell for someone who spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars for a GPU only to be told that it no longer works with windows "just because I microsoft say so."

Windows 7 has Reached End of Life. Microsoft have removed all the public downloads for Windows 7 ISOs and most Windows 7 Updates from their own servers. However Dell haven't removed anything from Dell servers.

The Multi-Lingual Dell Windows 7 Pro (Media Refresh January 2016) or "Skylake" ISO may be downloaded using the Dell OS Recovery Tool and a valid Dell Service Tag. This ISO contains the NVMe hotfixes, USB 3.1 drivers and storage controllers for up to 6th Generation Intel Hardware allowing basic installation on all systems which supported Windows 7. It also applies Dell OEM SLP which results in automatic offline product activation.

The Dell Windows 7 Professional Skylake ISO may also be downloaded using the Windows ISO Download Tool. The Windows ISO Download Tool lists each ISO by model and then image.... Despite the layout there are no model specific customisations for each ISO. It would have been really nice for Dell to slipstream the driver pack for each model into the Professional index of the install.wim but obviously this won't be done for an OS that has reached end of life.

Note the Dell Windows 7 Home Basic ISOs available for some models are only in Chinese Language. This is probably due to a country specific license agreement between Dell, Microsoft and China regarding Windows 7 Home Basic around 2016 when the ISO was made available.

@speedstep  I completely agree that Windows 7 should not be considered for use on any system. The security risks are too great. A few years ago...I can't remember what had for breakfast 2 days ago.. I admire your memory.

@JOcean 

I remember IBM punch cards and batch programs waiting in line at the mainframe room to test your program.

We called them Hawaiian Punch cards due to the color at the top. Thats not old. Many of my K - 12 schools clients still used IBM Mainframes, cards, software to record student attendance until about 1990.  Hollerith’s hole punched cards started in 1890 with census takers recording information on the cards.

https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/punched-cards/2/2/6

@JOcean 

"A few years ago...I can't remember what had for breakfast 2 days ago.. I admire your memory."

My memory is not better. However I do write documentation for hardware as well as software and have done so since my first Apple 2 PC from 1977.

My first Intel Processor was the 4004 on a blue Intellec Box.  The same machine that MSDOS was written on in 1981 using the CPM DOS system.

First Intel PC was one of the first 3000 IBM PC 5150 ever made.  Was over $10,000 and only had tape drive because floppy drives were too expensive.

First Dell was PC's Limited Turbo model 1985.

I was using Vax 11 780 and PDP 8 and PDP 11 computers before apple and dos came around.

The first computers had 8192 bytes of core memory as in magnetic cores.

I still remember details about these things only because I wrote the standard operating procedures

SOP manuals for all of those systems.

In the bad old days we used Unisys/Sperry Univac, HP, IBM mainframe computers.

I still remember cobol as well as basic but you would have to pay me a whole lot of money to keep using that.

@speedstep   That brought back a memory. 55 years ago I was taking computer classes in college and we were using punch cards to program as I am sure you are familiar with. A lot of water has passed under that bridge.