Introduction

Windows 7 Reached End of Life in January 2020.

The Intel USB 3.0 Creator Utility was a tool for adding USB 3.0 driver support to Windows 7 Installation Media. Intel have been dropped a large number of Windows 7 drivers from their servers now that Windows 7 has reached end of life. The Intel USB 3.0 utility was superseded by the more reliable Windows USB Installation Tool by Gigabyte which despite being Gigabyte branded can be used on up to 6th Generation Intel based hardware from other OEMs such as Dell, HP and Lenovo.

7th Generation Intel based hardware and later are not supported by Intel or Microsoft on Windows 7.

The Windows USB Installation Tool adds only the USB 3.0 drivers and the hotfixes associated for NVMe SSDs. You may need to however Load Intel F6 Storage Controller Drivers provided by your OEM during installation to see the SSD like I did when I tested this on a Dell OptiPlex 7040 and Dell OptiPlex 3040 6th Generation Intel Skylake System with a NVMe SSD. The USB tested was Created Fresh from the Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 2011 Installation ISO. To proceed you will need to have already created a Bootable USB from a Windows 7 Installation ISO using Rufus.

Using NTLite to Create Windows 7 Media Refresh January 2020 Installation Media

I have created a guide to slipstream all standalone Windows 7 Updates up until January 2020, IE11 and the Microsoft .Net Framework as well as all system drivers for your model using the Dell or Lenovo Driver Cabinet File using NTLite.

It is available on my main Windows 7 guide (section 5 in the table of contents):

Instructions – Windows Installation Tool

The Windows USB Installation Tool by Gigabyte may be found here:

It works reliably on Windows 7 and Windows 10 unlike the old Intel USB 3.0 Creator Utility.

Scroll down until you find it:

Alternatively press [Ctrl] and [ f ] and search for Windows USB Installation Tool.

Using the Gigabyte USB Installation Tool

Download the tool and extract it:

To launch the utility double click the WindowsImageTool.exe and accept the User Account Control:

Check the three boxes to add the drivers:

Leave the Source Path as "None – Add USB Drivers" and change the Destination Path to your Windows 7 Bootable USB Flash Drive:

Select Start:

The tool will mount each index of your boot.wim file, add the drivers and then commit the changes. It'll repeat the process for the install.wim file:

For a Bootable USB made from a English Windows 7 64 Bit .iso Downloaded Directly from Microsoft.

The process took about 16 minutes in my test.

The boot.wim found in the sources folder of the USB was updated from 160 MB to 189 MB.

The install.wim found in the sources folder of the USB was updated from 2.75 GB to 2.88 GB.

You may have slightly differing file sizes depending on your original installation .iso.

Preparing SATA Preinstallation Drivers

With the USB 3.0 drivers, you should be able to Boot from your Windows 7 Bootable provided that Legacy ROMs are Enabled and Secure Boot is Disabled. However you will likely be missing storage controllers so Windows 7 may not be able to find your drive to install Windows 7 on. To add these go to:

Press [Ctrl] and [ f ] to do a search. Select either the OptiPlex 7040 (the last Intel based Dell to run Windows 7) or your own model (if it has a specialist storage controller) .

Scroll down until you get to Serial ATA:

Alternatively press [Ctrl] and [ f ] and do a search for F6 (these were called F6 drivers as they used to be loaded in Windows XP by pressing F6 and using a Floppy Drive!)

You must extract the driver as the Windows Setup cannot read .exes. Normally this can be done by launching the setup:

Accept the User Account Control:

Select Extract:

Specify the location:

Copy the extracted folder to your Windows 7 Bootable USB.

Look through the contents of the extracted folder, there is normally a drivers subfolder and a Windows7-x64 subfolder:

It's contents should look like:

Copy this folder to your Bootable USB Flash Drive. If your Install Windows screen looks like this, you will be able to select Load Driver:

Then Browse:

Then navigate to the subfolder containing the drivers:

Ensure that "Hide drivers that are not compatible with hardware on this computer is ticked" (it should be set like this by default). Select Next:

The Storage controller is now recognised so the internal drives now show.

Standalone Updates for Windows 7

Convenience Rollup

A restart is required after installing these updates.

IE11 Prerequisite Updates

A restart is required after installing these updates.

IE11

A restart is required after installing these updates.

Service Stack Updates

Security Rollup November 2019

A restart is required after installing these updates.

Microsoft .Net Framework

A restart is required after installing these updates.

Microsoft Security Essentials