Privacy

32023 readers

1164 users here now

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

Chat rooms

[Matrix/Element]Dead
Discord

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

Is there a way to download a Windows.iso anonymously? (lemm.ee)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by lemmylem@lemm.ee to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

13 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello, whenever I try to download the Windows.iso from Microsoft, it blocks me because I'm using a VPN. I don't really want to buy proxies or anything for this. I tried to download it off public WiFi but it was way too slow. I only need Windows for updating the EC firmware on one of my older laptops.

The Windows.iso is going to be used offline, I don't want to link my IP to it. I mean, I guess since I'm using it offline anyways, I can just download the .iso with my actual IP, install it offline, and then use a USB drive that has the EC firmware/BIOS update on it and use that to flash the firmware offline? (This laptop can only perform firmware updates through a Windows environment)

I feel like in a way, wouldn't I still somehow be linking myself? What if I flash the firmware and later when I connect the laptop to the internet, it somehow has like metadata/signature of where I updated my EC from? I'm planning on using Libreboot with Linux after I update it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Zikeji@programming.dev 27 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just download it from a third party and compare the checksum with the official information. Granted, the official checksums on their website are behind a few steps, but you already tried on public Wi-Fi - once you generate the link a "Verify your Download" section should appear.

[–] kevincox@lemmy.ml 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

This seems like the way to do it. I went to https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows11 and found the current SHA256 hash for the English version. 36DE5ECB7A0DAA58DCE68C03B9465A543ED0F5498AA8AE60AB45FB7C8C4AE402. IDK if this URL is blocked for some VPNs.

Then I tried a few torrents based on the file name Win11_23H2_English_x64v2.iso.

Example search: https://btdig.com/search?q=Win11_23H2_English_x64v2.iso

I ended up using this torrent which game me the correct file: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:4f5f5cd398d947260876c231f93e2d40b61bac48&dn=Win11_23H2_English_x64v2.iso&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A80&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.opentrackr.org%3A1337%2Fannounce