Installing Windows 10 from a USB Drive
Creating a Portable Windows Installation on a USB Drive
Thinking about packing up Windows on a USB drive? It could prove useful. You can use it to run any recent version of Windows on any computer regardless of its existing operating system or, in other words, create your own portable version of Windows that you can take with you anywhere.
A portable Windows installation is also useful if you want to rescue your computer. If Windows crashes and then stops booting, it can help you access your files and perhaps even troubleshoot the problem.
Creating a portable Windows installation is pretty easy, provided you have a USB drive to spare.
Step 1 – Use the Right Flash Drive
You can install Windows on any USB 2.0 flash drive with at least 16GB of storage space. For optimal performance, however, it’s best to use a USB 3.0 drive, which provides faster file transfer speeds. But remember that to enjoy the better performance of USB 3.0, the computer into which you plug your drive needs to have a compatible USB 3.0 port. Otherwise, file speeds will be limited to USB 2.0 speeds.
Another thing to consider is how much the flash drive has been used. The performance of a flash drive tends to decrease over time since this storage technology can only handle a limited number of write and read operations.
So, for best results, grab a new USB 3.0 flash drive, or else one that’s seen only light to moderate use.
Step 2 – Choose Your Operating System
You can install any recent version of Windows on a USB drive, including Windows 7, 8, and 10. All you need apart from the USB drive is an ISO file of the Windows install together with a program for creating the portable installation, which we’ll discuss in the next step.
It’s good to know that Microsoft also offers an official portable USB version of its operating system – Windows to Go. This is available as a feature in Windows 8 and 8.1 Enterprise and Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise. It looks and works like most other types of Windows, but doesn’t have Hibernate, the Trusted Platform Module, or the Windows Recovery Environment.
Also, only a dozen USB drives are certified to work with Windows to Go, including the Kingston DataTraveler Workspace and the Spyrus WorkSafe.
Windows to Go allows you to create and deploy all physical and virtual business line applications and boot from managed as well as unmanaged PCs. It works across home and office computers and needs to be activated through a Microsoft License.
So, should you choose a normal version of Windows or Windows to Go? If you intend to use one of the Windows Enterprise operating systems mentioned above, Windows to Go could be a good choice. You won’t be sacrificing any features. Otherwise, you can create a portable Windows installation on a USB drive. Either way, you’ll be needing one of the tools below.
Step 3 – Grab a Portable Windows Creator Tool
We’ll assume that by now you have both a USB flash drive and an ISO file of Windows. All you need now to create a portable Windows installation is to grab a tool that helps you turn the ISO file into a bootable Windows install for your flash drive.
Probably the best free tool you can use is WinToUSB. Apart from creating a portable Windows install, it also lets you clone an existing Windows install to a USB drive as a Windows To Go Workspace. But keep in mind that the free version of the application doesn’t support the Enterprise editions of Windows.
Follow the next steps to get your portable Windows install ready in around half an hour.
- Grab the latest version of WinToUSB here and install it on your computer.
- Connect your USB drive to your computer. If it’s a USB 3.0 drive, make sure you insert it into the 3.0 port.
- Launch WinToUSB and select the Windows installation file from your computer. WinToUSB also supports WIM, SWM, ESD, and VHD images files.
- Select the operating system you want to install from the list of drop-down operating systems.
- Select the destination USB drive.
- Can’t see your USB drive? Try the Refresh button.
- Select the default boot and system partitions and leave the Installation mode on default to Legacy.
- Wait for the installation to finish. Depending on the speed of the drive and the version of Windows you are installing, this may take a while. If you’d rather not wait for the install to finish, choose the shutdown option when the operation is completed.
- Restart your computer and Enter bios setup, often by pressing the Esc key. Go to the Boot options in BIOS and choose to boot from a USB drive.
If you’ve followed all these steps, your portable Windows installation should load automatically. If you plan to use it on other computers, remember to change the BIOS settings to boot from the drive. If you don’t, most computers will not see the drive and load the default operating system automatically.
To create a Windows To Go install, the process is similar, only that you have to select an Enterprise Edition of Windows as the source of the install.
Final Thoughts
Having a portable Windows installation at hand can make it easier for you to work or play on Windows on virtually any computer, regardless of its operating system. And since you can save files and data on the flash drive itself, you really get the full Windows functionality in your pocket.
The only limitation of a flash drive Windows install is a potentially lower performance. However, with USB 3.0 you can transfer data at up to 625 MB/s, which could make this type of install even faster than an install on an older hard disk drive.
A portable Windows installation is also a great way to test Windows 10 on your computer without having to dual-boot Windows or install it over your current operating system.
Considering how easy it is to create a portable Windows install, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t create one, provided of course you already have a Windows ISO file.