Jan012013

Can I run Windows 7 from a live USB drive?

terri cape asks:

Can I download Windows 7 onto a flash drive that will boot as a live USB stick?

Where would I find an ISO? Is there a utility that will do this?


Browser: Chrome 23
System: Windows
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ha14

January 1, 2013

Windows To Go
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise that allows Windows 8 Enterprise to boot and run from mass storage devices such as USB flash drives and external hard disk drives.[1] It is a fully manageable corporate Windows 8 environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_To_Go

Lisa Santika Onggrid

I believe he’s asking about Windows 7, but your answer is valid for WIndows 8:)

January 2, 2013
ha14

quite right but the feature windows to go is from windows 8, there are alternatives like Prayaya
http://en.prayaya.com/index.html

Hopedot VOS
http://www.hopedot.com/
Hopedot VOS is compatible with more softwares and has better performance

they allow to create virtual environment similar to Windows OS

January 2, 2013
0 votes
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Patrick Jackson

January 1, 2013

Search MUO – there’s an article about it!

As far as the ISO is concerned, you can also use your Restore CD, which has come with your computer and also includes the OS.

Nikhil Chandak

are u trying to say about this – http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-windows-7-netbook-from-usb-flash-drive/ ??

January 1, 2013
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Nikhil Chandak

January 1, 2013
Lisa Santika Onggrid

Yeah, that was the one I referred to. It needs ridiculous amount of work to ensure everything works perfectly as it should because Microsoft decides not to make it easy…

January 2, 2013
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Ramesh Krishna

January 1, 2013
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Deekshith Allamaneni

January 2, 2013

WindowsToGo is a paid option for Windows-8 to run on USB drives but there is no way (at-least not legal and direct) to run Windows-7 on a thumb drive.

1 votes
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Lisa Santika Onggrid

January 2, 2013

You can and there is both legitimate and illegitimate way to do this. If you want it to be legal you need your own copy of Windows. I can’t point you to the ISO because I’m fairly sure MUO prohibits this, but if you insist you can do it with a simple Google search. You need fairly large USB drive (more than 8 GB so you can add more softwares into the drive plus your data). A word of warning-don’t expect this to be as easy as making Linux live CD. Sometimes it can be really tricky.
http://www.instantfundas.com/2010/12/how-to-create-windows-7-live-cddvdusb.html
or with the official tool
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

Lisa Santika Onggrid

I forgot to say: the official tool is not actually ‘live USB’ per se, but more like installer.

January 2, 2013
0 votes
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Joel Jacob

January 5, 2013
0 votes
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Ashwin Divakaran

January 5, 2013

Downloading an ISO might be illegal . If u have an ISO file then download Windows 7 USB Download Tool to put it on a USB.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

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Andrew Orr

January 15, 2013

Technically you could, but it’s not worth it because it would be extremely slow. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/50872-63-install-windows-flash-drive

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prameel arjun

May 7, 2013

Thanks.. Nice one!

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