Windows to go creator linux

[Solved] Best Free Alternative to Refus Windows To Go

Refus is a free and open source software that can be used to create Windows To Go, Hasleo WinToUSB is the world’s first third-party tool that can be used to create Windows To Go, it is the best Refus alternative.

Overview of Windows To Go (WTG)

In short, Windows To Go (WTG) is a handy feature that allows us to install fully-functional Windows operating system onto a USB drive as a portable Windows, after that we can carry the portable Windows USB drive to anywhere and use it on any computer. The emergence of Windows To Go makes BYOD (bring your own device) possible, which allows us to use our own Windows operating system and application configuration on other computers, which is of great benefit to improving work efficiency.

In earlier versions of Windows 10 Enterprise/Education Edition, Microsoft provided the Windows To Go Creator Wizard for users to create Windows To Go, however Microsoft stopped Windows To Go development in 2019, so it no longer provides Windows To Go Creator Wizard in subsequent versions of Windows 10/11.

Overview of Rufus and Rufus Windows To Go

Refus is a free and open source software running on Windows platform, mainly designed to help users create bootable USB drives, it supports a variety of ISOs, including DOS, Windows, Linux, etc, I have to say that it is the most popular on the market One of the tools for creating bootable USB drives. The main function of refus is to help users create Windows and Linux installation USB drivers, but you can also use it to create linux live USB drives or Windows To Go USB drives.

Why need a alternative to Rufus Windows To Go?

1. It does not support the creation of VHD(X)-based Windows To Go from an ISO file.
2. It does not support cloning existing Windows to a USB drive as Windows To Go.
3. You cannot encrypt the Windows TO Go USB drive with BitLocker to protect your data.
4. The interface is complicated and technical support is not timely.

As mentioned above, several shortcomings of Refus may cause it to fail to meet your needs, you may be looking for an alternative to Refus Windows To Go, where we recommend you try Hasleo WinToUSB. As the world’s first third-party Windows To Go Creator, Hasleo WinToUSB does not have these shortcomings at all, and it is more flexible and efficient.

Tutorial to create Windows To Go with Hasleo WinToUSB — The best free alternative to Refus Windows To Go.

Step 1. Connect the USB drive to the computer, download, install and run Hasleo WinToUSB and then click the «Windows To Go USB».

Step 2. Click «Select installation source», then click «Browse image file» and select the Windows 8 installation ISO file from the open dialog box as installation source, or choose a CD/DVD drive with a Windows 8 installation DVD inserted as the installation source.

Step 3. Hasleo WinToUSB scans for and lists installable operating systems, select the edition of Windows you want to install.

Step 4. Click «Select destination drive» and select the destination drive from the pop-up drive list. If the drive is not correctly recognized by Hasleo WinToUSB, you can click the button for the program to recognize the drive.

Step 5. Choose the partition scheme and installation mode you want to use, and you can specify additional drivers or enable BitLocker to encrypt the Windows To Go USB drive according to your needs, then click «Proceed».

1. For more detailed information about «Partition scheme», «Installation mode» and «Enable BitLocker», please refer to: How to create portable Windows 11/10/8/7 from an ISO, WIM, ESD, SWM or VHD(X) file?
2. If you choose «Keep the existing partition scheme», you need to manually prepare the partitions on the USB drive before this step, and here is the user guide on how to manually prepare partitions for Windows To Go.

Step 6. After clicking «Proceed», a pop-up will appear asking you if you want to format it to continue, click «Yes» if you are sure.

Step 7. After clicking «Yes», WinToUSB begins installing Windows to the destination drive.

Step 8. It takes some time to install. After installation restart the computer and change BIOS to boot from your USB drive.

Step 9. Windows normal installation starts up and you have to complete all the installation steps. After that, you can install programs, copy files, etc.

Summary

As the best free alternative to Refus Windows To Go, Hasleo WinToUSB can do all the work Refus did to create portable Windows, and you can use it to cloning existing Windows to a USB drive as Windows To Go or use BitLocker to entrypt the Windows To Go USB drive to protect your data.

Related Guides

Источник

Create windows to go USB from Ubuntu [closed]

Since my ocd (im kidding) prevents me from dual booting Ubuntu and Windows 10 ive decided to create a Windows to go USB (boot the entire Windows from an external drive connected to a USB port). There are countless articles but none of the programs are on Linux, so does anyone know a program on Linux for a Windows to go USB? Sarcasm: This definitely isn’t windows to go.

My sister wants me to install windows 10 on her pc in a few days anyways so you dont have to go out of your way to find a program if there even is one

3 Answers 3

I’m addressing the part of your question for having a Windows Installation on a USB that you can plug into any computer, and run Windows. You also wanted to do this from you Ubuntu OS without any special tools. The applications used are available from the Repository.

You can do this by installing Virtualbox:

$ sudo apt install virtualbox 

Follow the GUI to create a Windo Windows 10 Machine.

Connect your Windows 10 ISO to the virtual machine and install Windows 10.

Make sure you the virtual machine is not larger than your USB drive.

Install Windows 10 to the VM.

Then go to the folder of the Windows 10 machine and run this to create an image of the vdi file.

$ VBoxManage clonehd ["Windows 10.vdi"] ["win10.img"] --format RAW 

The first parameter is the name of your windows vdi file (not including the brackets). The second parameter is the name you decide to call the image file.

Now run this dd command to write the image to your pendrive.

$ sudo dd if=[win10.img] of=[/dev/sdc] bs=4M status=progress 

Again, the names in the brackets are a variable. Replace those names with your actual file and device on your system.

Us Gparted to fix the integrity of your created Pendrive.

It’s important to have your Windows Installation drive smaller than your destination pendrive. When the company finishes you will have unallocated space, the difference between the larger drive. You can fix this by running Gparted to resize your Windows Installed partition.

Are you saying to boot into the iso from bootable usb then choose to install to usb instead of the internal hard drive? If so ive already tried this and it says i cant install to usb.

Not to be rude, but I don’t think you really know what Windows To Go actually is: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_To_Go

I already know what it is, im asking about making an unofficial windows to go usb with a program avaliable on linux since all of them are on windows, like onmsft.com/news/create-windows-go-usb-drive-running-windows-10

@Nick. You’re welcome. .. It is my impression that you want to have Windows 10 installed on a Pendrive so that you can but Windows 10 on different machines. You would also be able to boot to the USB drive from your computer without interfering with your Ubuntu installation. If you think I have it wrong, I’m sure with a clarification I can assist you with your objective for using the tools available in Ubuntu. It’s not called Windows to go, but it appears to serve the same purpose.

I was very hopeful for this but unfortunately it didn’t work for me. I wasn’t able to boot from partition 1 (or 2, though it should be 1) from firmware. Seems like a clever solution though.

It seems as though there is no WinToUsb like program for Linux so the only way to make a portable Windows is by creating one in a Windows virtual box or on Windows. I decided to install Windows 10 on part of my disk which I resized using the Gpart editor to keep my Ubuntu data. If I decide to make a portable USB I’ll use either Rafus or WinToUsb, Rafus can only create a portable USB if your running 8.1+ and WinToUsb is avaliable on most windows os

You can use mkusb to create a Windows (all versions 7 — 10) USB boot drive (an installer, not an installed Windows in the USB drive). See this link, askubuntu.com/questions/289559/…

I have Ubuntu installed in a USB boot drive (actually an SSD in an external box, that can be connected via USB 3 as well as eSATA) such that it can boot from both BIOS and UEFI. It is portable between computers.

In this Ubuntu I have installed VirtualBox, and in VirtualBox I made a virtual machine, where I have installed Windows 10. It works well for me and provides a system where also Windows is portable.

Edit1 : I add a screenshot describing how to connect the virtual machine to an iso file, which makes it possible to boot from it. After booting the virtual machine: press F12 to get a boot menu, where you can select virtual drive to boot from (in this case the virtual internal drive ‘w10.vdi’ or the virtual optical disk ‘Win10_1607. ‘).

Edit 2: @KarlMorrison suggests to use Windows in the virtual machine as a tool to install Windows into an external drive,

You are actually half-way there with this answer. Install VM on Ubuntu -> Install Win10 in VM -> Boot Win10 in VM -> Install WinToUSB -> Use WinToUSB to install Win10 to External USB

Источник