How to Download Windows Retail ISO Using Fido PowerShell Script

[zoran]

Fido is a PowerShell script that can automate downloading of Microsoft Windows ISO images directly from the Microsoft servers. Fido is an acronym for full ISO downloader and is designed by the developer to work with the popular bootable USB creator tool Rufus. But this script can also be used by anyone to download Windows 10 and 8.1 ISO images easily by running the Fido script from the Windows PowerShell window.

Before you can run the Fido script, you must ensure these few things:

• You have launched Microsoft Internet Explorer at least once. For this, press Win+R, type iexplore and press Enter. Internet Explorer will ask for picking some settings, choose default or custom settings and then close Internet Explorer.
• You have PowerShell version 3.0 or later installed. Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 users do not have to do anything. Windows 7 users can download and update PowerShell from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=34595. If Fido detects unsupported version of PowerShell, it will launch the download page of a new version of PowerShell automatically.

Now you can proceed to use Fido for downloading Windows ISO in the following manner:

1. 1. Download Fido script  (Fido.ps1)  from https://github.com/pbatard/Fido/releases.
   2. Launch Windows PowerShell with Administrator level access. Windows 10 users can press Win+X and select Windows PowerShell (Admin).
   3. Give the following command in the PowerShell – Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted. Press Y when asked.

4.Now launch Fido script using the command – .\Fido.ps1 You may have to specify full path of the Fido script file.

5.Select which version to download Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.

6.Select further options for the download – version, edition, language, architecture etc.

7.Click on the Download button to start the download. This will open the download link in your favorite web browser. You can finish the download inside the web browser or copy this link in your download manager. Usually this link is active for 24 hours only.

 

8.Fido script hides the PowerShell window, so re-launch it as mentioned in step 2. Then give the following command in the PowerShell – Set-ExecutionPolicy Default. Press Y when asked. This step will restore the PowerShell execution policy back to default.

 

The developer of the Fido script promises to keep it up-to-date so any changes on the Microsoft website do not affect the downloading of the Windows ISO images. Therefore always download the Fido.ps1 script fresh before using it to download the ISO files.