How to Run Windows 11 from a USB Drive

Are you looking to run Windows 11 on your PC, without fearing for the loss of your data on your PC? Well, it’s possible now. Thanks to Rufus software and the “Windows To Go” feature, you can now install Windows 11 on a USB drive to use it on any PC. In this guide, I am going to explain to you how to run Windows 11 from a USB drive on your PC. Just follow the steps given below properly and you are good to go on.

How to Run Windows 11 from a USB Drive on your PC

Microsoft has developed a new feature called Windows To Go. This feature simply allows you to install a full version of Windows on a USB drive (or external hard drive) in order to be able to run it on any PC. In short, it’s like having a portable Windows PC in your pocket.

You can use the popular software Rufus that introduced this feature to allow users to install Windows 11 on a USB drive. So, you can try the latest operating system of Microsoft on any PC. To do this, you simply need to download the Windows 11 ISO image from the official Microsoft website and use a USB drive of at least 32 GB in USB 3.0 if possible. Then, from the Rufus software, you can make a portable installation of Windows 11 to carry it anywhere you want.

How to install Windows 11 on a USB drive

• First, you need to download the latest version of Rufus software from the developer’s official website and install it on your PC.
• After that connect your USB drive to your PC.
• Now open the Rufus software.
• Once you are on the interface of the software, set the below parameters like this:
  • Device: Select your USB drive.
  • Boot Type: Click the “Select” button to select the Windows 11 ISO image on your computer.
  • Image option: Select Windows To Go from the drop-down menu.
  • Partition scheme: GPT
  • Destination system: UEFI (not CSM)
  • Volume name: You can give your USB drive a name.
  • File system: NTFS
  • Allocation Unit Size: Default
• Finally, click the “Start” button to start the installation process of Windows 11 on the USB drive.
• A new window will pop up, just select the version of Windows 11 that you want to install on the USB drive. For example, Windows 11 Pro.
• You will be then warned that all data on the USB drive will be erased. To continue the operation, click on OK.
• That’s it, your Windows 11 USB drive is ready. You can now run the operating system on any PC.

Steps to Run Windows 11 from a USB Drive:

To run the portable version of Windows 11 on a PC, follow these steps:

• First, you need to connect the USB drive to your computer.
• Next, you need to boot the PC to the USB drive by going into the BIOS setting and selecting the USB drive as the first bootable drive.
• After the computer boots to the USB drive, wait a few moments and then configure the operating system as you would for a typical installation.
• Done.

And that is all you need to know about how to run Windows 11 from a USB drive. If you are interested in more Windows 11 Tips and Tricks, check our other guides on How to Enable New Task Manager on Windows 11, and How to Turn Off Auto Brightness on Windows 11.