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How to Download/Install Windows 11 from USB

by Editorial Team
by Editorial Team

This tip is about the how to Download/Install Windows 11 from USB. So read this free guide, How to Download/Install Windows 11 from USB step by step. If you have query related to same article you may contact us.

How to Download/Install Windows 11 from USB – Guide

While you can install Windows 11 in a variety of ways, if you want to start from scratch, you’ll usually use a bootable USB drive to proceed with the installation. But since you can’t officially buy the physical installation media, you’ll have to make one yourself. Windows 11 offers at least two utilities to download installation files to a USB flash drive and make it bootable.

You can use the official media creation tool to download the files to a removable drive. Or you can use Rufus, a third-party utility that lets you easily create a flash drive to install the OS on compatible or non-compatible devices. In that guide for Windows 11, we’ll walk you through the steps to create a USB flash drive that supports Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware using Microsoft’s media creation tool and Rufus.

Downloading a Microsoft Windows 11 ISO

  • Navigate to the Windows 11 ISO page.
  • Select Windows 11 from the menu under “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO)”. If you want to go straight to creating a USB Flash drive, you can download the Windows 11 installation media tool here.
  • Click Download.
  • Select your language and click confirm.
  • Click on download button that shows.

    • Creating a bootable Windows 11 installation disc

  • Unless you’re just installing Windows 11 on a virtual machine; in that case you can skip to step 19, you will need to create a bootable Windows 11 installation disk from the data in your Windows 11 ISO file. For this you will need an empty USB flash drive of at least 8 GB .
  • One thing that makes this process complicated is that if you use a popular Flash drive “burning” program like Rufus, it will create an NTFS formatted boot drive because the main installation file is over 4GB and, therefore, it cannot live on a FAT32 Partition. The problem with an NTFS drive is that you would have to disable Secure Boot (in your BIOS) to boot from it, and Windows 11 requires a Secure Boot, so the installer might report that you are not meeting the requirements.
  • To resolve this issue and create a USB flash drive that can store your files and boot to a secure boot enabled PC, follow these steps.
  • Plug in your USB flash drive. Please note that you will erase all data contained in it.
  • Open the Disk Management application. You can find it by searching for “partitions” and clicking on the top result.
  • Delete all partitions from your USB drive by right-clicking on each one and selecting “Delete volume.
  • Create a new 1GB partition and format it as FAT32. You start this process by right-clicking on unallocated space and selecting New Simple Volume. You can name it whatever you like. This will be the partition containing the files needed for booting.
  • Create a second partition and format it as NTFS. It should take up all the remaining disk space.
  • Mount the ISO file by right-clicking on it and selecting Mount. This will allow you to browse the Windows 11 ISO as if it were a physical disk and copy files from it.
  • Copy all files and folders except “sources” folder from Windows 11 ISO to FAT32 partition on USB drive.
  • Create an empty folder named “sources” on the FAT32 partition of the USB drive and copy only the boot.wim file from the original “sources” folder on the Windows 11 ISO.
  • Copy all Windows 11 ISO files and folders, including the ones you copied earlier, to the USB drive’s NTFS partition.
  • You should now have a USB flash drive that can be booted on a computer with Secure Boot enabled.

    • Installing Windows 11 on Target PC

  • Boot your target PC off the USB installation drive. It may be necessary to press a key or rearrange the boot order to boot from USB.
  • Select your language (if not already selected) and click Next.
  • Please enter a valid product key or click “I don’t have a product key”. Then click Next.
  • Accept the license agreement and click Next.
  • Select Custom Install.
  • Choose the installation drive and click Next.
  • Select your country or region (if not selected) and click Yes. Also select your keyboard layout when prompted.
  • Name your PC and click Next.
  • Sign in with your Microsoft account.
  • Create a PIN for quick logins.
  • Click on “Set up as new device” (or you can restore a previous configuration).
  • Enable or disable privacy settings and click Next.
  • Select your interests to help customize Windows 11 recommendations, or better yet, click Ignore.
  • To define up OneDrive or select Only store files on this device.
  • Windows will now take a few minutes to complete the installation process.

    • Final note

    I hope you like the guide How to Download/Install Windows 11 from USB. In case if you have any query regards this article you may ask us. Also, please share your love by sharing this article with your friends.

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