Install Windows to USB drive

UsbToolbox can install Windows to USB drive, which allows you to run Windows from USB drive (also called Windows To Go). UsbToolbox can only install Windows 10 or Windows 11 to the USB drive.

All data in the USB drive will be erased during the process, so please make sure that all important data in the USB drive have been backuped up.

To install Windows to USB drive, please follow the steps,

  1. Run UsbToolbox, and click the button "Install Windows to USB drive".

  2. UsbToolbox shows the page for installing Windows to USB drive.

    Select the correct USB drive from the drive list. If the USB drive is not listed, please check the option "List USB hard drives".

    Click "Browse" button to select the ISO file. Please notice that UsbToolbox can only support Windows 10 & Windows 11 ISO files in such case. The ISO files for other Windows system may not work correctly.

    UsbToolbox will list all Windows editions in the selected ISO file. Selected the desire Windows edition from the list.

    For most of modern computers, select UEFI as boot mode. If you are using an old computer, or the computer doesn't support UEFI booting, you can "BIOS" instead.

  3. After you select the ISO file for Windows, the "Customize Windows installation" dialog box will popup automatically. You can also click "Customize" button to launch this dialog box.

    Currently, UsbToolbox supports the following customization when creating Windows to Go drive,

    Remove requirements for 4GB+ memory, TPM 2.0, and Secure Boot
    Remove requirement for online account
    Create a local account with the desired user name

    If you don't want to customize Windows installation, you can simply click "Cancel" to exit the dialog box.

  4. Click "Start" button to start making bootable USB drive from the selected ISO file.

    UsbToolbox will show a warning dialog box to prompt you that all data in selected drive will be destroyed. Please make sure that you have selected the correct drive and backuped up the important data in the drive before clicking "OK" to continue.

    5. UsbToolbox will erase all existing partitions on the USB drive, create new partition, format the partition and install the selected Windows edition to the USB drive. It will also show the detailed progress message during the process.

  5. You should get the message "Installing Windows to USB drive completed successfully." on complete if no error occurs.

  6. After the selected Windows has been installed to USB drive successfully, you can then try to run Windows from the USB drive. Reboot and config your computer to start from the USB drive. Usually you can enter BIOS configuration by hitting F1, F2, or Delete key on booting. The instruction may also show on the screen on booting. You can configure the computer to boot in UEFI mode or BIOS mode with CSM support, which depends on the boot mode selected in previous steps.

  7. Save and exit the BIOS configuration. The computer should now boot from the USB drive if no error occurs. You can then follow the instruction on the screen to finish other necessary Windows settings. Some settings will be skipped if they have already been set in previous Windows installation customization.