How to Create a Bootable Windows 10 USB
If you want a copy of Windows 10 on a USB flash drive that you can plug into any compatible computer, boot it up, and bypass the natively installed operating system, you’ll need the following:
An internet connection Windows 10 PC USB flash drive The Windows Media Creation Tool A tool that allows you to burn ISO files to USB. For the purposes of this tutorial, we’ll use Rufus to create a bootable Windows 10 USB.
Once this process has completed, the drive will contain a full, portable, installation of Windows 10. You can safely eject and remove the drive at that point. If you set a computer to boot from USB before its internal drive, then you can connect the USB drive, turn the computer on, and it will boot Windows 10 from the USB drive.
How to Create a Bootable Windows 10 USB For Repair or Installation
If you want to create a bootable Windows 10 USB for use in repairing a Windows installation or performing a clean installation of Windows on your computer or any other computer, the process is pretty simple. All you need is the Windows Media Creation Tool and a USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of storage.
Why Create a Bootable Windows 10 USB?
Microsoft makes it easy to download Windows 10 directly from the official source with their Media Creation Tool, and once you have those files you can use them to make a bootable Windows 10 USB. Similar processes are involved in creating a bootable USB with a working version of Windows 10 contained on it, and a bootable Windows 10 USB that can be used to repair or install the operating system on another computer. There are a few reasons to create a bootable Windows 10 USB:
To run Windows 10 from the USB drive. This allows you to plug the drive into any compatible computer and run your own copy of Windows instead of the operating system that’s installed on the computer.To repair an existing installation of Windows 10. With a properly prepared bootable Windows 10 USB, you can run repair and diagnostic tools on your computer without booting into the native Windows 10 installation. This is useful if your computer isn’t working right or Windows 10 won’t boot.To install Windows 10. This is useful if you want to install Windows 10 on another computer or perform a clean install on the computer that you’re using.
Each of these reasons requires a bootable Windows 10 USB that you can connect to a computer and boot instead of the internal drive and operating system. Only one actually creates a bootable copy of Windows 10 that you can use like a regular instance of Windows 10 permanently installed on an internal drive, while the other two create a bootable USB that contains all of the Windows 10 files for repair or installation purposes. If you know why you need a bootable Windows 10 USB, then you can proceed to the instructions below that pertain to your particular situation.
