Microsoft Again Offering Windows 7 Download Tool, Now Open Source

Posted 12/10/2009 at 7:13pm | by Ryan Whitwam

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Last month Microsoft was forced to take down their Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool after it was discovered to contain open source code. The application allows users to create a bootable USB from an Windows 7 ISO to install the OS on a PC without an optical drive. Now the tool is finally available for download again and is covered by the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2). It can be found on Microsoft’s open source software repository, CodePlex.

The controversy began in early November when Rafael Rivera posted his findings on the Within Windows blog. "The source code was obviously lifted from the CodePlex-hosted (yikes) GPLv2-licensed ImageMaster project. (The author of the code was not contacted by Microsoft)," wrote Rivera. The software giant later confirmed that a contractor had indeed “borrowed” some GPL licensed code. Microsoft admitted they should have caught the error, but didn’t.

While Microsoft did get a bit of black eye on this one, at least they didn’t take their ball (of code) and go home. Microsoft’s new posting of the tool requires users to complete multiple application installs “for clarity” due to different parts of the code falling under different license terms, but at least it’s available. Get it here.