Your last paragraph is just totally wrong. Ever since MS has been selling Windows online, they've also been providing a tool which will put the ISO onto bootab

Your last paragraph is just totally wrong. Ever since MS has been selling Windows online, they've also been providing a tool which will put the ISO onto bootable DVD or USB (your choice). http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help... They point to this tool pretty clearly as part of the purchase process. So with MS you can do it anyway you like: Installation as an app, or an ISO which you may trivially burn to a DVD or flash to a USB drive using a tool that they also provide.