In Case You Need To Re-install W7 From Scratch

[Java Jive]

If you have a product key but no installation media, downloads for a
reinstall from scratch of some versions of W7 are still available here:

https://ia601209.us.archive.org/30/items/digital_river/xxx17index_file.txt

Windows 7 Home Premium x86 English:
https://archive.org/download/digital_river/x17-58996.iso

Windows 7 Home Premium x64 English:
https://archive.org/download/digital_river/x17-58997.iso

Windows 7 Professional x86 English:
https://archive.org/download/digital_river/x17-59183.iso

Windows 7 Professional x64 English:
https://archive.org/download/digital_river/x17-59186.iso

Windows 7 Ultimate x86 (59463) & x64 (59465) English are listed in the
index but there are no download links and constructing one from the
numbers in the index leads to a 404.

Windows Update does not initially work, but installing both of the
following should get it going:

1) Windows 7 Service Pack 1

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB976932

Windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe
... or ...
Windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe

For some reason I still had the first of these, but I can't find any
actual downloads for them still available on Microsoft's site, probably
because they are included already in the above Digital River downloads,
which would explain also that my attempting to install the first merely
resulted in a message that SP1 was already installed (note the KB
filename gives no hint that actually it's SP1)!

2) Windows Update Agent 7.6

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/installing-updates-features-roles/update-windows-update-agent

windowsupdateagent-7.6-x86.exe

http://download.windowsupdate.com/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/7.6.7600.320/windowsupdateagent-7.6-x86.exe

... or ...

windowsupdateagent-7.6-x64.exe

http://download.windowsupdate.com/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/7.6.7600.320/windowsupdateagent-7.6-x64.exe

If you can get Windows Update to work, all the updates that were ever
available for W7 will still download and install, but, particularly if
your installation partition is not the first partition on the first hard
disk enumerated by the BIOS, set Windows Update to download them but
*you* choose whether and when to install them, because you need to
beware of the following three:

KB4530734
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/december-10-2019-kb4530734-monthly-rollup-8a09c35f-fc66-9a8c-130d-94c73b935888

KB4534310
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/january-14-2020-kb4534310-monthly-rollup-9ce32b1b-77ef-9a17-7ecb-2bcebcaa9ff5

KB4539601
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/january-31-2020-kb4539601-preview-of-monthly-rollup-1768e5a4-04bc-e964-a7a7-9509f91b0d1f

If your installation partition is not the first one on the first HD,
they FU in some way I couldn't fathom, but apparently attempt use the
boot details from the first partition on the first HD, whatever they may
be, and this happens even if the boot flag in the partition table is set
to be the one you're actually installing to.

In my case, I was installing W7-32-bit on Partition #3 to drive a
particular scanner for which I have only 32-bit drivers, but Partition
#1 contains the 'real' W7-64-bit partition that I use most of the time.
Symptom was that somehow any of those updates seemed to replace the
32-bit boot files with 64-bit, and so on next reboot the 32-bit
installation couldn't be found, only the 64-bit W7 on Partition #1, and,
rather curiously, the legacy files in C:\Windows\Windows.old of
Partition 2 from upgrading to W10. Another curious feature of the crash
was that, without any installation media present, I landed in a console
on drive X:, the contents of which appeared to be just a /Boot
directory, presumably from one of the first two partitions, because it
must have been 64-bit to have found only those other installations, not
the 32-bit one it should have been able to find.

I couldn't find an easy fix, so had to revert to the last saved backup
Ghost image and do the updates again, excluding the above three, then
copy the image to a single partition on a spare disk, which I then
mounted in the PC without any other disks present, and completed the
updates by installing the above. Then I copied the image back to
Partition #3 where it belongs, and where, as I write now, most
satisfactorily, it tells me, and presumably will now for ever more, that
there are no new updates to install!

BTW, I decided to install an optional update KB3102429 to install a
couple of Eastern European currency symbols - AFAICT I will never
actually need them but I thought I might as well support foreign
languages properly if it could be done at so little effort from myself
- but had to reboot after just installing this one update. WTF is
Microsoft doing that needs a reboot just to install currency symbols?

[Auric__]

Post by Java Jive
If you have a product key but no installation media, downloads for a

[snip]

Thank you for all the research. I'll probably be reverting to 7 when 10
support ends next year.

Post by Java Jive
WTF is
Microsoft doing that needs a reboot just to install currency symbols?

Do you really need to ask?

[Java Jive]

Post by Auric__

Post by Java Jive
If you have a product key but no installation media, downloads for a

[snip]
Thank you for all the research. I'll probably be reverting to 7 when 10
support ends next year.

My advice would be to create the builds asap, before Microsoft withdraws
stuff.

[g***@aol.com]

Just some gee whiz info on the activation server. If you have a well
worn key, the automatic activation may not work but the chatty cathy
seems to work OK.