Install and run a Windows OS on an external hard disk or USB flash drive.
Undoubtedly, many of us have ever imagined how useful it would be to carry our entire operating systems with us using a device like, say, a pen drive.
The program is really intuitive and easy to use. You just need to select the operation you want to perform among "Image to USB", "CDROM to USB" and "Physical to USB". The first two of them will install a fully-functional Windows operating system onto a USB drive as a portable Windows, after that, you can carry the fully-functional Windows operating system USB drive to anywhere and use it on any computer. The third option, on the other hand, allows you to clone your currently running OS into a USB drive, though this feature only supports Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10. All those options behave like a wizard and allow you to select the source disc or image file and the destination drive, which is basically all the information required by the program to perform its job.
In case your selected disc image file or source DVD contain multiple editions or Windows (e.g. it's an all-in-one installer), you are allowed to select the one you want to transfer to your USB drive. In addition, you have some extra tools you can use to make the tasks even easier, like the "Windows To Go Conversion" tool. It allows you to clone your PC's Windows system into a USB drive too, but also to perform the opposite operation: copy your portable Windows in your USB drive back to your hard disk, setting it as your "fixed" operating system. This means you can even use the program as a basic backup tool.
To sum it all up, WinToUSB is a versatile software tool that provides a unique and very useful feature: giving you the chance to carry your entire Windows operating system with you. Best of all, you can use it totally free of charge, however, you also have Professional and Enterprise editions you can buy starting at $29.95 to get even more functionality, like creating a VHDX-based Windows To Go workspace.
Pros
- Clones your PC's Windows system into a USB drive
- Creates a Windows USB installer from its original DVD or image file
- Clones your PC's Windows system into a USB drive
- Creates a Windows USB installer from its original DVD or image file
- Select the Windows edition to be transferred to your USB drive
- Transfers your portable Windows system back to your hard disk
- Includes some extra tools to make the tasks even easier
- Installs Windows to USB drive directly from ISO or CD/DVD drive as portable Windows
Cons
- Creates "Windows to go" instances for Windows 7 and higher only
Windows 7 does not boot on any of my disks. All of them working with Rufus. Don't use this software
Useless for me trying to clone windows 10, WinToUSB kept giving failure messages trying to copy windows to SSD, $30 down the drain
I need to install Windows XP on an older device and WinToUSB version 7.1 will not recognize the XP ISO. The article I read referred to version3.5 but even if I select version 3.5 your web site downloads version 7.1. The device WILL NOT RUN ON ANYTHING NEWER THAN XP.