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Quickly and easily create a bootable drive on a USB stick drive

Quickly and easily create a bootable drive on a USB stick drive

Vote: (168 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Novicorp

Version: 1.13.00.00

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(168 votes)

Free

Developer

Version

Novicorp

1.13.00.00

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • Install Windows from USB
  • Full Windows 10 support
  • Many customization options

Cons

  • None

Use WinToFlash to install Windows via USB on any device.

WinToFlash is a utility for Windows that makes it easy to create Windows configurations that install from USB. Microsoft even has its own tool to help with such challenges, but WinToFlash is also freeware and comes with many additional features and customization options.

WinToFlash has been fully updated to support Windows 10, supports Windows flavors as far back as XP and even supports MS-DOS, BartPE, Hiren’s BCD and more. Once your bootable USB has been created, installations are simple. Better yet, they’re faster than installing from optical drives, and it’s convenient since it’s becoming increasingly common for PCs and other devices to not have optical drives.

This program supports both 32-bit and 64-bit configurations. It all supports all Windows versions, such as Server, Professional, Home, Ultimate and so forth. It works with any USB flash drive as well as any bootable USB drive, such as an external drive. As long as the drive has the necessary space, there are no other requirements or restrictions. WinToFlash can even support non-official Windows installations, such as custom configurations you or others have created.

If your drive is large enough, create multiple installation packages on it. It’s possible to have a single USB flash drive that contains a recovery program, an offline antivirus solution, live Linux and an unlimited number of Windows installations. This powerful solution lets IT professionals carry everything they may ever need on a single pen drive. It even supports UEFI in addition to traditional BIOS booting.

Need a nonstandard bootloader? Not a problem. WinToFlash can handle that as well. There’s also no need to mount drives or unpack archives. There’s in-place support for CAB, ZIP, RAR and DVD and CD ISO files. If you deal with old-style motherboards that need flashing programs, you can include those as well. You can even limit the size of the drive—or partition—to meet the needs of old DOS solutions. Most prevalent file systems are supported as well, including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT with CHS and LBA addressing.

Custom profiles are supported and can be loaded and saved as needed. When you run an installation, a detailed log is generated and written to the USB where the install is. There’s really no cons to mention. Many of the complaints that were once levied against WinToFlash—such as limited language support—have been rectified. It’s a great tool to have in any Windows user’s toolbox because installing from USB is not only convenient but increasingly necessary.

Pros

  • Install Windows from USB
  • Full Windows 10 support
  • Many customization options

Cons

  • None