Comments on: Speed up your Windows 7 RTM download from Technet and MSDN

By: markwilson.it » Upgrading from Windows 7 RC to RTM… you had to try it didn’t you?

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:02:14 +0000

[...] RTM media (even if it’s enterprise edition – which has the same features and functionality). Some comments over at 4sysops suggest editing or removing the sourcesei.cfg file but that didn’t work out for me. I had to restart my upgrade using the correct media and, [...]

By: Lukas Beeler

Lukas Beeler — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 07:16:38 +0000

Bob,

I suppose this was done to improve to OOBE experience for people who buy retail/upgrades. It’s easily solved by deleting the sources\ei.cfg file if you need to deploy multiple versions from a single medium.

By: Bluh

Bluh — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:39:00 +0000

in response to #3 (bob), it is possible to do what you are wanting. you must edit the file “ei.cfg” in the \sources folder of the install disc. there are three sections [EditionID] (editions you want available should be added under this), [Channel] (can change between OEM or Retail), and then a [VL] header (0=not VLK, 1=VLK). i have also read that alternatively, you can remove this file completely and it will default to giving you all versions to choose from. all versions ARE on the DVD, this file just limits which versions it makes available to you to see! do research on this for more info.

By: Sean Constantine

Sean Constantine — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:36:55 +0000

Very interesting; thanks for the share!

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:39:55 +0000

Are the Windows 7 x86 & x64 downloads now all hard-coded for a single version like Ultimate or Professional? Why not a single version for each processor, as in Vista? Or is this only for Volume licenses?

(I recall seeing a fix to change an INI file in the ISO image to remove this restriction.)

By: Michael Pietroforte

Michael Pietroforte — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:46:14 +0000

I don’t know when they introduced Top Downloads, but I have seen this Akamai applet many times before. I just didn’t know that it is from Akamai.

By: Mark Wilson

Mark Wilson — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:01:35 +0000

I thought the Top Downloads was something Microsoft introduced overnight to deal with the massive surge (the direct download links for Ultimate and Enterprise were greyed out this morning but they were live last night).

The Akamai downloads are certainly faster though. It took me about a hour to pull down the 32-bit version of Ultimate. x64 Enterprise and WAIK are taking a bit longer…

Full marks to Microsoft for keeping the TechNet and MSDN download sites up and running whilst they the top downloads over to Akamai.