Where can I download Windows 7 (legally from Microsoft)?

Question

I just bought a serial for Windows 7 on-line from the Microsoft store (the most painful shopping experience EVER!). I selected that I wanted to download my version of Windows 7 after purchase. After payment, I have listed a Product Key but no download link in sight.

Where do I download my Windows 7 ISO to burn to disk?

Note: I'm not a Technet or MSDN subscriber.

Answer 1

The link should have been emailed to you with your receipt. More than likely it will not be an ISO but a set of ESD installation files. There is a tutorial here that explains how to convert to an ISO.

If the download link was not emailed to you I would contact customer service with your invoice number and ask to resend the information.

Answer 2

Solution for OEM Licenses

Microsoft's decision to take down the Digital River ISOs, leaving the Microsoft Software Recovery website as the only option, left OEM owners out in the cold, since in order to download an ISO today one needs the product-key of a retail version of Windows.

However, one can still head to the Microsoft DigitalRiver Mirror, a German mirror that has done an exceptional job of gathering up the Digital River ISOs and uploading them as torrent files. They have almost all the English versions, and a few in other languages.

This is entirely legal, as these ISOs cannot be used without a valid product-key for the Windows version that is downloaded and installed.

One would need a bit-torrent client, such as uTorrent, to download these files.

How to use the bit-torrent client to download such an ISO is well documented with screenshots in the article: Download Windows 7 ISOs, Legally and for Free.

Answer 3

THIS SOLUTION ONLY WORKS FOR RETAIL LICENSES, NOT OEM LICENSES

Microsoft recently launched a Microsoft Software Recovery for Windows 7. This allows you to verify your existing license key and download the current .ISO for the version of Windows 7 the license is for.

The website was created for the following purpose:

• Create a Windows 7 DVD for installation on a new hard drive
• Create a backup Windows 7 DVD
• Create a bootable USB drive with a copy of Windows 7

Step 1: Prepare to download

In order to recover your Windows 7 product or create a backup you will need to be able to download and save a large file (approximately 2 to 3.5 GB).

Make sure you have a reliable internet connection and sufficient data storage available on one of the following:

• 
  A computer

• 
  USB device

• 
  External Drive

If you are not ready to download, or are using a mobile device, an email link to download the product can be sent to you after you verify your product key. The link in the email is valid for 24 hours.

After you verify your product key below, you will download a disc image (ISO file) and use it to create a bootable USB or DVD. This will require ISO burning software such as the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

Step 2: Enter product key + Step 3: Select product language

The next two steps will require you to visit the website. In the first step you enter your license key. In the next step you select the product language. If you need to know what your license key you can use the tool of your choice. I have found Speccy is reliable

Once you have down those last two steps you should get this:

Based on the comments from an article on another website users with OEM licenses will not be to be able to use this tool. Additionally it appears this service is only for those users who purchased the retail version of Windows 7. MSDN and TechNet subscribers won't be able to use this tool also.

Answer 4

Notice

THE FOLLOWING PROCESS OUTLINED IN THIS ANSWER HAS BEEN REPORTED AS HAVING WORKED FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. YOU STILL NEED A VALID WINDOWS PRODUCT KEY IN ORDER TO INSTALL WINDOWS. THIS SOLUTION WILL WORK FOR BOTH RETAIL AND OEM LICENSES

Hint: In order to copy the code without going to PasteBin. start at the end of the code, and highlight to the start of the code. You can also go directly to the source if you want. Here is a prettified version of the code.

As of July 29th, 2016 the TestBench website no longer a functional website.

You can get the same list of .ISO downloads by going to Download Windows 10 website instead. You can then proceed to use the same script as before. I went ahead and remove mention of the TestBench website since it didn't work anyways.

As of November 2016

You must change the user agent to your browser so it appears your NOT browsing the website from a Windows machine in order for the original "Select Edition" dropdown to appear. If you skip this step, you will only be offered the Media Creation Tool, which can't be used to download Windows 7.

As of February 2017, I have confirmed this answer still works.

I am aware this method cannot be used to download newer versions of Windows 10. The reason I will not update the JavaScript or the answer to include the newer Windows 10 ISO files is because the JavaScript isn't even required to download the current ISO. I wrote this answer as a way to download previous versions of Windows, it just happens, to use the website where you download Windows 10.

Required JavaScript

var html = "<option value='' selected='selected'>Select edition</option><option value='2'>Windows 7 Home Basic SP1 </option><option value='4'>Windows 7 Professional SP1 </option><option value='6'>Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 </option><option value='8'>Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 </option><option value='10'>Windows 7 Home Premium N SP1 </option><option value='12'>Windows 7 Professional N SP1 </option><option value='14'>Windows 7 Ultimate N SP1 </option><option value='16'>Windows 7 Professional K SP1 </option><option value='18'>Windows 7 Professional KN SP1 </option><option value='20'>Windows 7 Home Premium K SP1 </option><option value='22'>Windows 7 Home Premium KN SP1 </option><option value='24'>Windows 7 Ultimate KN SP1 </option><option value='26'>Windows 7 Ultimate K SP1 </option><option value='28'>Windows 7 Starter SP1 </option><option value='48'>Windows 8.1 Single Language </option><option value='52'>Windows 8.1 </option><option value='55'>Windows 8.1 N </option><option value='61'>Windows 8.1 K </option><option value='62'>Windows 8.1 KN </option><option value='68'>Windows 8.1 Professional LE </option><option value='69'>Windows 8.1 Professional LE K </option><option value='70'>Windows 8.1 Professional LE KN </option><option value='71'>Windows 8.1 Professional LE N </option><option value='75'>Windows 10 Education (Academic) - build 10240</option><option value='76'>Windows 10 Education KN (Academic) - build 10240</option><option value='77'>Windows 10 Education N (Academic) - build 10240</option><option value='78'>Windows 10 China Get Genuine Chinese Simplified - build 10240</option><option value='79'>Windows 10 Pro-Home - build 10240</option><option value='80'>Windows 10 ProKN-HomeKN - build 10240</option><option value='81'>Windows 10 ProN-HomeN - build 10240</option><option value='82'>Windows 10 Single Language - build 10240</option><option value='83'>Windows 7 Home Basic SP1 COEM </option><option value='85'>Windows 7 Home Basic SP1 COEM GGK </option><option value='86'>Windows 7 Home Premium N SP1 COEM </option><option value='87'>Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 COEM </option><option value='88'>Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 COEM GGK </option><option value='89'>Windows 7 Home Premium K SP1 COEM </option><option value='90'>Windows 7 Professional N SP1 COEM </option><option value='91'>Windows 7 Professional SP1 COEM </option><option value='92'>Windows 7 Starter SP1 COEM </option><option value='93'>Windows 7 Ultimate K SP1 COEM </option><option value='94'>Windows 7 Ultimate KN SP1 COEM </option><option value='95'>Windows 7 Ultimate N SP1 COEM </option><option value='96'>Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 COEM </option><option value='97'>Windows 7 Home Premium KN SP1 COEM </option><option value='98'>Windows 7 Professional KN SP1 COEM </option><option value='99'>Windows 10 Pro-Home - build 10586 </option><option value='100'>Windows 10 Education - build 10586 </option><option value='101'>Windows 10 Education KN - build 10586 </option><option value='102'>Windows 10 Education N - build 10586 </option><option value='103'>Windows 10 China Get Genuine Chinese Simplified - build 10586</option><option value='104'>Windows 10 ProKN-HomeKN - build 10586 </option><option value='105'>Windows 10 ProN-HomeN - build 10586 </option><option value='106'>Windows 10 Single Language - build 10586 </option><option value='107'>Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview - Build 10586 </option><option value='108'>Windows 10 IoT Core Insider Preview - Build 14262 </option>";
var edititonbox = document.getElementById("product-edition");
edititonbox.innerHTML = html;
edititonbox.style.backgroundColor = "blue";
edititonbox.style.color = "yellow";
edititonbox.style.fontFamily = "consolas";
document.getElementById("submit-product-edition").innerHTML = "Confirm (WZT)";
console.log("go to http://wzor.net/ or https://twitter.com/WZorNET or https://twitter.com/nummerok :D");

Required Steps

1. Go Here
2. Copy provided JavaScript into your clipboard
   • Hit CTRL+SHIFT+J to open the Console in Chrome
   • Hit CTRL+SHIFT+K to open the Console in Firefox
     • You might need to type "Allow Pasting" to enable pasting into the console in Firefox
   • In IE or Edge hit F12 and go to the Console
3. Download desired version of Windows 10, Windows 8.1, or Windows 7

Some Screenshots

Before JavaScript:

After JavaScript:

Windows 7 Professional Download:

Background Source

Background Source

Download Windows 10

Change Any Windows 7 Retail ISO to ANY Windows 7 OEM ISO

Once you have downloaded the ISO, in order to use an OEM license key, you must modify ..\sources\ei.cfg and switch the channel from Retail to OEM. This involves extracting the files on the ISO, modifying the file, and then creating your own ISO file. You can also use the EI.CFG Removal Utility to accomplish this task.

The following uses the ei.cfg from Windows 7 Ultimate and is only an example:

Answer 5

This updated method works for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 as of May 2019.

Microsoft has made clean retail ISOs of Windows significantly more difficult, but not impossible, to get directly from their servers in recent years. As of 2019, it appears that the easiest way to download older versions of Windows is to use this utility, which allows you to generate download links for almost any version of Windows or Office released in the last decade. (Note that you still need a product key to activate any of these downloads, and all of the files are served directly from Microsoft servers (they just made them really hard to get to without external tools like this utility or the script given above by Ramhound), so this shouldn't be considered piracy in any way.)

It does open an extra window at launch with an ad, but it's simply a single AdSense banner in an iframe that's used to pay for keeping the download links up to date and is relatively harmless.

To download Windows 7, first select "Windows 7" in the sidebar. This will open another page allowing you to select the edition you want.

Choose the edition you want, and another prompt will pop up allowing you to choose language. If the language you want is grayed out, then Microsoft has temporarily disabled those links, in which case you need to switch over to the "Windows 7 (August 2018)" option and use it instead. Once one of the two options lets you select the combination of language and architecture you want, click the "Copy link for 64 bit" or "Copy link for 32 bit" in the right sidebar. Then paste that into your choice of browser or download manager (you'll notice that it is in fact on a microsoft.com domain, these are not rehosted) and download the resulting ISO.

Now that you have it downloaded, you probably want to validate that it is a real Microsoft-issued image. Luckily, you can do that easily with this web tool which contains the SHA-1 hashes for every single file offered up to MSDN subscribers, which includes almost all Windows images.

Simply grab the SHA-1 hash of the ISO you just downloaded (if you don't have a way to do that, 7-Zip includes a tool to do so) and paste it into the search bar and your desired Windows edition should be listed.

Note that I did say almost all Windows images; Microsoft doesn't offer certain OEM images and for whatever reason Windows 7 Home Basic to MSDN subscribers, so those hashes are not included in the database. Thus, if you want those images, you'll have to either trust the supplied link or download/verify the files a different way.

Moral of the story: Microsoft really wants you to upgrade to Windows 10.

Answer 6

I'm going to leave this as an alternative.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

These are Windows 7 VMs (as well as VMs for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10) distributed for free by Microsoft for development purposes.

These virtual machines expire after 90 days. We recommend setting a snapshot when you first install the virtual machine which you can roll back to later. Mac users will need to use a tool that supports zip64, like The Unarchiver, to unzip the files. The password to your VM is "Passw0rd!".