The Windows 7 USB installer tool is back — and open source!

Posted by admin

December 10, 2009

There was a bit of a furore over Microsoft’s ‘Windows 7 Netbook Installation tool’ back in November because they broke the cardinal rule this decade of software development: they used open-source code and didn’t declare it. Even worse, they modified open-source code and locked it up in proprietary, closed-source software. FOR SHAME!

But it’s OK: it was just a mistake, an honest mistake. They didn’t mean to include the open-source code fragments. So they pulled the software from their site and said it would be back in a little while, properly documented, and open-sourced. Well, it’s been a month and it’s finally back! It’s also now hosted on CodePlex, Microsoft’s open-source repository — cool.

If you weren’t aware such a tool existed, it creates bootable USB sticks from .ISO (CD or DVD) images, ideal for installing Windows 7 on a netbook or any other device without an optical drive. If you need more info - perhaps if you want to rejuvenate a tired old netbook for a grandparent this Christmas - we’ve written about installing Windows 7 via USB before.

[via CNet ]

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