When browsing to the Windows 10 download page on my Linux System I noticed the page displayed differently to Windows. On Windows 10 it only allows you to download the MCT (Media Creation Tool). Once this tool is downloaded it creates a bootable USB directly or you can download the ISO within the tool.
By directly accessing the ISOs from the website you have more options such as different language versions and it is faster than having to install and run through the tool. The ISO contains an install.wim file whereas the MCT created USB contains an install.esd file. When creating a custom Windows ISO image you need to use the install.wim. The ESD file can be converted to WIM but requires an extra step.
By directly accessing the ISOs from the website you have more options such as different language versions and it is faster than having to install and run through the tool. The ISO contains an install.wim file whereas the MCT created USB contains an install.esd file. When creating a custom Windows ISO image you need to use the install.wim. The ESD file can be converted to WIM but requires an extra step.
When visiting the Windows 10 download page from Linux the URL redirects to:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
In place of the Media Tool it offers to select Edition:
Download ISO using Edge browser or Chrome
To view the same page on a Windows device we will need to change the user agent in developer tools.
To do this in the Edge browser press Ctrl+Shift+I to display the developer tools pane on the right.
Click on the 3 dots on the top right > Click More tools > Network conditions
At the bottom of the screen > untick the box Select automatically > Select Custom… in the dropdown box and type in linux
After completing the above steps refresh the Windows download page. You should see the following page display with the url changed to ISO at the end.
Other Options
When opening the download page on a mobile phone browser the same redirected ISO page is displayed. You could activate the temporary download link from your phone and email or text it to your messaging app on your computer to download that way.
Another good option is TechBench which provides an interface to download ISOs directly from Microsoft servers. This is a good option if you want to download previous version ISOs, Insider Preview versions and other Microsoft Software to test.
Enterprise Edition Evaluation
The Enterprise Edition of Windows 10 is available as an Evaluation from the Microsoft Evaluation Center.
This is a 90 day trial and comes in 2 versions the Standard Semi Annual Channel (SAC) or the Long Term Servicing Channel LTSC version.
It can also be downloaded from TechBench mentioned in the previous section.
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