How to create bootable Windows 10 USB install media

Next, head over to the official Download Windows 10 page on the Microsoft website. In the “Create Windows 10 Installation Media” section, click the blue “Download Tool Now” button.

How to Install Windows 10 from a USB Drive

Marshall is a writer with experience in the data storage industry. He worked at Synology, and most recently as CMO and technical staff writer at StorageReview. He’s currently an API/Software Technical Writer based in Tokyo, Japan, runs VGKAMI and ITEnterpriser, and spends what little free time he has learning Japanese. Read more.

Sep 1, 2021, 9:00 am EDT | 4 min read

Most modern computers don’t have a CD or DVD drive, so installing Windows 10 using a disc isn’t always possible. The good news is you don’t need discs anymore—all you need is a USB drive.

Table of Contents

What You’ll Need

You’re going to need a few things to get started. First, you’ll need a USB drive with at least 8GB of storage space. If you don’t already have one lying around, you can find a decent USB drive online for a pretty cheap price. If you do already have a USB drive, be sure that there are no important files on it, as it will be wiped clean during the setup process. You’ll need a computer running Windows to create the USB drive. When you’re done, you can remove the USB drive from that computer and insert it into the computer that you want to install Windows 10 on. RELATED: How to Install Windows 10 on Your PC

Windows 10 Hardware Requirements

• Processor: 1GHz or faster
• RAM: 1GB for 32-bit or 2GB for 64-bit
• Storage Space: 16GB for 32-bit or 20GB for 64-bit
• Graphics Card: DirectX 9 or later with a WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display: 800×600

Create the Installation Media

If you have everything you need and the destination device meets the minimum system requirements, you can start preparing your installation files. Go ahead and insert your USB drive into the computer that you want to make the USB drive on.

Warning: Any files on the USB drive will be erased during the setup process. Make sure that there are no important files on the USB drive.

Next, head over to the official Download Windows 10 page on the Microsoft website. In the “Create Windows 10 Installation Media” section, click the blue “Download Tool Now” button.

After the software finishes downloading, go ahead and open it. The Applicable Notices and License Terms window will appear. Read and agree to the terms by clicking the “Accept” button in the bottom-right corner of the window.

On the next screen, you’ll be asked what you want to do. Click the bubble next to “Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC” to select that option, and then click “Next.”

Next, select the language, architecture, and edition that you want to use. Click the down arrow next to each option to expand the list of available options for that item. Click the option from the drop-down menu to select it. Click “Next” to proceed.

On the next screen, you must choose which media to use. Click the bubble next to “USB Flash Drive” to select it, and then click “Next.”

After that, select which flash drive to use from the list under “Removable Drives.” Click “Next” to proceed.

The downloading process will begin. This will take a while.

After the download is complete, click the “Finish” button, safely remove the USB drive from the computer, and then insert it into the computer that you want to install Windows 10 on.

Install Windows 10 from the USB Drive

Once the USB drive with the installation files is inserted into the destination PC, you’ll need to set the boot order so that the computer loads the operating system from a different location—in this case, from the USB instead of from the hard drive.

To do this, you need to access the boot menu on startup. When booting your computer, press the appropriate key to open the BIOS or UEFI controls. The key that you need to press depends on your computer, but it’s usually F11 or F12.

Once you’ve selected the USB drive from the boot menu, your PC will reboot from the USB drive and ask you to press any key to begin the setup of the installation media.

At the beginning of the setup process, you’ll need to choose the language to install, the time and currency format, and the keyboard or input method. In most cases, you won’t need to change anything here, but if you do, click the down arrow to display a list of options, and then click the option that you want to select it.

Click “Next” to continue.

On the next screen, click “Install Now.”

You’ll briefly see a screen that lets you know that the setup is starting. After that, the Windows Setup window will appear. Here, enter the product key in the text box if you have one. If you don’t have a product key, then you can still run a limited version of Windows 10 that works—you’ll just need to enter a product key later to unlock everything.

If you entered a product key, press “Next.” If not, click “I don’t have a product key.” In this example, we’ll choose “I don’t have a product key.”

Next, you’ll need to select which Windows 10 version to use. If you have a Windows 10 key, be sure to select the correct Windows 10 version, as keys only work for certain versions. Click the version to select it, and then click “Next.”

On the next screen, check the box next to “I Accept the License Terms,” and then click “Next.”

The next screen asks you to select which type of installation you want to perform. Since we’re doing a fresh install, click “Custom: Install Windows Only (Advanced).”

Next, choose where you want to install Windows 10. If you have a brand new hard drive, it might say “Drive 0 Unallocated Space” under Name. If you have multiple drives, select the drive that you want to install the OS on, and then click “Next.”

Finally, the Wizard will begin installing the Windows files. The amount of time that the installation takes depends on the hardware you’re using.

Once the Wizard finishes installing the files, your computer will reboot. In some unusual cases, you’ll get stuck in a boot loop where the system tries to bring you back to the installation process. This happens because the system might be trying to read from the USB drive instead of from the hard drive that you installed the OS on. If this happens, just remove the USB drive and restart the computer.

Now that you have Windows 10 up and running, the fun really begins. Windows 10 is highly customizable, including things like the Start menu, the Taskbar, the Action Center, your icons, and even the overall Windows 10 appearance. Make Windows 10 yours.

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Marshall Gunnell
Marshall is a writer with experience in the data storage industry. He worked at Synology, and most recently as CMO and technical staff writer at StorageReview. He’s currently an API/Software Technical Writer based in Tokyo, Japan, runs VGKAMI and ITEnterpriser, and spends what little free time he has learning Japanese.
Read Full Bio »

How to create bootable Windows 10 USB install media

Are you looking to make a bootable USB for Windows 10? There are a couple of methods you can use, such as the Media Creation Tool and Rufus.

April 27, 2023
2023-04-27T11:39:27-04:00

• To create a Windows 10 bootable USB, download and open the “Media Creation Tool,” connect a flash drive to the computer, select the “Create installation media” option, and continue choosing the “USB flash drive” option.
• Alternatively, open “Rufus,” use the “Download” option to grab the Windows 10 ISO, choose the USB media settings, and click the “Start” button to create the Windows 10 bootable USB flash drive.

On Windows 10, you can create a bootable USB drive with multiple tools, and in this guide, you will learn how. When a new version of Windows 10 becomes available, not everyone gets the latest release on the same day. Instead, Microsoft upgrades computers gradually, taking some time until the new version reaches every device.

However, if you do not want to wait for the automatic upgrade, you can download the Windows 10 (version 22H2, 21H2, and older releases) installation files onto a USB flash drive using the Media Creation Tool. The tool helps perform an in-place upgrade or create a bootable installation media using a removable drive to perform a clean installation. Furthermore, you can even use third-party tools like Rufus to download and create a bootable media to install Windows 10 from USB.

This guide will teach you how to create a USB flash drive to upgrade or reinstall Windows 10 on different devices using the Media Creation Tools and Rufus.

• Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 from Media Creation Tool
• Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 from Rufus
• Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 from ISO
• Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 copying files to USB

Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 from Media Creation Tool

To create a Windows 10 bootable USB, use these steps:

1. Open Microsoft website.
2. Under the “Create Windows 10 installation media” section, click the “Download Now” button.
3. Double-click the MediaCrationToolxxxx.exe file to launch the tool.
4. Click the Accept button.
5. Select the “Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC” option to make a bootable Windows 10 USB drive.
6. Click the Next button.
7. Click the Next button again.

Quick note: If you’re about to create a Windows 10 USB for another device, clear the “Use the recommended options for this PC” option to select the correct language, architecture, and edition as necessary.

After completing the steps, you can start your computer using UEFI or BIOS with the USB drive to install Windows 10.

Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 from Rufus

To make a Windows 10 installation media from Rufus with UEFI or BIOS support, use these steps:

1. Open Rufus’ website.
2. Under the “Download” section, click the link to download the latest version of the tool.
3. Double-click the executable to launch Rufus.
4. Click the Settings button a the bottom of the page (the third button from the left).
5. Under the “Settings” section, use the “Check for updates” drop-down menu and select the Daily option.
6. Click the Close button.
7. Click the Close button again to close the app.
8. Reopen the Rufus tool.
9. Under the “Device” section, use the drop-down menu, and select the USB flash drive to create the Windows 10 bootable media.

Quick tip: You need to connect a USB flash drive with at least 8GB of storage. You may need to restart the tool if you do not see the device on the list.

Once you complete the steps, you can boot and install Windows 10 on computers running on UEFI or BIOS, depending on your firmware.

Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 from ISO

To make a bootable Windows 10 USB drive with an existing ISO file, use these steps:

1. Open Rufus’ website.
2. Under the “Download” section, click the link to download the latest version of the tool.
3. Double-click the executable to launch Rufus.
4. Under the “Device” section, use the drop-down menu, and select the USB flash drive to create the bootable media.
5. Under the “Boot selection” section, use the drop-down menu and select the “Disk or ISO image” option.
6. Click the Select option.
7. Choose the Windows 10 ISO file.
8. Continue with the default settings.
9. (Optional) Confirm a name for the USB flash drive in the “Volume label” setting.
10. Click the Start button.
11. (Optional) Skip the install customization settings since you want to make a regular bootable USB drive.
12. Click the OK button.
13. Click the OK button again.

After you complete the steps, the tool will create a USB installation media from the Windows 10 ISO you provided.

Create bootable USB drive of Windows 10 copying files to USB

To create a bootable USB flash drive to install Windows 10 by copying the ISO file onto a USB, use these steps:

1. Open Start.
2. Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as Administrator option.
3. Type the following command to open DiskPart and press Enter:

diskpart

list disk

select disk 1

Quick tip: The select disk 1 command as an example, but you have to replace 1 with the number of the flash drive you want to use.

clean

create partition primary

select partition 1

active

format FS=NTFS quick

Quick tip: To create a bootable media for a device that uses UEFI, you’ll need to format the drive using the FAT32 file system instead of NTFS with format fs=FAT32 quick command.

assign letter=X

exit

PowerShell Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath "C:\path\to\Windows10.iso"

diskpart

list volume

exit

cd boot

bootsect /nt60 X:

xcopy E:\*.* X:\ /E /F /H

After you complete the steps, the files from the ISO will transfer to the USB flash drive creating a bootable drive to install Windows 10 on computers using BIOS or UEFI.

If Windows 10 is not activated after the upgrade, click the “Troubleshoot” button on Settings > Update & security > Activation to start the “Activation troubleshooter” utility.

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