[conspire] installation media

[tom r lopes]

You can download a Windows 10 iso from Microsoft (I think someone has
already posted a link)  And I think also 8 and 8.1 and 7, but I haven't
checked in a while.

I just tried to do this on a Baytrail tablet.  It doesn't have legacy boot
but has  a 32bit efi firmware.
So I "dd" the Windows 10 32 bit iso to a USB drive, and it doesn't boot.
The files are there so why not?

After some interwebs I backed up the USB and formatted it to fat32 then
copied the files back.  And that booted.

So coming from Linux, I would recommend you mount the iso and copy all
contents to a fat32 USB drive.  (If you want EFI mode.)

Licensing:

If you are installing into a machine that came with Windows (an OEM) then
the key is stored in the bios.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS#SLIC
Wikipedia talks of an OEM key, but for Win10 I have just installed without
a key and then do the Windows activation from the desktop
after installation.   But I recall in the Win7 days you could use any OEM
key and it would work (HP OEM key on a Dell, for example)  I may be wrong.
You should be able to find the OEM keys on the interwebs.

There was a time when Microsoft offered free upgrade to 10 from Win7 on.
(And actually tried force upgrading some users)  That time passed but the
activation servers still allow it.   The Win7 upgrade to 10 still works:
https://www.howtogeek.com/266072/you-can-still-get-windows-10-for-free-with-a-windows-7-8-or-8.1-key/

But you don't even have to activate Win10:
https://www.howtogeek.com/244678/you-dont-need-a-product-key-to-install-and-use-windows-10/
All that happens is you are forced a desktop background with a watermark.
So it's an idea if you just want an occasional Win in a VM.

Thomas
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