Microsoft ends Techbench program; axes Windows ISO Download Tool & heidoc.net is dead?

[German]Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool has been a nice thing to download ISO install images for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and also for Microsoft Office 2007/2010. It seems that a shutdown of Microsoft servers has axed also the Windows and Office ISO Download Tool. But I found a solution to download ISO install images again from Microsoft's servers. Update: It seems that heidoc.net is online again – and also the Download Tool is back to life (details below).Don't know, what's the reason for this "one day long malfunction" was (maybe a hacked site).

Adddendum: Jan Krohn has left a comment at my German blog post. It was a wrong certificate he has installed (he confimed, that he used an SSL certificate for his other site), so for nearly a day his site was not reacheable nd the tool did not work (because it needs access to the site). Jan also announced Version 3.20 with integrated download link lists. More details at heidoc.net and 'Windows und Office ISO Download Tool' – an update.

Microsoft offers for end users the Windows 10 the Windows Media Creation Tool. Downloading ISO install images for OEM versions of Microsoft Windows or Microsoft Office was difficult. But there was a solution in the past. Jan Krohn operated the web site heidoc.net, where he provided several years direct download links to digital river download servers.

After the digital river download servers has been shut down, Jan found a way, to download ISO install images for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (also Insider Previews) and also for Microsoft Office 2007/2010. He created a small (380 KByte) portable tool, named Windows and Office ISO Download Tool, and released it last June.

The tool provides a neat GUI to select the required ISO download and provided the direct download links. I've introduced this tool in my blog post Microsoft Windows and Office ISO download tool.

Jan Krohn lives now in Cambodia and he has translated his site heidoc.net to English. But today a plugin in my German WordPress blog informed me, that the links to the tool download at heidoc.net has been broken. Investigating the issue, I found, that not online the link https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool has been broken. For me, it seems: Jan Krohn obviously gave up his whole portal www.heidoc.net and grants the url to a Cambodian auction site, located in Pnom Penh.

So users can't download the Windows ISO Downloader.exe  no more. But there is more. I still have had a copy of Windows ISO Downloader.exe. My attempt to execute the tool resulted in the following error message.

The dialog box informs the user, that there is an error with internet connection. Because my internet connection was ok, I gave it a test run on two distinct machines. On both Windows computers I received the error message. It seems that Microsoft has shut down its Techbench-Servers (during the last weeks, a redirection has been set up, directing users to the Windows 10 ISO download page). And this shutdown also axes the ability of Windows ISO Downloader.exe to reach Microsoft's download server and creates a download link.

OK, as written above, the heidoc.net site is life again and also the Iso download tool is back to life. But overall, after this incident, I prefere the solution mentioned below (although I've access to a MSDN account).

Where to get the ISO downloads?

Currently it seems, that all Windows 7/8.1 direct download links are dead. Users of Windows 10 can use Windows Media Creation Tool to download an ISO install image of Windows 10. Users with access to Microsoft MSDN program or to Microsoft's Volume Licensing Download Center are able to direct download ISO install images.

And what's with end users and OEM customers? Luckily there is a TechBench dump site at GitHub (see screenshot above). So fire up your browser and search the site for the required product. After selecting the product, the site returns a direct download link (valued for 24 hours) to grab an ISO install image directly from Microsoft.

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