Hello everybody!
In today’s video, we will cover the main steps in creating a bootable flash drive to
install Windows 11.
There are several methods to create such a drive: they involve the official utility MediaCreationTool,
or other tools if you have already downloaded an ISO image of the operating system.
I’d like to point out that: you can use these methods to create a Windows
11 bootable drive both from Windows 10 and Windows 11;
and the computer which you are using to create the bootable drive doesn’t actually have
to be compatible with Windows 11.
So, here’s the first method.
1.
Find a USB pen drive with the capacity of at least 8 GB or more.
Remember that all data on such a drive will be erased when the ISO image is copied there.
2.
Visit the Microsoft official website to download Windows 11.
I’ll leave the link in the description below.
3.
Find the section “Create Windows 11 Installation Media.”
Click “Download Now.”
This step will start the download for Media Creation Tool - the utility required for installation
of Windows 11.
4.
After that, run the utility and accept the license agreement.
5.
The default settings in the screen “Select language and edition” are the ones selected
for your current operating system.
You can change them if necessary.
6.
Hit “Next” to confirm your choice.
7.
At this stage, the installer lets you choose the media to use.
Select “USB flash drive” and click “Next.”
8.
Select one of the removable drives from the list.
Bear in mind that as soon as you click “Next,” all of its data will be erased.
9.
When the installation media is created, you will see the message saying “Your USB flash
drive is ready.”
Click “Finish” and your Windows 11 bootable drive is ready
to use.
The second method will be relevant if you ALREADY have an ISO image of Windows 11.
You can download it from the same page of the Microsoft website where you got MediaCreationTool.
It shows all available options from Microsoft.
Or, you can create with the help of MediaCreationTool.
To do it, select ISO file instead of USB flash drive when choosing the media to use in MediaCreationTool.
Specify the folder where to save it.
Wait for the files to be downloaded and the system image to be created.
When this process is complete, the Windows 11 ISO file will be saved to the folder you
have chosen.
To create a bootable flash drive, I’ll be using a specialized utility called Rufus (you
will find the link in the description below this video).
Of course, Rufus is not the only tool to write image files to media: there are many similar
programs.
The most popular titles include Win32 Disk Imager, UltraISO, UNetBootting,
WinToFlash, Universal USB Installer, and others.
To begin with, start the program.
The first step is to select the system image file you need and click “Select.”
The second step is to select the media type, in our case it’s the USB device.
If you don’t have any important files on this drive, click “Start.”
Confirm your decision to destroy all data on this drive, and wait until the files are
copied to your USB drive.
When it is over, you will see the word “Ready” appearing below which means the bootable flash
drive is now ready to use.
You can start installation of Windows 11 as the main operating system.
However, you should remember that you can install Windows 11 with the bootable drive
created with either method only if your computer is compatible: that is, if it has TPM (version
2.0 or higher) and SecureBoot.
And if your computer lacks the trusted platform module and it doesn’t support the secure
boot mode, during the installation you will see a message saying that your PC doesn’t
meet the minimum system requirements to install Windows 11.
In this case, you’ll have to use a special method to create a bootable flash drive for
installation of Windows 11 on an incompatible computer.
There are a few methods of doing that, but I especially like how it is done with Rufus.
All the more, this tool is absolutely free and open-source.
The process of creating a bootable drive for a PC incompatible with Windows 11 is the same.
The only difference is here: in the “Image option” menu, you should select “Extended
Windows 11 Installation (no TPM/no Secure Boot) – which is exactly the case with incompatible
computers.
So when you install Windows 11 from such bootable drive on a computer without TPM and Secure
Boot, you will never see the incompatibility error.
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Thank you for your attention and good luck.