Copying Windows 10 folder

Death Hawk · February 14, 2018

If I copy the entire Windows folder onto a flash drive, can that drive boot into Windows 10 on a different hardware setup? Or is my best option to download the iso off Microsoft

AbdulESL · February 14, 2018

Didn’t work when I tried it once. Just use the iso

GoodBytes · February 14, 2018

12 minutes ago, Death Hawk said:

If I copy the entire Windows folder onto a flash drive, can that drive boot into Windows 10 on a different hardware setup? Or is my best option to download the iso off Microsoft

No. And assuming you can, you'll enjoy a horrible experience, as a flash drive (most of them, even "fast models") are sllllloooowww, you would wish you would have 4800 RPM HDD. Remember that Windows is a bunch of small files, and your USB controller needs the CPU to do anything in term of data transfers (unlike SATA which has its own processor in the controller chip).

You can't because you need to carry the other surrounding folders, and need to carry Windows 10 boot partitions which it expects.

Also Windows will deactivate. Only 1 PC can have Windows 10 activated on. It is a 1 license per PC basis.

February 14, 2018

You somehow reminded me of when I was a kid in 1998, copied a bunch of game shortcuts from my friend's pc into a floppy disk, went back to my computer pasting them thinking it would legitimately work

Those were the days

GoodBytes · February 14, 2018

If you want to have Windows 10 setup on a USB flash drive, then you can use Windows Media Creation Tool to download Windows setup, format your USB flash drive, extract the files on it, and make it bootable.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

Click on "Download Tool now" blue button.