Fido is a PowerShell Script which you can use to download Windows ISO images

There are a lot of ways to get the official Windows 10 ISO images. Windows users may download the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft to download an ISO image of the current version of Windows 10.

When it comes to third-party solutions, Adguard is popular as it provides direct links to Microsoft servers to download ISO files from the company.

Today, we'll be looking at a different way to get Windows 10 ISO images. Say hello to Fido, not the mobile carrier or the 7-Up guy, but an open-source tool from the creator of Rufus.

Calling it a tool is a bit odd, because it's actually a PowerShell Script. Fido is included in Rufus, and is the tool that the USB Image creator uses to download Windows ISO images straight from the official servers.

Some users may run into issues when trying to use Rufus to download ISO images from Microsoft; one common error is that the download option becomes only available if update checks are enabled. Fido is also available as a standalone download.

How to download and use Fido

Head over to the GitHub main page (see the summary box below the article), right-click on the "Fido.ps1" file and select "save link as" to download your ready-to-use copy of the script.

OR

You can left-click on the said script to open it in your browser and copy its contents in Notepad and save it as a .PS1 script manually.

Note: You can also get it from the latest Source code zip archive from the releases page but you don't need the extra files to run the script.

Now that you have the script, don't double-click on it, because it will open the script in Notepad. Instead, right-click on it and select "Run with PowerShell"; or, open a PowerShell window and run it the old-fashioned way if you prefer to do it that way.

When you execute the script, you will see a "Please Wait..." window at first. The window closes automatically after a few seconds and a new pop-up window, the  Fido - Retail Windows ISO Downloader, opens.

You have two options here: download Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. Choose the one you wish to download and hit Continue. Another couple of seconds later the tool will offer you various versions of Windows to choose from. Say, you want to get Windows 10 19H2 Build 18364.418 - 2019.11 (very catchy names Microsoft), select it and click on Continue.

Next, Fido will ask you to select the Edition you wish to download. The options differ depending on the version that you select. If you take the example, you get to choose between Windows 10 Home, Pro, or Education. Next up, you will have to pick the desired language and afterwards the architecture (x64 for 64-bit or x86 for 32-bit).

Hit that download button; it should open a new tab in your browser and the download of the ISO image should start. If you have a download manager, it should catch the URL automatically (XDM did it for me). The entire ISO selection process takes about 10 seconds or less once you are accustomed to it.

Note: The script closes the PowerShell Window, but you can of course get the URL from the opened browser tab. Windows 10 LTSB/LTSC ISOs are not supported by Fido.

Now You: How do you download Windows ISO images?

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