Microsoft reposts Windows 7 download tool
Software giant restores a tool that allows Windows 7 to be more easily installed on older Netbooks. This time, though, it is under an open-source license.
Microsoft said Wednesday it has reposted a tool to the Internet that aids installing Windows 7 on Netbooks and computers without an optical drive.
The software maker pulled the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool off its Web site last month after it was pointed out that the software appeared to use open-source code licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL v2). Microsoft later apologized and said that the code did in fact use GPL code. Microsoft said it would repost the tool and make it open source under the terms of the GPL.
Microsoft posted the open-source version of the tool on Wednesday, although it took longer than the company had originally anticipated.
"As we previously explained, the testing and localization took longer than we expected, but the project is now hosted on CodePlex.com, Microsoft's Open Source software project hosting repository," Microsoft open-source community manager Peter Galli said in a blog posting.
Also, the whole effort to get Windows 7 onto a Netbook now takes longer as several other pieces of code that had been included with the tool are now separate downloads.