How to Create a Windows To Go USB Drive Without the Enterprise Edition. Microsofts Windows To Go feature installs Windows as a live system on a bootable USB drive. Its officially only for Enterprise editions of Windows, but weve found a way to do it with any edition of Windows 8 or 8. Note This should work for Windows 1. Once Microsoft releases the final version well test and update this article. Of course, youre also welcome to test it out and let us know. This process allows you to create a live Windows USB drive that functions like a live Linux USB drive. Step by step procedure with screenshots to install Windows 7 and Windows 8 from USB drive or pen drive. Here is another great tutorial on how to Sysprep Windows 7 Machine from Start to Finish copyprofiletrue, automatically activating windows and other. Learn how to create installation media for installing or reinstalling Windows 7, Windows 8. Windows 10. Drive Key Boot Utility Windows 7 X64 Iso TorrentYou can boot it on any computer. The operating systems files and programs stay on the external drive and follow you around. What Youll Need. Heres what youll need A USB Flash Drive or External Hard Drive With 1. GB of More of Space For maximum speed, youll probably want a speedy USB 3. Comprehensive info about ERD Commander 2010 MSDaRT 6. Vista and Windows 7 Working Free Download Links Tutorials. Drive Key Boot Utility Windows 7 X64 Iso File' title='Drive Key Boot Utility Windows 7 X64 Iso File' />Drive Key Boot Utility Windows 7 X64 Iso DownloadHowever, you could also use an older external hard disk drive you have lying around. It wont be as fast, but it will work all the same. Microsoft offers Windows To Go Certified Drives, and they all start at 3. GB of storage space, so theres enough space for the OS and extra for your files. These certified devices are tested so they have high speeds and good manufacturer warranties a cheap USB drive might be slower and die sooner due to the higher volume of writes. A Windows 8 or 8. ISO File or Disc Youll need Windows 8 or 8. Windows installation media from Microsoft either with a CD key or by downloading a 9. Windows 8. 1 Enterprise. You dont need Windows Enterprise for this the core or Professional editions of Windows 8 or 8. The Free GImage. X Tool Download the free GImage. X tool and install it on your system. This is a graphical front end to the Image. X tool from Microsofts Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit. It will allow you to work with the WIM files from the Windows installation media and create a Windows To Go drive without Microsofts official Windows To Go creator tool. You dont also need to download the full Windows ADK from Microsoft  just download the tiny GImage. X utility. Locate the File. First, locate the Install. Windows installation media. If you have a physical disc, insert it into your computer. If you have an ISO file, you can mount it on Windows 8 by double clicking it in File Explorer. Open the disc drive in Windows Explorer and enter the sources directory. Locate the install. X sourcesinstall. X is the drive letter of the disc. Image the Install. FIle onto a USB Drive. Next, open the GImage. X tool. Extract the downloaded archive and run the correct version of the program for your computer the x. Windows or the x. Windows. Click the Apply tab in GImage. X. In the Source box, browse for the install. In the Destination box, choose the external drive youll be installing Windows To Go on. Click the Apply button and GImage. X will image the Install. USB drive. Wait for the imaging process to complete before you continue. This is the longest part, although it shouldnt take too long. The imaging process only took 1. Windows To Go system onto an external mechanical drive over a slower USB 2. Make the Partition Active. Youll now need to make the Windows To Go partition active so your computer will boot off that partition when you choose to boot from the external device. First, open the Disk Management tool right click the Start button in the bottom left corner of your Screen or press Windows Key X and click Disk Management. Locate the external drive in the list, right click the partition you imaged the Windows To Go system onto, and select Mark Partition as Active. This will mark that partition as the active, bootable partition on that external drive. Create Boot Entries on the USB Drive. Next, youll need to create the appropriate boot entries on the Windows To Go drives boot loader. First, open a Command Prompt window as Administrator on Windows 8. Start button in the bottom left corner of the screen or press Windows key X and select Command Prompt Admin. Next, run the following two commands to switch to the Windows To Go external drive, using its drive letter in place of X. Open a File Explorer window to see the drives letter if you dont know it X cd Windowssystem. Next, run the following command, replacing X with the drive letter of the external drive with Windows To Go on it. X Windows s X f ALLAs Microsofts bcdboot documentation page explains, this command creates boot entries on a USB flash drive including boot files to support either a UEFI based or a BIOS based computer. Boot Windows To Go. You now have a Windows To Go drive Restart your computer and boot from it you may need to configure the boot order in the BIOS or use use Windows 8s boot options menu on UEFI based systems to boot from an external drive. The first time you boot the Windows installation on the drie, youll have to go through the same first time setup process youd see after installing Windows on a computer normally. This will only happen the first time you boot your Windows To Go drive. Windows To Go operates almost like a normal system, although Microsoft notes a few differences for example, a Windows To Go system boots with internal disks offline by default. This is designed to prevent sensitive data from accidentally being saved onto an internal disk when using Windows To Go. AOMEIs paid Partition Assistant application includes a Windows To Go Creator function, but you dont need to pay for it if youre willing to use GImage. X and do the little bit of extra work above by hand. Thanks to ingramator on the Neowin forums for laying out this method in detail for Windows 8. Best Cream For Heel Cracks Horses. We confirmed that it still works on Windows 8. As it turns out, you dont actually need the Enterprise version of Windows 8 to use Windows To Go Image Credit bflshadow on Flickr.