Windows running from a flash drive without installation. How can I run any version of Windows from a flash drive?

We remind you that attempts to repeat the author’s actions may lead to loss of warranty on the equipment and even to its failure. The material is provided for informational purposes only. If you are going to reproduce the steps described below, we strongly advise you to carefully read the article to the end at least once. The editors of 3DNews do not bear any responsibility for any possible consequences.

During operation, the utility deploys the OS image (in fact, it stupidly unpacks the archive) directly to a removable drive. This will turn out much faster, but upon first boot you will have to carry out the standard system setup procedure: select language settings, time zone, create users, and so on. And this is a very small price to pay for speed.

When you launch PWBoot (with administrator rights, of course), you will be prompted to either install a clean OS on a USB drive, or patch an already installed system if you are somehow going to transfer it to an external drive. You will also have to “roll” the patch after installing service packs and, possibly, some Windows updates. Working with the program is incredibly simple, so there’s almost nothing to tell. Nevertheless, there are still a couple of nuances.

Firstly, PWBoot stubbornly refuses to work with Cyrillic. If your Windows 7 installation image supports the installation of several OS editions at once, then you need to select the one you need. How to do it? Using the ImageX utility (see above), launched with the info parameter and specifying the path to the wim file.

imagex /info x:\path\to\install.wim

In the command output, look for the Image Index item and the version description that follows it. In PWBoot, the versions appear in the selection list in the same order as they appear in the command output.

Secondly, there are two installation options to choose from - directly to an external drive (with its mandatory formatting) or to a virtual disk in VHD format. The second option is much more interesting, but, unlike the first, it definitely requires Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise. More precisely, these editions support booting from VHD. In fact, there will be only one file on the disk in which all your work will take place. At the same time, in the OS loaded from the VHD, the physical disk will also be visible. Interestingly, the speed of the system inside the VHD is almost the same as when working directly from the drive.

In general, using VHD provides a lot of advantages. Firstly, any self-respecting virtual machine can work with this format, and its support is built right into Windows 7. You can create, edit, mount VHD disks and work with difference images (in fact, diff for an entire disk) using standard tools. This gives rise to such opportunities as the presence of several Windows installations on one logical volume, easy rollback of changes in the system, convenience and speed of OS deployment on many PCs at once, and so on.

Let's return to PWBoot. At the next stage, you need to specify the location and name of the future VHD container. Naturally, it must be on an external USB drive. Please note that the disk must have an NTFS file system (FAT32 is not suitable due to file size restrictions) and sufficient free space. The program itself will offer to make a minimum disk size, but it is better to allocate as much as you need for software, documents and everything else. A VHD disk can be made dynamic (expandable) by checking the appropriate box. That is, physically it will occupy exactly as much information as it contains. In general, to save space, you can enable this option, but at the same time lose a little in performance.

All that remains is to select the disk where the bootloader will be installed (that is, an external USB drive), check the Update bootcode and Add boot entry to BCD checkboxes, change the description of the boot menu item if desired, and click Install. That's it, the program will perform further installation steps itself. This usually takes no more than ten minutes, but a lot depends on the speed of the USB drive itself.

After installation, it is advisable to lighten the system a little - remove unnecessary components, disable non-critical services, turn off hard drive indexing, and generally try to avoid any operations associated with a heavy load on the drive. It is also useful to defragment the external drive by connecting it to another system. The problem with the swap file also remains unresolved - you can use the DiskMod driver to create it on a USB drive, you can abandon it altogether, but it is better to manually set its location on the normal HDD of the machine on which our portable Windows 7 is running.

Volume C: is an HD container that is physically located on volume E:

Finally, it is worth mentioning an interesting development called VBoot. It is a bootloader based on GRUB, but with support for direct booting from VHDs. And it doesn't have to be Windows. The site, for example, has ready-made Ubuntu builds. In general, it’s a ready-made and convenient solution, but, of course, it’s paid - from $79 per license. By the way, Windows 8 will have a built-in ability to transfer your entire work environment to a USB drive and boot directly from it. In the meantime, you will have to be content with the above method. Good luck with your installation!

Our task for today is to create a special build of Windows 7 that would work without installation and run directly from a flash drive. By including the necessary software in its composition, we will be able to solve various problems: solve problems with disk partitions, remove viruses, or, for example, use hacking tools in a familiar environment.

Having realized long ago that many problems are much easier to solve by booting from a Live media, I always try to have some kind of recovery distribution with me on a flash drive. Agree that this is, if not the best, then at least one of the most convenient ways to restore the system or, for example, deal with malware (especially if we are talking about a blocker). I've tried a lot. First these were Linux-based systems, then UBCD4Win, built on Windows XP, and then I made my own build using the notorious Bart’s PE Builder utility. Alas, the program has not been updated for a long time, which means that the list of supported systems available for transfer to bootable media remains the same: Windows 2000/XP/2003. This is a little upsetting: everyone has already gotten used to the “seven”, and it would be great to build your own boot system based on Windows 7. No sooner said than done.

Our assistant - WinBuilder

To replace PeBuilder, another, absolutely wonderful tool was found - WinBuilder. This is not even a program, but a real framework for creating Windows PE (this is the name of a lightweight version of Windows OS that allows you to boot from a removable CD/DVD/USB media). To do this, it extracts the necessary components from the distribution of the system itself, as well as the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) as the basis for the system and allows you to create additional scripts with which any third-party utilities are built into the system.

Several projects have been built on the basis of WinBuilder, here are just a few of them:

• LiveXP - uses Windows XP as a file source and creates a system for administrators.
• Win7PE - takes the Windows 7 distribution as the basis for the system.
• VistaPE-CAPI - creates a Vista-based build.
• NaughtyPE is based on Windows XP and supports media playback out of the box.
• MultiPE - assembles a bootable system from the Vista or Windows 7 distribution.

We will use Win7PE as the most proven and most suitable project for our tasks.

What do we need?

In order to build a bootable system based on Windows 7, we need the following:

1. Windows 7 x86 or x64 distribution, preferably with SP1 already integrated.

Driverpacks are cool sets of drivers that support a huge amount of hardware. Assemblies for various types of devices are available on the site; we will not need many, namely, assemblies for the categories Chipset, LAN, WLAN Mass Storage driver.

Preliminary preparations

When all the files are at our disposal, we can begin preparations.

1. First, we need to install the Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7. Of course, it is not necessary to burn the ISO to a disc: you can simply unpack the files from KB3AIK_EN.iso and run StartCD.exe. In the autorun menu that appears, select Windows AIK Setup and perform the most standard installation. This equipment weighs a lot, but after the WinBuilder scripts extract the necessary files from there, WAIK can be deleted (keep this in mind).

Installing WAIK

1. Next, copy the Windows 7 files from the disk or from the ISO image to some directory.

We place the downloaded WinBuilder.exe in some folder (for example, C:WinBuilder) - just not in the directory with the user profile. And we launch the binary under an administrator account: otherwise the program will honestly warn you about possible problems.

WinBuilder in its pure form is of little use - it requires scripts and auxiliary files to create a bootable distribution. Therefore, the first thing you will see after launching is the “Download Center”. The program will prompt you to select the projects that need to be downloaded.

Check the boxes:

• updates.boot-land.net (these are updates);
• win7pe.WinBuilder.net/SE (Win7PE project files).

In the upper left corner you can select the download mode (by default it is set to "Recommended"). Select "Complete" from the menu and start downloading files by clicking on the "Download" button.

1. For some reason, WinBuilder cannot correctly extract absolutely all the files needed to create the assembly, so you will have to do a little manual work. You need to find the bcdedit.exe file on your system (Windows 7) and copy it to C:WinBuilder ProjectsToolsWin7PE_SEx86 (or C:WinBuilder ProjectsToolsWin7PE_SEx64 for a 64-bit system). You also need to copy the following files there:

imagex.exe
wimgapi.dll
wimmount.inf
wimmount.sys
wimserv.exe

Initially they are located in the WAIK folder. You can try skipping this step. My automatic WinBuilder scripts were unable to grab these files, but perhaps you will have better luck.

Collecting the distribution

Now that we have everything necessary for assembly and are ready for use, there is no point in delaying the creation of the distribution kit. Again, I’ll break it down point by point.

1. So, in the left panel we see the Win7PE SE project tree. Click the "Source" button: here you need to specify the location of the Windows 7 distribution files. Everything else can be left as default.

Next, you need to connect the drivers that the system will use to create the assembly. This is done in the "Drivers" section. The default path here is %GlobalTemplates%Drivers_x86. The easiest way is to click on the "Explore" button and copy all the necessary drivers into the folder that appears. We simply unpack here the Driverpack archives that we previously downloaded. Since scanning of subdirectories is supported, there is no need to shove everything into one crazy pile: feel free to post the contents of the archives “as is”.

If you go through the "Tweaks" section, you can additionally make various cosmetic settings for the future system. For example, change the wallpaper, customize the Start menu, change shortcuts. Everything is very clearly configured through the appropriate options.

Now you can press the “Play” button and trust that everything will go without a hitch. Creating an assembly obviously takes some time: in the process, you can see how one system script after another is executed (it is difficult to imagine how much time it would take to do such work manually). Accordingly, the more scripts you select for execution, the longer WinBuilder will fiddle around. In case of an error, the program will tell you what the problem is and, most likely, will provide help in the browser with a possible solution to the problem.

I am compiling this instruction taking into account all the difficulties I have encountered, so you should not step on my rake. Everything should be fine, and as a result you will receive a Win7PE_x86.ISO file in the WinBuilderISO folder.

1. Before uploading files to a flash drive, you can first check the functionality of the assembly in a virtual machine, and here again everything is automated. In the VirtualTest section you can select a virtualization system (the test can be arranged using qEmu, VirtualBox, Virtual PC, VMware). I left the default mode (Best Emulation), and WinBuilder launched the resulting image in the installed VMWare Workstation, which suited me quite well. You can choose a more suitable scenario. You can leave everything as is and install a free and lightweight one into the system.

Checking the build for VMware

1. Now let’s talk about what transferring the system to a flash drive looks like. First, WinBuilder launches HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - the most correct utility for formatting USB drives. Here we select FAT32 (if you want to add the ability to boot from a flash drive of another system in the future) or NTFS. Let's format it. After this, the Grub4Dos utility comes into play, which has an important purpose - to install a bootloader on the flash drive. Here you need to: firstly, select the disk correctly (since the letters are not displayed, look carefully at the size), secondly, select "Part List - Whole disk (MBR)" as the parameter value and check the Don't search option floppy. After this, all that remains is to click on the “Install” button, instantly receive a message about installing the bootloader and, mentally thanking Gbur4Dos, close its window. That's it: after this, WinBuilder will quickly transfer all files to the USB drive.

Our bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 is ready.

It’s a sin here not to boot from a USB drive to make sure that the system works not only in a virtual environment, but also in a real, most ordinary environment. But I want to warn you right away: this is a greatly stripped-down variation of Windows 7, in which a minimum of components are left. No Aero or beautiful effects for you: all this is disabled. And from the software, by default you get some standard Windows utilities (like regedit), as well as several bonus programs like PENetwork for setting up a network (including a wireless adapter) and Opera USB for browsing. All this is not bad, but clearly not enough - the system needs to be equipped.

Network configuration

Scripts (plugins)

Additional programs that you can include as part of your system build are distributed in the form of scripts (or plugins, as they are also called). Connecting them is easy. It is enough to copy them to WinBuilderProjectsWin7PE_SEApps and then activate them through the WinBuider GUI interface. True, in order for them to appear in the script tree, the program has to be restarted, although it is possible that updating the list of plugins could be somehow easier. In some cases, the plugin is distributed as a single file - a script. There are two options here. The developer could include the necessary files directly in this file by encoding them in base64. Or, no files are included in the script, and you need to copy them to the folder with the script yourself (this should be described in detail in the plugin manual). The latter especially applies to commercial software (the same Total Commander), the files of which plugin developers simply do not have the right to distribute.

Now I’m answering the question you probably have: “Where can I get these plugins?” There are many sources - for example, here:

For example, you can download the Wireshark plugin and Winpcap necessary for its operation (available from here). We move it to the Apps/Network directory, activate it through the tree - and we get an assembly with a full-fledged sniffer. I have provided links to some useful plugins below:

Despite the fact that there are quite a lot of ready-made plugins, it is useful to be able to write a script yourself to add the necessary programs to the system. When you add a new script via "Tools .. Create script...", WinBuilder offers a simple script template. As an example, I will give a simple script that installs Softperfect Netscan, and explain the logic using comments:

//Section with information about the application being added
Title=NetScan
Description=Netscan from Softperfect
Selected=True
Level=5
Version=1
NoWarning=False
Download_Level=0
//Important variables, including the path to the executable file
%ProgramTitle%=Netscan
%ProgramEXE%=netscan.exe
%ProgramFolder%=netscan
// Commands to install the application
// Copy the necessary files from the netscan subdirectory in the folder where the script is located (you must first transfer here what is necessary for the program to work)
CopyProgram,%ScriptDir%%ProgramFolder%
//Add shortcuts
Add_Shortcut,StartMenu,Netscan
Add_Shortcut,Desktop,Netscan
//Indicate the DLLs that are necessary for the program to work.
WinBuilder will include them in the build
Require_FileQ,mgmtapi.dll
Require_FileQ,msvcrt.dll
Require_FileQ,KERNEL32.dll
Require_FileQ,snmpapi.dll
Require_FileQ,USER32.dll
Require_FileQ,WS2_32.dll
Require_FileQ,wsnmp32.dll

A huge number of scripts are available on the reboot.pro forum; they can be viewed as examples and used as a basis. In any case, there is nothing difficult in creating your own scripts. If there is a need to simply add some files to the assembly, then it is not necessary to create a plugin for this. In this situation, the "Components .. Additional Files" section will help, which is necessary just for such a situation. If you click on the "Directory Example" button, you will see the structure of the folders used in the assembly so that you can understand where exactly the files will be added.

What did we get?

How well does such a system work? Very good! When loading on my laptop, the necessary drivers are immediately attached, including for the wireless module. Thus, I immediately have access to the Internet. All programs, if integrated correctly (that is, by fulfilling all their dependencies), launch and work with a bang. And this includes software for system recovery, working with partition tables, backup, editing the registry, as well as hack tools. After all, what could be more convenient as an auxiliary system that you can always take with you and, if necessary, boot from it?

1. As I already mentioned, it is better to take a Windows 7 image with Service Pack (SP1) already included as the initial distribution. Using a distribution that does not yet have a service pack, I had problems finding some libraries. Although, I must say, this is not critical, because WinBuilder gives specific ways to solve the problem.
2. If there are any problems, the scripts usually produce errors. If something went wrong, but what exactly the problem is is not clear, logs will help. The option is activated in the "Finalize .. Save log file" script and is enabled by default. WinBuilder writes logs in great detail: you can fully study the process of creating an assembly, trace the logic of script execution and, in case of any problem, try to fix errors.
3. An optional, but very useful project is www.paraglidernc.com/WinBuilder (I recommend that you immediately select it for download during the first launch of WinBuilder). It includes detailed instructions for creating scenarios. After installation, look for it in the ProjectsParagliderWinBuilder.chm folder.
4. The easiest way to include an application in the assembly is to find its Portable version (for example, on the website portableapps.com), which already includes all the necessary files for working on a “foreign” system.

Sometimes, if the hard drive is damaged or the computer is infected with a virus, it becomes necessary to launch the Windows operating system from a flash drive. Most often, such an operation is needed when the user needs to save information by copying it to storage media or restoring it using special programs, and Windows on a laptop or computer does not boot even in safe mode.

Also, the Windows operating system installed on a portable drive is often used as a great way to avoid account restrictions on a work computer. But there is another popular option for working with such a flash drive - installing test versions of an operating system on them, for example, Windows 10 TR, which is currently in user testing mode. It is impossible to install it as the main one, since it contains many shortcomings, but there is no desire to allocate a separate section of the hard drive of a computer or laptop for it.

Preparing for launch

In order to run Windows from a flash drive, you need to first prepare it and make it bootable. Some assemblies along with Windows contain healing utilities and programs for file recovery. In this case, there most often is either a bootable shell or a launchable image of the Windows operating system, which is called a Live CD.

In addition, there are prepared images of installed Windows that contain all kinds of drivers for laptops and computers and do not require installation. In this case, download programs that do not require installation to restore files or cure viruses. It is very easy to record such an image using the UltraISO program or analogues. To do this you need to do the following:

1. Download an image with installed Windows from a torrent;
2. Open it using the UltraISO program;
3. Select the “Boot” item in the menu and the “Burn hard disk image” option;
4. Burn Windows to a USB flash drive, first checking that the selected image and recording device are correct.

If ready-made images distributed on torrents are not suitable for you, and you want to install your version of Windows on a flash drive, you will need a special program. You can use software from Microsoft called . However, this is not the best option.

The development team created a special program PWBoot, which is capable of installing Windows onto a flash drive from the corresponding archive with files. We can say that it simply unpacks the archive with prepared data into the required folders.

Using this software, you can not only install Windows on a USB flash drive, but also add the necessary updates.

The program works with an image of a slightly different format: not a distribution kit, but a virtual hard drive of a laptop or computer. OS Windows 7 allows you to create one for instant system recovery. You will need to unpack it using PWBoot onto a flash drive.

Running from a drive

Installing the operating system is not enough; now you need to set the boot priority to start your computer or laptop from a flash drive. To do this, you need to go to the Boot section of the Bios firmware and select the drive as the main device.

To launch the Bios setup, you can use the Del key for a computer or F12 and F10 for a laptop. Also, for different models, there are different boot menu shortcut buttons for changing the computer boot priorities.

Parameter changes must be confirmed with the “F10” button. After restarting the computer, the system should start Windows from the flash drive on the laptop. If this does not happen, it means that some step was missed or performed incorrectly. Also, the problem may be in the image of Windows installed on the computer itself.

Result:

Installing and running Windows from a flash drive on a laptop or computer is no more difficult than performing this operation on a hard drive. It is imperative to take into account that the drive is slower when receiving and transmitting data, which means that installation on a flash drive will take longer than on a hard drive, which can affect the operation of a laptop or computer.

This installation method is suitable if you own a netbook or your CD/DVD drive has failed and you need to install Windows 7. This method is also good because the process of installing Windows 7 from a flash card is several times faster than from a CD or DVD disk.

Before you start writing Windows 7 to a flash drive, copy all important data from the flash drive to other storage media (a hard drive where Windows will not be installed, another flash card, disk, etc.), as during the formatting and recording process Windows 7 image onto a USB flash drive, all the data on it will be destroyed.
First way
If you are creating a bootable USB flash drive while in the Windows 7 operating system, then you will need a program Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, which can be downloaded from Of. Microsoft website following the link.
If you are creating a bootable USB flash drive under the Windows XP operating system, you will need to install Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 And Microsoft Image Mastering API 2.0. Of course, if you already have them installed (usually the first program), then you do not need to install them again.

1) Insert the USB flash drive into the laptop.
2) Launch the program. Click the button Browse.

3) Select the Windows 7 ISO image and click the button Open.

4) After you have specified the Windows 7 ISO image, click the button Next.

5) Click the button USB device.

6) Your flash drive should appear in this window. Click the button Begin copying

7) Click on the button Erase USB Device

8) Click Yes.

9) The process of writing the Windows 7 image to the USB flash drive will begin

10) When recording is complete, the status will change to Backup completed. Close the program

Second way
For the second method you will need a program Ultra ISO.
1) Insert the USB flash drive into the laptop.
2) Launch the program. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, it is recommended to run the program as an administrator.
The UltraISO program is paid, but you can use a trial period, we will consider this option. Click the "Trial period..." button

3) Select a menu item File ->Open...

4) Select the Windows 7 ISO image and click the button Open.

. Select an item Burn a Hard Disk Image...

6) In the field Recording method: select USB-HDD. Click the button Format.

7) The formatting utility will launch. Click the button Begin.

8) Click OK.

9) After formatting, a success window will appear. Click OK.

10) Close the program.

11) Press the button Write down.

12) Click Yes.

13) The process of writing the Windows 7 image to the USB flash drive will begin.

14) Upon completion of recording in the column Event The message “Recording complete!” will appear. Close the program.

Third way
For the third method, we need the WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 Beta 7 - program.

Note: the link has a newer version, but the principle remains the same.
1) Insert the USB flash drive into the laptop.
2) Launch the program. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, the program must be run as an administrator.

In field USB disk selection and format your flash drive should be listed.
Note: If the flash drive is not detected, then format it using the PeToUSB or HPUSBFW utility.
Also, the flash drive may not be detected if it is inserted into the laptop after the Winsetupfromusb 1.0 Beta7 program has been launched and for it to be detected, just press the button Refresh.
3) Click the button RMPrepUSB.

4) Mark the following lines: WinPEv2/WinPEv3/Vista/Win7 bootable (CC4), NTFS. Place a check mark next to it Boot as HDD (C: 2PTNS). Click the button 6 Prepare Drive.

5) Click the button OK.

6) Click the button OK.

7) After this, something like this will appear Dos window.
Warning: Do not close this window. It should close automatically.

8) After Dos the window will close click the button Exit.

9) Check the box next to it Vista/7/Server 2008 - Setup/PE/RecoveryISO. Click on the square on the right.

10) A window will appear Browse folders in which you need to select the virtual drive in which the Windows 7 ISO image is mounted.
After you have done this, press the button OK.

11) Press the button GO. The process of writing Windows 7 to the USB flash drive will begin.

12) At the end of recording, a small window will appear. Click OK.

13) Close the program.

Fourth method
The installation method is quite simple, so anyone can do it! For this we need:
1) Windows 7 image
2) Flash drive with a capacity of at least 4GB
3) A program for creating and editing ISO images, ultraISO from the above method or free MagicDisk
You can take any media from a regular flash drive to an SD card, but not less than 4GB!
4) Launch the command line (in Windows XP this is standard->command line. In Windows Vista/Windows 7, open start, at the very bottom there is a search, enter cmd and open with administrator rights).
5) Next on the command line enter diskpart, the disk management utility will open.

6) Next, in the diskpart utility itself, enter: list disk, this will display all the physical disks of the PC, namely disks and not partitions.
Among them we are looking for our flash drive.

7) Then we execute the command select disk #, Where # This is the number of our flash drive.
In this case, the flash drive on the screen is number 1, therefore s elect disk 1. All further manipulations will be carried out only with this disk.
8) Execute the command clean, clean the drive, then the command create partition primary- create a new partition on the disk.
9) After creating a new section, write select partition 1, select this section for manipulation, enter active, thereby making the section active.
10) Now for the flash drive to be visible in bios, you need to format it in NTFS format, which we do with the command format fs=NTFS.
11) Next, you need to activate the process of connecting the device and assigning letters to it, we do this with the command assign.
That's it, the preparation process is complete.

Installing Windows 7
You can record the distribution using any file manager or a free one.
In this case, you need to somehow open the image of the installation disk with the OS, this can be done with any disk emulator, Alcohol or MagicDisk, create an image and copy everything from it with a file manager to our prepared flash drive.
That's it, the process of creating the installation flash drive is completed, now we try to install the OS by first setting it in bios.

Well, that’s all, which of the four methods of creating a bootable flash drive to use is up to you.

Enabling booting from a flash drive in the BIOS
Before you start installing Windows 7 from a flash drive, you need to go into the BIOS and enable booting from the flash drive.
To enter the BIOS you need to press a certain key when the computer boots. On desktop computers, this is the Del key. On laptops, the F2 key is most often used.
Usually, when you turn on the laptop, a screen appears on which at the very bottom there is a line that says which key you need to press in order to enter the BIOS.
If you do not have such a line, then you need to look at the information on how to enter the BIOS User Manual walking with a laptop.

1) Insert the flash drive into the laptop if it is not inserted.
2) Turn on the laptop, if it is on, then reboot.
3) Go to BIOS.

Using an example, the whole process will look as shown below; if your BIOS is different, then the principle will remain the same. If you have questions, write in the comments.

4) Go to the tab Boot. In it, in boot order, you need to put our flash drive in first place, using the arrow keys and keys F5 And F6. That is, we use the arrow keys to select our flash drive, and use the key F6 we take her to the very top.
To find out which keys you need to use to set the boot order, see the tips on the right.
The name of the flash drive should appear in the line USB HDD.
Also, the flash drive may appear in the line USB KEY.
To save changes and exit the BIOS, press the key F10. (Depending on the BIOS manufacturer, the key may be different. See tips on the right or below).

5) A window will appear asking in English whether to Save changes and Exit? You are taking Yes.

6) After this, a reboot will occur and the Windows 7 installation process will begin.

Installing Windows 7 from a USB flash drive

If a bootable USB flash drive with Windows 7 was created using the WinSetupFromUSB 1.0 Beta 7 program, a green screen will first appear. Select Start Vista/Win7/Server 2008 Setup or PE/Recovery ISO from partition 0.

Next, the Windows 7 setup program will launch.

Write in the comments what is not clear and what questions you have.

Is it possible to run Windows 10 from a USB flash drive or external hard drive without installing it on the computer? You can: for example, in the Enterprise version in the control panel you can find an item for creating a Windows To Go drive, which makes just such a flash drive. But you can get by with the regular Home or Professional version of Windows 10, which will be discussed in this manual.

In order to install Windows 10 on a flash drive and run from it, you will need the drive itself (at least 16 GB, in some of the described methods this was not enough and a 32 GB flash drive was required) and it is highly desirable that it be a drive with USB support 3.0 connected to the appropriate port (I experimented with USB 2 and, frankly, got tired of waiting for first recording and then launching). An image downloaded from the official website will be suitable for creation.

Installing Windows 10 on a USB flash drive in WinToUSB Free

Of all the methods I tried to make a flash drive from which you can run Windows 10 without installation, the fastest was the method using the free version of the WinToUSB program. The resulting drive was functional and tested on two different computers (though only in Legacy mode, but judging by the folder structure it should also work with UEFI boot).

After launching the program, in the main window (on the left) you can select from which source the drive will be created: it can be an ISO, WIM or ESD image, a CD with the system, or an already installed system on the hard drive.

In my case, I used an ISO image downloaded from the Microsoft website. To select an image, click the “Browse” button and indicate its location. In the next window, WinToUSB will show what is contained on the image (check if everything is okay with it). Click “Next”.

The next step is to select a drive. If it's a flash drive, it will be automatically formatted (an external hard drive will not).

The last step is to specify the system partition and the partition with the bootloader on the USB drive. For a flash drive, this will be the same partition (and on an external hard drive you can prepare separate ones). In addition, here you select the installation type: to a vhd or vhdx virtual hard disk (which is placed on a drive) or Legacy (not available for a flash drive). I used VHDX. Click Next. If you see an "Out of Space" error message, increase the virtual hard disk size in the "Virtual hard disk drive" field.

The last step is to wait until Windows 10 is installed on the USB flash drive (this can take quite a long time). When finished, you can boot from it by setting it to boot from a flash drive or using the Boot Menu of your computer or laptop.

At the first start, the system is configured, the same parameters are selected as during a clean installation of the system, and a local user is created. In the future, if you connect a USB flash drive to run Windows 10 on another computer, only the devices are initialized.

In general, the system worked tolerably as a result: the Internet via Wi-Fi worked, activation also worked (I used the Enterprise trial for 90 days), the speed via USB 2.0 left much to be desired (especially in the “My Computer” window when initializing connected drives).

Important note: by default, when you start Windows 10 from a USB flash drive, local hard drives and SSDs are not visible; they must be connected using Disk Management. Press Win+R, enter diskmgmt.msc in disk management, right-click on the disconnected drives and connect them if there is a need to use them.

You can download the WinToUSB Free program from the official page: http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/

Windows To Go Flash Drive in Rufus

Another simple and free program that allows you to easily make a bootable USB flash drive to run Windows 10 from it (you can also make an installation drive in the program) is Rufus, which I have written about more than once.

Making such a USB drive in Rufus is even easier:

As a result, we get the same drive as in the previous case, except that Windows 10 is installed simply on a flash drive, and not in a virtual disk file on it.

It works in the same way: in my test, the launch on two laptops was successful, although I had to wait during the device installation and configuration stages.

Using the command line to burn Live USB with Windows 10

There is also a way to make a flash drive from which you can run the OS without programs, using only command line tools and built-in Windows 10 utilities.

I note that in my experiments, USB made in this way did not work, freezing upon startup. From what I found, the reason could be that I have a “removable drive”, while for it to work it is required that the flash drive be defined as a fixed drive.

This method consists of preparation: download the image from Windows 10 and extract the file from it install.wim or install.esd(Install.wim files are present in images downloaded from Microsoft Techbench) and the following steps (the method with a wim file will be used):

1. diskpart
2. list disk(we find out the disk number corresponding to the flash drive)
3. select disk N(where N is the disk number from the previous step)
4. clean(disk cleanup, all data from the flash drive will be deleted)
5. create partition primary
6. format fs=ntfs quick
7. active
8. exit
9. dism /Apply-Image /imagefile:path_to_file_install.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:E:\(in this command, the last E is the letter of the flash drive. While executing the command, it may seem that it is frozen, this is not so).
10. bcdboot.exe E:\Windows /s E: /f all(here E is also the letter of the flash drive. The command installs the bootloader on it).

After this, you can close the Command Prompt and try to boot from the created drive with Windows 10. Instead of the DISM command, you can use the command imagex.exe /apply install.wim 1 E:\(where E is the letter of the flash drive, and Imagex.exe must initially be downloaded as part of the Microsoft AIK). At the same time, according to observations, the option with Imagex takes more time than using Dism.exe.

Additional methods

And a few more ways to burn a flash drive from which you can run Windows 10 without installing it on your computer may be useful to some of the readers.

You can install a trial version of Windows 10 Enterprise in a virtual machine, such as VirtualBox. Configure the connection of USB0 drives in it, and then launch the creation of Windows To Go from the control panel in the official way. Limitation: the function works for a limited number of “certified” flash drives.

Aomei Partition Assistant Standard has a Windows To Go Creator feature that creates a bootable Windows USB flash drive in the same way as described for previous programs. Tested - works without problems in the free version.

There is a paid program called FlashBoot, which, in addition to creating bootable flash drives, can also simply install Windows on a flash drive (To do this, after selecting an image, you will need to select “Install fully-functional Windows to USB Thumbdrive.” Moreover, there is a separate such item specifically for UEFI downloads). The demo version has a limitation: the recorded drive will only work for 30 days.

I hope the article will be useful to some of the readers. Although, in my opinion, there is not much practical use from such a flash drive. If you need to run an operating system without installing it on your computer, it's better to use something less clunky than Windows 10.