Microsoft Download Center Archive
Key topics
The discovery of a Microsoft Download Center archive has sparked nostalgia and excitement among commenters, who are thrilled to find old PowerToys and other utilities available for download. Many are reminiscing about using PowerToys back in the Windows 95 and XP days, while others are discovering that the tools are still being updated and are useful even in modern Windows versions. As some commenters express concerns about the archive's long-term viability and potential malware risks, the site's maintainer defends its stability, pointing to its three-year track record and multiple donation channels, including GitHub and Patreon, with some commenters even suggesting alternative funding platforms like Liberapay and OpenCollective. The discussion highlights the enduring value of these legacy tools and the importance of preserving them for future use.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
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3d
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72-84h
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Based on 36 loaded comments
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- 01Story posted
Dec 5, 2025 at 2:33 PM EST
28 days ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Dec 8, 2025 at 2:14 PM EST
3d after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
16 comments in 72-84h
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Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Dec 11, 2025 at 8:43 PM EST
22 days ago
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Deskman seems like it'd be awesome.
Here's the link to the current version for modern systems: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/
I can then git clone my repository of setup scripts to configure the rest of the system unattended.
Download link starts... download, instead of showing some "engagement" screens, asking for email, login with whatever account in the social media one has. If we wanted to discuss this software, well, there was a forum for this. No need to create account in Discord, Twitter, Facebook, and so on.
Could probably be all done with CSS but wasn't done for a long time
But can you please look at adding yourself/Download Center archive to liberapay too as I was hoping to find liberapay.
You mention having kofi being the lowest prices but I think Liberapay has no fees other than payment processing and is itself an non profit and funded via donations.
Maybe then you would have "too many options to donate" but I think liberapay can be a good option to have honestly imo and I am interested to hear your thoughts about it.
Also I wanted to download windows 7 iso to run a simpler thing on my pc but Microsoft being shitty removed the download link of it and everything so great to see your project, Going to bookmark it right now and thank you!
Of course, how many people would know to check for the signature (especially in the case the site went malicious and therefore wouldn't tell you to do so) would be a different question…
1. Files come from Wayback Machine, which is trusted to serve legitimate snapshots
2. There is a sha1 and size listed for most files (though these come from Wayback)
3. Checking signature is easy enough from Explorer
Perhaps a page on “how to know this is legit” is a good idea to help educate about this. The goal of the project is to have legitimate downloads with good SEO, without having to cut through ads/spam/sketchy redirects (still has a few ads but intentionally non-obtrusive), so people aren’t blindly downloading from sketchy sites.
At least, last I checked.
https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/Microsoft_Download_Ce...