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Portable Windows on USB using WinToUSB

So let me start off my recount of my experiences setting this up to explain who is going to use this before I explain how. In my mind there are three reasons to be doing this: First, and the most likely in my case, is using it to help troubleshoot customers PCs. Second, and this is where my choice of device comes in, is using it in PCs I'm using but don't own, library computers or cyber cafe computers. Third, is people using it as a highly secure device for surfing the dark web. So lets start off, I used WinToUSB, which is free and works pretty well... for the most part. The USB drive I used is a Kingston USB 3.0 Data Traveler at a capacity of 128GB for $60.00 at my local shop. I chose it because its meant to be on a key chain, and I want to have this with me in all cases. So I installed the software and started it up.post-241536-0-87768600-1438571123_thumb.

The website says its compatible with Windows 10... and it kind of is. Windows 10 TP is completely compatible, and so is Home. The weird part is is that despite TP and Pro being pretty much the same OS, Pro is not supported at all. So I tested this on a few devices. First was a USB2 Flash drive of 32GB and heres where I ran into an issue, that easily could have been avoided if the instructions had been made clear. You need 2 partitions on the device your using. 1GB using the FAT32 standard and the second being the rest of the capacity at NTFS. If these aren't set up, the program will just split the drive into 2 equal partitions and your gonna have a bad time. So it took about 20 minutes to install over USB2 and the OS functioned as you would expect. I also used a USB3 external drive which functioned the best, and lastly the device stated at the top. So once you choose your installation source you then choose the destination.

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It will then give you your choice of partitions, and was really strait forward from there as it then proceeds to the install.

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So now what? Well shut down the computer then boot into your UEFI BIOS. Select it to boot from the Boot Manager for that flash drive, and let it do its thing. It will do its first time boot of the OS installing drivers and updates and all that. Each time you boot from a different computer it will take some time to boot up the first time in order to install drivers, however subsequent boots will be much faster. So there's the next issue; activation. Unlike enterprise versions of windows which can create removable boot drives natively, and have those copies be pre-activated, this is its own copy of windows and needs its own product key..... 

Which is when I reinstalled the operating system and this time chose to install Windows 10 TP. So hows my final opinion of this.... Well pretty good, despite unclear instructions and windows 10 activation. The OS installed smoothly once I figured it out, and once I booted it up, it ran surprisingly well.

Let me know if you want me to check out other programs for this or programs for other operations.

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*sits patiently waiting for intel to invent ssd usb3.1 sticks*

Speedtests

WiFi - 7ms, 22Mb down, 10Mb up

Ethernet - 6ms, 47.5Mb down, 9.7Mb up

 

Rigs

Spoiler

 Type            Desktop

 OS              Windows 10 Pro

 CPU             i5-4430S

 RAM             8GB CORSAIR XMS3 (2x4gb)

 Cooler          LC Power LC-CC-97 65W

 Motherboard     ASUS H81M-PLUS

 GPU             GeForce GTX 1060

 Storage         120GB Sandisk SSD (boot), 750GB Seagate 2.5" (storage), 500GB Seagate 2.5" SSHD (cache)

 

Spoiler

Type            Server

OS              Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

CPU             Core 2 Duo E6320

RAM             2GB Non-ECC

Motherboard     ASUS P5VD2-MX SE

Storage         RAID 1: 250GB WD Blue and Seagate Barracuda

Uses            Webserver, NAS, Mediaserver, Database Server

 

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Windows XP (and maybe 7) had portable version; when I worked at Staples EasyTech, our troubleshooting flash drives ran a portable Windows.

"Epic Voice, Quality Content"

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Considering the fastest USB stick I have is faster then my WD Green boot drive, this sounds like an interesting idea.

"Rawr XD"

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Would't rufus be better it also allows you to make an uefi bootstick or non uefi or both.

 

https://rufus.akeo.ie

A: good to see another brony

B: Ill have to take a look at it and see how it goes; check back in a few days 

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