Download Windows 7
Microsoft has made available to its users a service that allows you to download Windows 7 ISO images in various languages (including cittàn). Just connect to the site of the American giant and enter the product key of your copy of Windows. At the time of writing it works only for retail versions of the operating system, i.e. only for copies of Windows purchased separately in stores and not for those pre-installed on computers (OEM).
download Windows 7 from the Microsoft website, connected to the latter, type the product key of your copy of Windows (the alphanumeric code of 25 characters found in the package of the operating system or in the confirmation e-mail received after purchase) in the field Enter the product key and click on the button Verifica. Verification of the entered code will start first and then the Windows ISO download.
Creating the Windows 7 DVD
If your computer is equipped with an optical drive (i.e. a DVD reader / writer), after downloading the Windows 7 ISO image you can create an operating system installation disk using ImgBurn, an excellent free software for burning.
To download it to your PC, connect to its official website and click on the item first Mirror x - Provided by MajorGeeks and then Download @ MajorGeeks. Then start the installation package named SetupImgBurn_x.x.exe and click on first Yes and then Next.
Then accept the conditions of use of the program, putting the check mark next to the item I accept the terms of the License Agreement, and first click on Next 6 consecutive times and then on Yes e Finish to complete the setup. If during the ImgBurn installation process you are offered to download additional promotional software (eg. Ad-Aware o REACHit), refuse by putting the check mark next to the items Custom installation e I do not agree and deselecting everything else.
Once installation is complete, download the language pack to translate ImgBurn into cittàn and copy the file .lng which contains in the folder Computer> C:> Program Files (x86)> ImgBurn> Languages.
Finally, start ImgBurn and click on the button Burn an image. In the window that opens, click on the icon of gialla poster, choose the Windows 7 ISO file and press onbig icon with the two CDs to start burning it.
Create Windows 7 USB stick
If you prefer, you can copy the Windows 7 ISO image to a USB stick and install the operating system from this media (instead of creating the DVD). For this purpose I suggest you try the free Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool that you can download by connecting to its official website and clicking on the button download for free located on the right.
When the download is complete, open the software installation package (Windows7-USB-DVD-Download-Tool-Installer-en-US.exe) and complete the setup by clicking on the buttons Run, Next, install e Finish.
At this point, insert the key on which to transfer the Windows 7 installation files into the computer: it must have a capacity of at least 4GB and must not contain any important files, as it will be formatted during the procedure.
Then start Windows 7 USB / DVD Download tool, press the button KATEGORIEN and select the Windows 7 ISO image, then click on Next, USB Device (make sure the right USB drive is selected) e Start Copying and the procedure for creating your USB stick with Windows 7 will automatically start.
Please note: to use Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool you must have installed Microsoft's .Net Framework 2.0 (or higher) on your PC.
Install Windows 7
After taking steps download Windows 7 and having created a media with the operating system installation files there is only one thing to do: restart your computer and format everything!
So make sure you have saved all your data, insert the DVD or USB stick created previously into your computer and restart the machine. When the PC is turned on, the Windows 7 setup should start automatically or at least the message should appear Press any key to boot from DVD ROM ...
If Windows 7 setup does not start when your PC starts, you need to enter your computer's BIOS and set the DVD or USB drive as the primary boot drive. It is not a complex procedure. It involves finding the right entry in the BIOS setup menu and changing the boot order by putting the computer's hard drive in second position instead of first (in favor of the DVD or USB drive).
And if you are trying to install Windows 7 on a very recent computer that uses UEFI instead of the classic BIOS, you may need to disable the Secure Boot and enable the mode Legacy BIOS in this last. You can find more information about it in my guide on how to enter the BIOS.
Once the Windows installation has started, to format your PC you need to select the option Custom (expert users), choose the destination disk of the operating system (ex. Disk 0 Partition 1) and click on the items Drive options (bottom right), Format e OK. For more detailed instructions see my tutorial on how to format Windows 7.
How to download a Windows 7 virtual machine
Do you need a copy of Windows 7 to install on a virtual machine? No problem, Microsoft offers Windows 7 virtual machines ready to use that can be imported for free into all major virtualization software: VirtualBox, VMWare, Parallels etc.
To download a Windows 7 virtual machine, connected to this page of the Microsoft website and select one of the options available in the drop-down menu on the left: IE8 on Win7 to download a copy of Windows 7 that includes Internet Explorer 8, IE9 on Win7 to download a copy of Windows 7 that includes Internet Explorer 9, IE10 on Win7 to download a copy of Windows 7 that includes Internet Explorer 10 or IE11 on Win7 to download a copy of Windows 7 that includes Internet Explorer 11.
Then choose the virtualization software you intend to use from the adjacent drop-down menu (VirtualBox, Vagrant, HyperV, Mail order, VMWare o Parallels) and click on the button download for free that appears below to download your virtual machine. Once the download is complete, extract the virtual machine from the archive that contains it and import it into your favorite virtualization software following the standard procedure provided by the latter. For more information on this, see my tutorial on how to virtualize an operating system.
Please note: the virtual machines downloaded from the Microsoft website are in English and have an expiry date of 90 days. You can easily bypass this limit by creating snapshots of virtual machines and restoring them after expiration, but it's good to be aware of their existence.
How to download Windows 7
