Its operation is simple. Select the Windows 7 ISO image file, then choose whether you would have it make a bootable DVD or a thumb drive. Once you make this selection, it’s time for selecting the target drive on which the write operation will be performed. The biggest mistake you can make here is to select the wrong drive, since doing that will result in the drive being formatted and written over – and the data you had on it would be gone forever. You can be this cautious, right? Once you have made sure the the target drive is the correct one, it is a good time to give the command to start the creation process. It’ll take some time, usually 3-5 minutes; you can get yourself some coffee.
Oh yeah, remember this – you need to have a ‘more than 2GB’ pen drive, i.e. typically a 4GB one.
You may wonder why it is even important to install Windows from a flash drive. Firstly, installing Windows 7 from a flash drive is much faster than installing it from a DVD drive. Secondly, netbooks and tablets are becoming more popular by the day, and most of these devices lack a an optical drive, making such an alternative a necessity. This tool is just meant to help you out in either of these cases, with an ease. As it takes care of the automation of the process commands, you are saved from mingling with the CLI.
Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool has been opensourced by Microsoft. You can take a look at their project page if you wish to get the code, or plan to extend it. However, if you are satisfied just having the binary executable program, you can get the latest Windows 7 USB / DVD Download Tool version 1.0.30.0 from here. Windows XP users should take a look at this documentation to make their PC ready before using this tool.