Windows 10 continues its natural update cycle, and now it's the turn of version 21H1, also known as the "May 2021 Update". However, there are plenty of reasons to postpone (or outright reject) the update via Windows Update, and as an alternative, download the Windows 10 ISO image in its latest edition. Today we'll review three options to make the download stable, and so you can repeat the process later with future versions.
Upgrading Windows 10: An Unwanted Commitment
There were just a few days left until May 11, 2021, and Windows 10 began its "psychological work" with a series of alerts and notifications: Windows 10 1909 was reaching end of support. The update was mandatory if I wanted to keep receiving security patches. The process infuriated me because Windows 10 1909 was working very well, and I didn't want to touch anything extra in the operating system. Redmond threw my plans in the trash and insisted. In the end, I followed the Windows Update route, and in less than 40 minutes, my computer came back to life... without video and without Bluetooth. Nobody said it would be easy.
And that's the core problem: the possibility that Microsoft breaks something in our systems during the dynamic update process is still very high. Instead of playing that perverse lottery, many users choose to take the longer path, that is, download the Windows 10 ISO image in its latest edition, create backups, and reinstall the operating system from scratch. Do you think you need to do that on your PC? Then here are three options to download the latest ISO:
How to Download the Windows 10 ISO: Three Options
Adguard
With the official name "TechBench by WZT", the portal known as Adguard reduces to a couple of clicks the download of almost any supported version of Windows, including Windows 10 21H1. First we select the type of product to download ("Windows (Final)"), followed by version, edition, language, and architecture. Adguard also enables the download of Windows 8.1 images and several Microsoft Office builds.
Rufus
As we explained in our article dedicated to "upgrading Windows 10 over Windows 10", Rufus includes support for downloading ISO images. All you have to do is change the option from "Select" to "Download", and specify the version of Windows 10 you need, as well as its architecture. At the time of writing, the Windows 10 21H1 x64 ISO image is close to 5.5 gigabytes, so... patience.
Microsoft's Page
If none of the above options suits you and you prefer a more direct link to download the Windows 10 ISO image, your best option is the official Microsoft page. While the "media creation tool" supports generating ISO images, there is another method that comes down to modifying the browser's user-agent to mimic a mobile device.
The process in Chrome/Chromium is as follows:
- Go to the official Windows page and press Ctrl+Shift+I
- Once the inspection window opens, click the three dots at the top right
- Go to "More Tools" and then "Network Conditions"
- In the User Agent section, disable automatic selection and choose "Chrome - iPhone"
- Refresh the page
In the case of Firefox, it's much simpler to use the User-Agent Switcher extension, but the final result is identical: Microsoft will present an alternative menu to choose the latest edition of Windows 10, the language, and its architecture. The links have an expiration date, so we recommend getting the image as soon as possible.
In Summary
With the latest Windows 10 ISO image in your possession, the sky is the limit. It's also not a bad practice to accumulate ISOs of multiple builds, in case you find internal errors or compatibility problems that force you to do a downgrade. Once again: pay attention to the size of the images, and use at least an 8 GB USB drive to avoid problems. Good luck!
