I think a more ultimate "just in case" is downloading the ISO image file which is what you would need if you were going to burn a traditional Windows installati

I think a more ultimate "just in case" is downloading the ISO image file which is what you would need if you were going to burn a traditional Windows installation DVD-ROM. The ISO file just sits in a folder like a last resort installation backup, but it can then be used to create a fresh bootable Windows installation USB stick (or DVD) any time from then on without need to access the internet after that. Well you might want to use a program called Rufus which will more conveniently turn a Windows installation ISO into a bootable USB drive than the Media Creation Tool anyway. Plus IIRC, Rufus would run under Windows 7, but you will need to use last year's version of Rufus, look at this page of current and past versions: https://rufus.ie/downloads/ https://rufus.ie/downloads/ You will see that rufus-3.22.exe from 2023 is the newest thing that was intended to run on W7, so download that, download the W10 ISO from Microsoft, and you can then run Rufus to choose the ISO from your own filesystem that you would like to turn into a bootable USB stick. That USB stick would then be the Windows 10 installation media like you probably wanted to begin with. It also has some recovery functions and a powerful command line on its own if you need it. Really still functions this way not much different than the original W7 installation DVDs up to W11 so far.