14 DAY TRIAL // The componentized and embedded Windows 7 spin-off formerly codenamed Quebec is now available for download from Microsoft. Windows Embedded Standards 7, which had been labeled Windows Embedded Standard 2011 at one point, was released to manufacturing at the end of April 2010. The Redmond company is now offering a free download of the operating system designed for devices. A trial version of Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM went live on the Microsoft Download Center on May 5th, and is up for grabs for customers looking for a replacement for Windows Embedded Standard 2009.
“The Runtime images created by the Windows Embedded Standard 7 Evaluation will run for 30 days with no product key and 180 days with a product key,” Microsoft informed. In order to get their hands on evaluation product keys, testers will need to get the Windows Embedded Standard 7 Evaluation Toolkit from Microsoft. “The Windows Embedded Standard 7 Evaluation toolkit will run for 180 days with no product key. After 180 days you must either obtain a retail key or uninstall the toolkit software from your PC.”
There are no less than three downloads offered by the software giant, namely 32-bit (x86) Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM, 64-bit (x64) Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM and the Windows Embedded Standard 7 Evaluation toolkit. In total, the two different flavors of the Windows 7 spin-off and the toolkit weigh in at approximately 9.5 GB.
“Windows Embedded Standard 7 consists of 3 DVD5 images (ISO's). Download the .exe and .rar files for each DVD image into its own folder and run the .exe file in that folder to reconstitute the .ISO file. Once the .ISO file is created you can then burn the ISO onto a blank DVD. The toolkit DVD is used to install the Image Configuration Editor (ICE) and associated distribution share(s) onto a PC. The 32-bit and 64-bit Standard 7 DVDs are bootable WinPE DVDs that contain the Image Builder Wizard (IBW) and the corresponding 32-bit or 64-bit distribution share. Typically these DVDs are used to boot into Windows PE on the target device and apply the runtime image created with ICE or to prototype image creation using the wizard and various templates available in IBW,” Microsoft stated.
32-bit (x86) Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM, 64-bit (x64) Windows Embedded Standard 7 RTM and the Windows Embedded Standard 7 Evaluation toolkit are available for download here.