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Creating A Non-Certified Windows To Go USB Drive ADMIN Magazine PDF
Creating A Non-Certified Windows To Go USB Drive ADMIN Magazine PDF
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The list of Microsoft-certified USB drives for Windows 8 W2G is very short:
Compared with the SanDisk Cruzer 32GB I used for this article – US$ 20 at a local discount store – they’re all
very expensive.
Not using a Microsoft-certified USB disk comes with a few, potentially deal-breaking shortcomings: It’s not an
official Windows To Go image, and you don’t get your personal (purchased) apps or other personalizations on
installation. Although you can install applications on the disk, you have to sync your purchased apps manually.
What you do have is a fully functional Windows 8 system that’s bootable from the USB drive. If you’re using it as
a portable desktop system, you have achieved your goal. If, however, you need a full, official W2G image with
all of the features promised by a certified drive, then use the built-in Windows To Go Control Panel applet to
create your masterpiece. Here, I describe how to create Windows To Go on a budget.
Whether you already own a 32GB USB (or larger) drive or you purchase one new for this project matters little
because you have to wipe it clean before use, so be sure Windows To Go is what you want on this drive before
you start.
To begin, insert the USB drive into a USB slot on your computer and open a Windows command prompt in
Admin mode. To set up the USB drive, follow the Diskpart commands below.
C:> DISKPART
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DISKPART> CLEAN
DISKPART> ACTIVE
DISKPART> EXIT
Leaving DiskPart...
C:>
Now you need to download the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7, named
KB3AIK_EN.ISO . At 1.7GB, it’s a significant download, and you’ll have to use your Microsoft Account to
download the file. You’ll also need this account to log in to your Windows To Go system, so if you don’t have a
Microsoft Account, sign up now.
After mounting the ISO, use 7Zip or a similar tool to open the NEUTRAL.CAB file and extract the F1_image file.
Once extracted, rename F1_image to IMAGEX.EXE . This is the ImageX Tool for Windows. (For more
information on the ImageX Tool for Windows, use IMAGEX.EXE /? at a command prompt.)
From your Windows 8 ISO or DVD, copy the \SOURCES\INSTALL.WIM file to the same location you copied
IMAGEX.EXE . I suggest creating a folder such as C:\WIN2GO and placing those files and these instructions
into it for future reference. If you find W2G useful, you’ll want to repeat the process.
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Before you continue, know your USB drive letter. For this demonstration, the USB drive is E: , so I would
transfer the install image to the USB drive with the command:
This process can take a very long time. Mine took more than an hour to complete, so be patient and don’t
assume anything is wrong. ImageX provides a progress indicator like this
during the transfer process. When the image is fully transferred to the USB drive, you need to enter one final
command to copy Windows boot files to the root of the bootable USB drive:
This command transfers the boot or system files to the USB Drive for any firmware (BIOS or UEFI) type (ALL ).
Now you’re ready to remove the USB drive and insert it into any other Windows 8-capable and USB-bootable
computer to boot into Windows To Go. The initial setup process is lengthy, so be very patient. W2G requires two
boots. The first is to detect hardware, which takes you through a series of colorful screens that display
messages such as Getting devices ready X% and Getting ready . The system will reboot itself, so be ready to
boot from the USB drive on that second boot.
The second boot steps you through the following Windows 8 setup screens:
After you enter your information and personalize your computer, you have to wait through another series of
fascinating screens, such as We’re getting your PC ready , Installing apps , Taking care of a few things , Almost
ready ; finally, you’re sent to the Start (Metro) screen, where you can now interact with the operating system.
Using Windows To Go
You’ll notice that W2G behaves almost exactly like Windows 8 in every respect, and it should, because it is a full
Windows 8 installation. The two major exceptions that prevent me from saying it behaves exactly like Windows
8 are: Windows Store is disabled and you’ll soon get a “nag” notification about Windows activation.
You might see a notification when you first log in telling you to: Keep the USB drive plugged in. Only remove it
after your PC has shut down completely. Otherwise, your Windows To Go workspace might crash and you could
lose data. The W2G workspace is not loaded into memory and used from there; it remains on disk and is
accessed as you use it. Windows 8 also creates a pagefile, if needed, on the USB drive.
Installing traditional applications, such as Microsoft Office, on W2G works just as you’d expect, but you need to
open an Administrative command prompt and use The Group Policy Editor (gpedit ) to enable Windows Store.
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C:> gpedit
To enable the Windows Store, under Computer Configuration , open Administrative Templates | Windows
Components | Store .
In the right pane, right-click the entry Allow Store to install apps on Windows To Go workspaces and click Edit to
select the Enabled option and click OK (Figure 1). Now you can close the Group Policy Editor.
You should now be able to open the Windows Store and install apps. If you still have trouble, try connecting into
your Active Directory (AD) domain with your W2G system and allow it to activate Windows. Activation and
subsequent activiation checkups are required every 180 days. Remember that W2G is Enterprise-only;
therefore, to use it, you’ll need a KMS Server or AD to help you manage it.
Surveying Security
It might come as no surprise to you that a Windows To Go implementation will force businesses that use the
technology to change the way users work with Windows. The problem lies in the fact that when you boot up with
a USB drive, you have access to local disk and device resources from the USB-based operating system.
The solution to the problem is to enable BitLocker on all systems and BitLocker To Go on all Windows To Go-
enabled devices. If you boot onto a Windows system that has BitLocker enabled, you will not be able to view
anything on the protected disk unless you have the password. Alternatively, if you happen to lose your W2G
device, your information is safe if you have Bitlocker To Go set up on it; otherwise, your information is available
to anyone who can plug in a USB drive.
For security professionals, W2G is an excellent way to gain easy access to any system’s files. The sly security
pro will encrypt the USB drive with BitLocker To Go, just in case the device is left behind or lost. The recipient
will have a nice $20 gift, but at least the identity and purpose of the drive will remain hidden.
Managing Portability
If you use the x86 version of W2G, you’ll have greater portability than if you use the 64-bit version. Attempting to
boot the 64-bit version on a system that doesn’t support it stops the boot, and the system notifies you that the
process can’t continue. You can create a W2G-bootable USB drive successfully in a virtual machine. I used
VMware Workstation 9 to produce the one I used for the demonstration described in this article.
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Once the USB is booted and the Windows Store settings are changed, you can open the Windows Store, right-
click any app, and click Your Apps to display your purchased apps. After selecting and purchasing an app from
the Windows Store that you want to install on the W2G USB disk, you are licensed to use it on five computers.
You can also sync your settings via your Microsoft account by opening the Charms Bar and clicking Settings |
Change PC settings | Sync your settings . All settings are set to sync by default.
For most operations, you’ll never know that you’re working from a USB disk and not a traditional hard disk. A
few disk-intensive applications are a bit sluggish on startup, but all of the Office applications open within one to
two seconds. Overall, performance varies from acceptable to outstanding. Microsoft Access 2010, for example,
opened immediately and without hesitation. Microsoft Word 2010 lagged by comparison at two seconds.
Summary
Windows To Go isn’t for everyone. In fact, I think it serves a relatively small demographic right now. At times it
could be useful to the traveller, but most of us won’t need it. The security risks of using it are too great to the
host computer, so its use will be limited in all but the most secure companies. W2G is interesting, however, from
a purely technical point of view: Now Windows-oriented folks can use a complete, familiar operating system, just
as Linux renegades have been doing for years.
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Name
Seeing as this is a windows 8 article, I don't know why the author bothered with ImageX
which has been deprecated and replaced by DISM.exe
2△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
Error: 87
Hope this helps anyone who visits this page from Google!
1△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
I get that my comment is kind of useless... but atleast i read the comment
this is referring to and saw your nonsense and just had to reply.
You can go back to AHCI and UEFI after the installation is done. Or you can just use an
older computer for the installation.
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The bcdboot.exe command-line tool is used to copy critical boot files to the
12 △ ▽ 1 • Reply • Share ›
work? How long it will take with a Kingston 100 G2 USB 2.0 flash drive? 4 hours? or less?
thanks..
4△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
Ironically I've only created one windows 8 drive. I've had way more
requests for linux drives even though they are easy to do yourself
By the way people, this trick does not work with windows 7 or vista. Trust
me, I have tried. You can do it for DOS though XD
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
Don't you think it's better to go with 32-bit? You get more portability (bit
older PC-s...).
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
A windows usb is useful, but for my personal stuff I use Linux mint
because it doesn't take 20 min to boot up the first time on a new
t
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computer.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
You can go back to AHCI and UEFI after the installation is done. Or you
can just use an older computer for the installation.
It is a long time ago you wrote your post, but I was struggling to create
Windows ToGo on a USB flash drive, and it kept failing, with the Windows
ToGo booting, but stalling with the bootup just sitting at the splash screen
and never going further.
of Windows on the flash drive. Thank you very much for you helpful
suggestion here.
Kind regards,
Peter Selig
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
C:> BCDBOOT.EXE E:\WINDOWS /S E: /F ALL <-- the /F ALL are not usable.
So I key in
C:> BCDBOOT.EXE E:\WINDOWS /S E:
Error code0xc000000f
I took an install.wmi from an win7 enterprise and managed to imagex (from the
the Waiken) this to an usb stick on a windows 7 laptop. But then I can't make the
stick bootable. I tried the win8 bcdboot.exe, but got the error below. When I tried
to boot from the stick it started windows 7 but crashed on when loading the drive
drivers. Even in save mode.
error:
BFSVC Error: Failed to validate boot manager checksum
(i:\windows\boot\EFI\bootm
gfw.efi)! Error code = 0xc1
Failure when attempting to copy boot files.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
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