Install Windows from a USB Flash Drive

Install Windows from a USB Flash Drive

This topic covers how to manually create a Windows installation USB drive from Windows installation ISO disc image file or DVD, and is intended for PC manufacturers looking into creating media that they can use to manufacture Windows devices.

The steps described on this page assume you have Windows installation media and access to a Windows technician PC. If you're looking for an easy, automated way to create a bootable USB Windows installation drive, see:
  1. Download Windows 11
  2. Download Windows 10

What you need

  1. Windows installation media. This could be an installation .ISO or DVD
  2. USB flash drive with at least 5GB free space. This drive will be formatted, so make sure it doesn't have any important files on it.
  3. Technician PC - Windows PC that you'll use to format the USB flash drive
  4. Destination PC - A PC that you'll install Windows on

Step 1 - Format the drive and set the primary partition as active

  1. Connect the USB flash drive to your technician PC.
  2. Open Disk Management: Right-click on Start and choose Disk Management.
  3. Format the partition: Right-click the USB drive partition and choose Format. Select the FAT32 file system to be able to boot either BIOS-based or UEFI-based PCs.
  4. Set the partition as active: Right-click the USB drive partition and click Mark Partition as Active.

Step 2 - Copy Windows Setup to the USB flash drive

Step 3 - Install Windows to the new PC

  1. Connect the USB flash drive to a new PC.
  2. Turn on the PC and press the key that opens the boot-device selection menu for the computer, such as the Esc/F10/F12 keys. Select the option that boots the PC from the USB flash drive.
  3. Windows Setup starts. Follow the instructions to install Windows.
  4. Remove the USB flash drive.



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