Question: What do you do when Vista RC2 (2.5 GB) is taking over 10 hours to download?
Answer: Download the ISO from an international server instead of a USA server and be done in about 90 minutes.
- Log in to your https://connect.microsoft.com/ account
- Navigate to the desired ISO and click on the download link
- When the Microsoft File Transfer Manager opens, click Options
- Change your local language to something other than English (for example, German), click OK
- Close the Microsoft FTM and confirm that you want to abort the transfer
- Now, click on the download link again, and this time the Microsoft FTM will launch in another language
- Your download will proceed as normal but much faster if it’s the middle of the night in the country you’re downloading from
- When your download is finished, switch the local language back to English (this is the tricky part since the buttons are no longer in English)
- The next time you use the Microsoft FTM, your buttons will be back to normal
See, the “Windows Vista (v5744-16384) for X86 and X64 (English)” ISO on an international server is the same ISO that’s stored on the USA servers. And since it was 5:00 AM in Germany when I started my download, I’ll be done before Oliver even wakes up.
Danke schoen Olli! 😉