Windows 11 or Windows 10 Direct ISO Download Links

Windows ISO Downloads

Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Windows 11 and Windows Insider Preview ISOs are available to download from their respective software download page:

Windows Media Creation Tool

Windows 10 and Windows 11 also have the Windows Media Creation Tool. The Windows Media Creation Tool downloads Windows Setup Files and uses these to create an installation ISO with a smaller install.esd. The install.esd contains the most commonly used Retail and OEM editions however it lacks the specialised education editions and workstation editions used for example in universities and educational institutions:

• Windows Home
• Windows Home N
• Windows Home Single Language
• Windows Education
• Windows Education N
• Windows Pro
• Windows Pro N

This guide will not focus on the ISOs or installation media created from the Windows Media Creation Tool.

Direct Download Links

Windows 10 and Windows 11 ISOs are also available as direct download links. The Windows Insider Preview ISOs are also only available as direct download links. These ISOs have an install.wim file which typically exceeds 4.0 GB. These ISOs include the specialised education editions and workstation editions used for example in universities and educational institutions:

• Windows Home N
• Windows Home Single Language
• Windows Education
• Windows Education N
• Windows Pro
• Windows Pro N
• Windows Pro Education
• Windows Pro Education N
• Windows Pro for Workstations
• Windows Pro N for Workstations

Accessing Direct Download Links for Windows 10

The Windows 10 Software Download Page will only show the Windows Media Creation Tool by default.

To access the direct download links on Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Press [F12] and select Open DevTools:

Select Toggle Emulation once. This will display the page emulated for the screen of a mobile phone:

Now refresh the page:

You can close the Developer Tools and now you have access to the Direct ISO Download:

Checking the ISO Checksums

The Windows 10 and Windows 11 Direct ISO Download Pages should list installation ISO Checksums. These can be used to verify the file integrity of your ISO.

Right click the Start Button and select Terminal (Admin) or PowerShell (Admin):

Check the ISO checksum using:

cd Downloads
Get-FileHash "Win11_EnglishInternational_x64v1.iso"

Replace Win11_EnglishInternational_x64v1 with your ISO name. The ISO Checksums should match what Microsoft list on their website, if they do not your ISO is likely corrupt and should be redownloaded.

Microsoft only list ISO Checksums for mainstream Windows Builds and not the Windows Insider Preview ISOs.

UEFI Bootable USB

A UEFI Boot with Secure Boot has been the standard since 2012. This guide will not cover older computers with a Legacy BIOS as these computers do not meet the recommended system requirements to run Windows 8.1, 10 or 11.

The install.wim of the Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Insider Preview ISOs typically exceeds 4.0 GB.

4.0 GB is the upper file size limit for the FAT32 File System and unfortunately some Dell Business Models will only display a FAT32 Partition in the UEFI Boot Menu. We therefore require some additional steps to make a Bootable USB and most utilities such as Rufus are insufficient.

Partition the USB using DiskPart

We must create a Bootable USB that has two partitions. A 1 GB Boot partition that is FAT32 formatted and therefore displays as a Boot Entry in the UEFI Boot Menu and an Install Partition spanning the rest of the USB Flash Drive that is NTFS formatted and is therefore large enough to contain the install.wim.

To create partitions we will use the command line based utility diskpart. Open Terminal (Admin) or PowerShell (Admin).

Insert a 16-32 GB USB Flash Drive. It is recommended to remove all additional USB Flash Drives and External Hard Drives. Input:

diskpart
list disk

Here you can see that Disk 0 is the systems SSD and Disk 1 is the USB Flash Drive.

We need to select the USB Flash Drive. To do this input:

select Disk1

Input:

clean

This will remove the old partitions from the USB Flash Drive.

Look at list disk, if there is no * under Gpt for Disk 1, the drive is using the MBR Partition Scheme. This should be changed to the GPT scheme. To do this input:

convert GPT

Most USB Flash Drives use the GPT Partition Scheme by default making this step unnecessary. Now we need to create the USB Flash Drive with the partitions:

FAT32 Boot Partition and NTFS Install Partition

This is required in the Dell OptiPlex 7040/7050 and 7060 as the UEFI BIOS Boot Menu on these systems requires a FAT32 Boot Partition. This multi-partition Bootable USB works in every system I tested:

create partition primary size=1024
create partition primary
list partition
select Partition 1
format fs=FAT32 quick label="BOOT"
assign letter=H
select Partition 2
format fs=NTFS quick label="INSTALL"
assign letter=I

Single NTFS Install Partition

The XPS 9365 and XPS 9305 do not have the arbitrary requirement of a FAT32 Boot Partition and a NTFS Boot Partition will display. Therefore on these systems a single NTFS Install partition with Windows 10 or Windows 11 will work:

create partition primary
list partition
select Partition 1
format fs=NTFS quick label="INSTALL"
assign letter=I

Single FAT32 Install Partition

The Windows 8.1 ISOs only contain 1-2 Editions and have an install.wim that is below 4.0 GB. A single FAT32 Partition will work with Windows 8.1 Installation Media:

create partition primary
list partition
select Partition 1
format fs=FAT32quick label="INSTALL"
assign letter=I

Copying Files

Right click the Windows ISO and select Mount:

The Boot Partition

Select the Boot Partition and copy all the Files from the ISO except for the sources folder:

In its place create your own sources folder:

Copy the boot.wim from the original sources folder to this USB:

The Install Partition

In the case of the install partition, copy every file from the ISO including the sources folder:

Storage Controller Driver "F6"

Dell typically configures their systems using the RAID SATA Operation which can increase the system performance. Unfortunately Windows Installation Media may lack the storage controller driver required to read the internal SSD. To get around this we should download and extract the storage controller driver. This is sometimes referred to as the F6 Storage Controller Driver as F6 needed to be pressed to load these types of drivers during the Windows XP setup.

Go to Dell Drivers and Downloads.

Select your model, operating system and the storage category. Look for the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver or Intel Volume Management Device (VMD) Storage Drivers or similar:

For newer models these drivers can also usually be downloaded directly from Intel:

Double click the application:

Select Extract:

Go to Downloads and create a folder called SATA. Extract the files to it:

Select Close:

Select this folder:

Look for a F6 folder or similar:

Look for a f6flpy-x64 or similar:

The raw drivers should look like the following:

Rename this folder F6:

Copy this new F6 folder to the Boot Partition and the Install Partition:

Driver Pack Slipstream

Dell Driver Packs are usually only available for Dell Business Models and to facilitate Windows Installation they can be slipstreamed into the install.wim of the Windows installation media. This will allow Windows to be installed with the OEM drivers inbuilt.

This may be necessary when downgrading a new system with Windows 10 as Windows 10 installation media is no longer being updated to support installation on new hardware, as Microsoft recommend to instead install Windows 11 on newer hardware. As a result Windows 10 may lack the Storage Controller Driver and Network Driver required for a basic Windows 10 installation on new hardware. These can be slipstreamed alongside all the other drivers for a model using the Dell Driver Pack.

boot.wim with f6 Drivers

Copy the original boot.wim to the C:\ Drive and right click it and select properties. Make sure read only is unchecked. Copy the F6 folder to the C:\ Drive. Open Terminal (Admin) or Powershell (admin) and use the following commands.

These commands will make a temporary folder, extract the boot.wim to it, add the F6 drivers and then unmount the boot.wim committing the changes. Finally it will remove the temporary folders:

mkdir "C:/BootTemp"
Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"C:\boot.wim"
Dism /Mount-WIM /WimFile:"C:\boot.wim" /index:2 /MountDir:"C:\BootTemp"
Dism /Image:"C:\BootTemp" /Add-Driver /Driver:"C:\F6" /Recurse
Dism /Unmount-WIM /MountDir:C:\BootTemp /Commit
rmdir "C:\BootTemp"
rmdir "C:\F6"

Copy the updated boot.wim to the sources subfolder of the Boot Partition and Install Partitions, replacing the original boot.wim.

Add Dell Driver Pack to install.wim

Copy the original install.wim to the C:\ Drive and right click it and select properties. Make sure read only is unchecked.

Download the Dell Command | Deploy Driver Pack from Dell (under the Systems Management Category). Update line 4 to correspond to the name of your .cab file.

Now we want to create two temporary folders on the C:\ Drive and then extract the Dell Driver Pack to one of these folders:

mkdir "C:/InstallTemp"
mkdir "C:/DellDrivers"
cd Downloads
expand 9305-win11-A01-FXRFN.CAB -f:* "C:\DellDrivers"

In the last line change the name of the driver pack to match the name of the driver pack you downloaded.

Now let's get details about the install.wim:

Dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:"C:\install.wim"

The indexes will be listed. Note down the index that corresponds to the edition of WIndows that you wish to install.

In my case I am installing Windows 11 Pro which has an index of 6. I therefore want to extract this index to the InstallTemp folder using:

Dism /Mount-WIM /WimFile:"C:\install.wim" /index:6 /MountDir:"C:\InstallTemp"

Change the index, if using a different edition.

Once the correct index of the install.wim is extracted, we can slipstream the drivers and then commit the changes to the install.wim and remove the temporary folders:

Dism /Image:"C:\InstallTemp" /Add-Driver /Driver:"C:\DellDrivers" /Recurse
Dism /Unmount-WIM /MountDir:C:\InstallTemp /Commit
rmdir "C:\InstallTemp"
rmdir "C:\DellDrivers"

Copy the new install.wim to the sources folder of the Install Partition of your USB flash drive.