Create installation media for Windows

You can use installation media (a USB flash drive or DVD) to install a new copy of Windows, perform a clean installation, or reinstall Windows 10.

To create installation media, go to the software download website, where you’ll find step-by-step instructions. On that website, you can select a version of Windows and create your own installation media using either a USB flash drive or a DVD. To go directly to one of the versions, select one of these links:

Windows 10 (Then select Download tool now.)

Important: Back up your files before you install or reinstall Windows on your PC. Learn how for Windows 10 or for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

To create the installation media, here’s what you’ll need:

A PC with a reliable internet connection. The download time will vary, depending on your internet connection.

A USB flash drive or DVD. A blank USB flash drive with at least 8 GB of space, or a blank DVD (and DVD burner). We recommend using a blank USB or blank DVD because any content on it will be deleted. When burning a DVD from an ISO file, if you’re told the disc image file is too large, you’ll need to use dual layer (DL) DVD media.

A product key. Your 25-character product key (not required for digital licenses). For help finding it, go to Find your Windows product key.

After you’ve created the installation media, you can reset or reinstall Windows. To learn more, go to Recovery options in Windows 10.

Создание установочного носителя для Windows

Вы можете использовать установочный носитель (USB-устройство флэш-памяти или DVD-диск) для установки новой копии Windows, выполнения чистой установки или переустановки Windows 10.

Чтобы создать установочный носитель, перейдите на веб-сайт скачивания ПО, где вы найдете пошаговые инструкции. На этом веб-сайте вы можете выбрать версию Windows и создать собственный установочный носитель с помощью USB-устройства флэш-памяти или DVD-диска. Чтобы перейти непосредственно к одной из версий, выберите одну из следующих ссылок:

Windows 10 (Затем выберите Скачать средство сейчас.)

Важно: Создайте резервную копию файлов перед установкой и переустановкой Windows на компьютере. Узнайте, как это сделать для Windows 10 или для Windows 7 и Windows 8.1.

Чтобы создать установочный носитель, необходимо следующее:

Компьютер с надежным подключением к Интернету. Время скачивания зависит от скорости подключения к Интернету.

USB-устройство флэш-памяти или DVD-диск. Необходимо пустое USB-устройство флэш-памяти с 8 ГБ свободного места или пустой DVD-диск (и устройство записи DVD). Рекомендуем использовать чистый носитель, поскольку все его содержимое будет удалено. Если при записи DVD-диска из ISO-файла отображается сообщение о том, что файл образа диска слишком большой, необходимо использовать DVD-носитель с двумя слоями (DL).

Ключ продукта. 25-значный ключ продукта (не требуется для цифровых лицензий). Если вам требуется помощь, см. раздел Как найти ключ продукта Windows.

После создания установочного носителя вы можете сбросить или переустановить Windows. Дополнительные сведения см. в разделе Параметры восстановления в Windows 10.

How to Install Windows 7 From USB

A tutorial on using a USB flash drive to install Windows 7

Chances are you’ll need to install Windows 7 from a USB device if you have a tablet, a small laptop, or a netbook device, few of which include optical drives as standard hardware.

As of January 2020, Microsoft no longer supports Windows 7. We recommend upgrading to Windows 10 to continue receiving security updates and technical support.

Prepare for the Installation

You must migrate the Windows 7 setup files onto a flash drive (or any USB-based storage) and then boot from that flash drive to get the Windows 7 installation process started. However, simply copying the files from your Windows 7 DVD to a flash drive won’t work. You have to specially prepare the USB device and then properly copy the Windows 7 install files to it before it’ll work as you expect.

You’re in a similar, but slightly easier to solve, situation if you’ve purchased a Windows 7 ISO file directly from Microsoft and need that on a flash drive.

No matter what situation you’re in, just follow the instructions below to install Windows 7 from a USB device.

The following tutorial applies equally to whatever edition of Windows 7 you have a disc or ISO image of: Windows 7 Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium, etc.

What You’ll Need

• A Windows 7 ISO or DVD
• Access to a computer with Windows 7, 8, 10, Vista, or XP installed and working properly, as well as with a DVD drive if you have a Windows 7 DVD
• A 4 GB (or larger) flash drive

How to Install Windows 7 From USB

Correctly preparing a USB drive for use as an installation source for Windows 7 will take around 15 to 30 minutes depending on your computer speed and what edition of Windows 7 you have on DVD or in ISO format

Start with Step 1 below if you have a Windows 7 DVD or Step 2 if you have a Windows 7 ISO image.

Create an ISO file from the Windows 7 DVD. If you already know how to create ISO images, fantastic: do it, and then come back here for further instructions on what to do with it.

If you’ve never created an ISO file from a disc before, check out the tutorial linked above. It’ll walk you through installing some free software and then show how to use it to make the ISO. An ISO image is a single file that perfectly represents a disc—in this case, your Windows 7 installation DVD.

Next, we’re going to work on properly getting that Windows 7 ISO you just created onto the flash drive.

Download Microsoft’s Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Once downloaded, execute the file and follow the installation wizard.

This free program from Microsoft, which works in Windows 10 through Windows XP, will correctly format the USB drive and then copy the contents of your Windows 7 ISO file to the drive.

Pick the en-US.exe download for the English edition of this tool.

Start the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool program, which is probably located in your Start menu or on your Start screen, as well as on your Desktop.

On the Step 1 of 4: Choose ISO file screen, click Browse.

Locate and select your Windows 7 ISO file, and then click Open.

If you downloaded Windows 7 directly from Microsoft, check for the ISO image wherever you tend to store downloaded files. If you manually created an ISO file from your Windows 7 DVD in Step 1 above then it will be wherever you saved it to.

Click Next once you’re back on the Step 1 of 4 screen.

Click USB device on the Step 2 of 4: Choose media type screen.

On the Step 3 of 4: Insert USB device screen, choose the flash drive or external hard drive you want to put the Windows 7 installation files on.

If you haven’t yet plugged in the flash drive or other device you’re using, you can do that now. Just click the refresh button to make it show up in the list.

Click the Begin copying button.

Click Erase USB Device if you’re prompted to do so on a Not Enough Free Space window. Then click Yes to the confirmation in the next window.

If you don’t see this it just means that the flash drive or external hard disk you’ve selected is already empty.

Any data you have on this USB drive will be erased as part of this process.

On Step 4 of 4: Creating bootable USB device, wait for the program to format the USB drive and then copy the Windows 7 installation files to it from the ISO image you provided.

You’ll see a Status of Formatting for several seconds, followed by Copying files. This part might take as long as 30 minutes, maybe even longer, depending on which edition of Windows 7 the ISO file you have is from, as well as on how fast your computer, USB drive, and USB connection is.

The percentage complete indicator may sit on one or more percentages for a long time. This apparent pause doesn’t mean anything is wrong.

The next screen you see should say Bootable USB device created successfully, with a Status of Backup completed.

You can now close the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool program. The USB drive can now be used to install Windows 7.

Boot from the USB device to start the Windows 7 setup process.

You might need to make changes to the boot order in BIOS if the Windows 7 setup process doesn’t start when you try to boot from the USB drive. See How to Change the Boot Order in BIOS if you’ve never done that.

If you still can’t get the flash drive to boot, and you also have a UEFI based computer, see the information at the bottom of this page.

If you arrived here from How to Clean Install Windows 7, you can now return to that tutorial and continue installing Windows 7.

You should have now installed Windows 7 by USB.

Tips & More Information

When the Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool formats the flash drive during the process above, it does so using NTFS, a file system that some UEFI systems won’t boot from if present on a USB stick.

To get the USB drive to boot on these computers, you should copy the data from the flash drive onto a folder on your computer, then reformat the flash drive using the older FAT32 file system, and then copy that same data back onto the drive.

See How to Burn an ISO File to USB for an alternative method for getting a Windows 7 ISO image onto a USB drive.

WinSetupFromUSB

Install Windows from USB with WinSetupFromUSB, multiboot and a lot more

Downloads

Here you can download WinSetupFromUSB and updates of the tools included.

Please do not hotlink files, use this page if you want to post a link to the program. If you need to link to a specific version, you could use version number like this:

Note: A few antivirus programs keep detecting a couple of the included files as viruses. This is false positive . These vendors were informed numerous times and the serious companies such as DrWeb and Kaspersky, update their signatures to remove the false detection within a few hours after being informed. Others, such as McAfee, despite all the efforts and contacts, don’t do anything to update their signatures. For a few unknown ones, which use third party signatures, there is no way to contact them or they simply don’t respond. This program will never knowingly distribute any kind of malware.

• added support for multi-version/dual Windows ISOs (32 and 64 bits in one ISO for example). Stock Microsoft dual ISOs are supported and tested, other such sources too, as long as they use unmodified bootmgr and default location for BCD store is in /boot/bcd. Tested in BIOS/UEFI with both Secure Boot on and off, stock Windows 10 dual and single ISO builds 1803, 1809, Server 2016 and 2019.
• added detection of Windows 10 build number which is added to the boot menu names
• updated ImDisk and WimLib
• minor bug fixes

• fixed issue with Windows 10 and recovery option not shown
• fixed issue with persistence file size not set correctly and tooltip for using persistence
• updated some the tools to their latest version- BootIce, ImDisk, WimLib

1) Windows 10 – single ISOs created by Microsoft Media Creation Tool or downloaded from Microsoft should work. Dual ISOs made by the same tool (x32 and x64 in a single ISO) are NOT supported yet due to the changed structure. Such source can still be added using the previous versions which dump entire contents as they are, 1.0 beta8 for example. Limitations- such source needs to be added first, and any other sources of the same type,but not the same x32+x64, has to be added using 1.6 beta 2 or later.

• disabled superfloppy check due to issues with latest Windows 10 builds
• increased input timeouts to 45 seconds
• fixed issue with Swedish locale and bcdedit
• added check if imdisk is an old version

1) Windows 10 – single ISOs created by Microsoft Media Creation Tool or downloaded from Microsoft should work. Dual ISOs made by the same tool (x32 and x64 in a single ISO) are NOT supported yet due to the changed structure. Such source can still be added using the previous versions which dump entire contents as they are, 1.0 beta8 for example. Limitations- such source needs to be added first, and any other sources of the same type,but not the same x32+x64, has to be added using 1.6 beta 2 or later.

• updated imdisk package for compatibility with latest Windows 10 versions
• Added Windows 10 in all GUI elements

1) Windows 10 – single ISOs created by Microsoft Media Creation Tool or downloaded from Microsoft should work. Dual ISOs made by the same tool (x32 and x64 in a single ISO) are NOT supported yet due to the changed structure. Such source can still be added using the previous versions which dump entire contents as they are, 1.0 beta8 for example. Limitations- such source needs to be added first, and any other sources of the same type,but not the same x32+x64, has to be added using 1.6 beta 2 or later.

2) If program is run on latest Windows 10 builds, seconds source can no longer be added due to incorrectly detected superfloppy format of the USB disk. This is due to changed by Microsoft WMI call results or structure. Fix is being worked on and will be released as soon as it’s ready.

• Fixed missing EFI boot menu for Windows 10 sources

Note: Windows 10 – single ISOs created by Microsoft Media Creation Tool or downloaded from Microsoft should work. Dual ISOs made by the same tool (x32 and x64 in a single ISO) are NOT supported yet due to the changed structure. Such source can still be added using the previous versions which dump entire contents as they are, 1.0 beta8 for example. Limitations- such source needs to be added first, and any other sources of the same type,but not the same x32+x64, has to be added using 1.6 beta 2 or later.