Using the Windows 7 USB Download tool (the ISO to USB drive utility) for any ISO file

As notebooks, netbooks and slates get thinner, smaller, and more power-conscious, optical drives that can read and write to a bootable DVD have now become a peripheral device rather than a built-in. This makes it difficult to install software from a DVD, and even more problematic when you want to wipe the device and install a new OS. For these devices, installing software that you download as a compressed .iso file from a SD card or USB flash memory device is fast and cheap and a great alternative to buying an external optical reader. This is particularly useful to developers since most (if not all) of the software available via MSDN and DreamSpark is only available for download in the .iso format. Unfortunately there are not a lot of turn-key tools out there for burning from an .iso to a USB memory device.

Microsoft has created the Windows 7 USB Download Tool which is really nice if your .iso is a Windows 7 operating system, but it fails when you try to use it with any other .iso. While searching for a work-around, I found this great blog post by Rafael Rivera with an explanation for why the Windows 7 USB Download tool won’t work with every .iso file:

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