7

I'm downloading the Windows 8 upgrade via the Windows 8 Upgrade assistant. I assumed the Upgrade assistant would resume the download when I quit it - however that doesn't seem to be the case.

If I quit it and then start, it starts the download from scratch. Why so? Is it possible to resume the download?

2
  • There is one problem though. If we want to reinstall the Windows in any case, then we would have to download again and then install. Does anybody kno any way we can generate an ISO file out of this download and then use for installation of Windows later.
    – user180057
    Dec 13, 2012 at 15:46
  • after the initial download, start Install Windows -> Create Install Media -> Choose ISO
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Dec 13, 2012 at 16:37

2 Answers 2

11

With a little bit of help from Process Explorer, I figured out that upgrade was being downloaded to

%localappdata%\Microsoft\WebSetup\Download

enter image description here

Now, when I hit the Pause button then quit the Upgrade assistant, the file (the assistant creates a single .tmp file) remained in the folder.

However, if you quit the upgrade assistant directly, without hitting the Pause button, for some reason, the Upgrade assistant clears the folder. Why is it so, I don't know.

Moral of the story: Hit the pause button if you want to resume later, else you'll have to download from scratch

4
  • Yup, that's the only location I found as well for the Upgrade Assistant's files. Possibly an oversight/bug where the dev forgot to call the Pause method when quitting early? Otherwise I can't think of any reason why clearing it out should matter (unless they just thought, "ok you quit it without pausing, means you don't want it at all", which is stupid).
    – Karan
    Oct 29, 2012 at 16:44
  • @Karan yeah, an oversight seems likely
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Oct 30, 2012 at 7:00
  • Kind of unrelated, but I thought I'd let you know about Process Hacker, since you mentioned Process Explorer. :)
    – user541686
    Oct 31, 2012 at 9:52
  • @Sathya: Yes, this is the effect of the very counterproductive cat & mouse game that MS is playing to prevent people to circumvent their download/installation trackers. I just (independently) tried what you proposed when trying to update from W8 to W81. Clearly they have also manipulated certain system files, as the downloader and its location is no longer shown in PE, as in your case. In addition I did not have any "pause" button...
    – not2qubit
    Feb 14, 2014 at 22:50
1

Apparently, you can resume downloads by downloading another program, Windows8-Setup.exe. After I paused (just before my Windows 8 Release Preview automatically restarted again), I was able to download this to resume where I left off (at about 17% download progress, in my case).

1
  • 1
    the key word being "After I paused"
    – Sathyajith Bhat
    Jan 16, 2013 at 10:15

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .