Pick the one that matches the license you have. Once you’ve done that, you may see some options under the Operating system column in the main window. The icons along the left of WinToUSB let you choose the media from which to install Windows: an image file, DVD, or clone of the current system installation. Tell WinToUSB where Windows is Samuel Axon If you’re just cloning your current Windows installation, you don’t actually need this, so skip this step. Just make sure you pick the image for the edition and language of Windows for which you own a license. If not, it’s easy to download a Windows 10 installer ISO image file directly from Microsoft. If you already have a DVD, an image file, or an installation USB stick for Windows, you’re set on this one. It’s intended for use with USB sticks, but it will work for other external drives too. WinToUSB serves the same function as Windows To Go, an enterprise-only tool from Microsoft that doesn’t work with most consumer versions of Windows. The easiest workaround is an application called WinToUSB.įollow these steps to get Windows running on your external drive. But there are a few ways around this, including emulation via tools like VMWare.

You’re running an enterprise version of Windows that comes with the Windows To Go feature, and have a certified installation drive, so you can create a portable installation that will work on any computer.īefore we start, let’s get the bad news out of the way: Windows will refuse to install on an external drive if it knows that’s what you’re doing.

You want to run multiple operating system installations on the same machine, but don’t have enough space to split your internal drive into multiple partitions.

You have a work laptop that you’re not allowed to make many changes to, but you want to take games or other non-work sanctioned software with you when you travel.

There are a few reasons you might want to do that: Combine that with a proliferation of external SSDs, and for the first time, running Windows off an external drive is viable. Thanks to the speed of USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt 3 connections, it’s now possible for an external hard drive to match the read and write speeds of an internal drive.

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