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How to install Windows 11 from a USB Flash Drive

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There are many options available when you install Windows 11 on your device.
Modern computers don’t have DVD or CD drives, so installing Windows 11 from a disc is not always possible. You don’t even need discs anymore, all you need is a USB stick to install Windows 11.

This is a complete guide to creating a Windows 11 Bootable USB and Installing a fresh copy of Windows 11 from the Bootable USB Flash Drive with no steps skipped.

Contents hide
1 Windows 11 Requirements
2 How to create a Windows 11 Bootable USB Flash Drive
3 How to Boot your Computer from a USB Flash Drive
3.1 How to Boot from USB using Boot Menu Key
3.2 How to Boot from USB using BIOS Boot Order/Boot Priority
4 How to install Windows 11 from USB Flash Drive
5 How to Finish Setting up Windows 11 on your Computer
5.1 Install Windows 11 on Laptops

It’s a brilliant idea to make a bootable USB flash drive that can be used to install Windows 11. A USB installation drive can wipe out and reinstall the Operating system. You can perform an upgrade or a clean installation of Windows 11.
The entire installation procedure consists of four main processes:

  1. Create a Windows 11 Bootable USB Flash Drive.
  2. Boot your Computer from a USB Flash Drive
  3. Install Windows 11 from USB Flash Drive.
  4. Finish Setting up Windows 11 on your Computer.

Before starting these process, lets be ensure that we have all the required stuff:

Requirements:
  • A USB Flash Drive: To make a Bootable Windows 10 USB for Installation.
  • An Windows OS installed Laptop or Computer with Internet: An PC or Laptop with Internet and a Windows Operating System (Windows 11/10/8/7)  installed is required to download Windows Media Creation Tool and make USB Flash Drive Bootable.
  • Windows 11 Requirements: The computer in Which you want to install the Windows 11 must meet the minimum requirement of Windows 11 and they are ass follows:

Windows 11 Requirements

To install Windows 11, your computer must meet these requirements.

  • CPU:1 gigahertz(GHz) or faster using two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or System on a Chip.
  • RAM: Minimum 4GB.
  • Storage: 64GB or larger.
  • System firmware: Secure Boot capable.
  • TPM: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0.
  • Graphics card: compatible With DirectX 12 Or Later with WDDM 2.0 Driver
  • Display: High definition (720p), display greater than 9 inches diagonally, with 8 bits per channel
  • Internet: Windows 11 might require internet connectivity and a Microsoft account while finalizing the setup. (Recently, a skip option is added for those who do not have an internet connection).

If your computer doesn’t have a 4GB RAM, Secure Boot, or TPM 2.0 device, you should try to install it using Bypass Windows 11 Installation Requirements Method.

Follow the complete step-by-step guide to install Windows 11 from USB Flash Drive.

How to create a Windows 11 Bootable USB Flash Drive

You cannot purchase physical USB media for Windows 1 1 installation from the official site. Therefore, you will need to make your own USB installation media.

These are the two best tools for downloading windows 11 into a USB flash drive and making it bootable.

  1. Windows Media Creation Tool: This is Microsoft’s official tool which allows you to download Windows 11 to create a bootable USB Flash Drive.
  2. Rufus: This third-party tool makes it simple to create a flash drive for installing the OS on compatible or incompatible devices.

It is always better to use the official tool, so we will use Windows Media Creation Tool to create a Windows 11 Bootable USB Flash Drive. However, if you want to go with the second option, read our step-by-step guide on How to make a Windows 11 Bootable USB Flash Drive using Rufus.

Now, follow the steps to create a Windows 11 Bootable USB Flash Drive using Windows Media Creation Tool:

  1. Connect the USB Flash Drive to your computer. It is crucial to ensure that the USB stick is recognized and you must have a backup of all files of the USB drive.
  2. After that, go to the Microsoft Download Center page.
  3. Navigate to “Create Windows 11 Installation Media” section and click on Download Now button.
  4. Store the file to your desired location in the Local Drive (not USB Flash Drive) and click save to start downloading the Create Windows 11 Media Creation Tool.
  5. Once the download it completed, Double click to Open the Windows 11 Media Creation Tool.
  6. Accept the license terms to continue.
  7. Select Language and Edition, you can uncheck ” Use the recommended options for this PC” option to change Language and edition. Click Next to continue.


  8. Choose USB Flash Drive as Media to use and click Next.
  9. Select the USB media from the list and click Next to start downloading Windows 11 (Sit back and relax, it will automatically download Windows 11 files to your USB and make it bootable, the process is time-consuming, it might take a long time if your internet connection is slow).


  10. After the downloading is completed, it will automatically verify your download and create Windows 11 media.

  11. Once everything is successfully done, it will show a “Your USB flash drive is ready” message. Click Finish.

You have successfully created Windows 11 Bootable USB now, and let’s Boot the computer for it.

How to Boot your Computer from a USB Flash Drive

A Bootable media is useless until you boot the Computer from it. There are two ways to boot your Computer from a USB Flash Drive:

  1. Boot Menu: This is the easiest and most appropriate way to boot your Computer to install an Operating System because it is a one-time thing and you do not need to change the Boot Order in the BIOS. Instead, you can select the Boot Device (USB Flash Drive) and directly boot from it.
  2. BIOS Boot Order/Boot Priority: In this step, you will get more options and make a permanent change to your System’s Boot Order.

How to Boot from USB using Boot Menu Key

Follow the steps to boot your computer from a USB Pen Drive/Flash Drive using Boot Menu Key:

  1. Start or Restart your Computer.
  2. Wait for the first screen to appear. It will often say, “Press F11 to Run Boot Menu“. The same Boot Menu key requested may vary depending on your Computer’s manufacturer. Now, press that key.
  3. It will give you options to select the Boot Device, Find the USB Flash drive and hit enter.

Your Computer will boot from the USB flash drive and start the Windows 11 Setup.

How to Boot from USB using BIOS Boot Order/Boot Priority

You can also use this option to boot from a USB. The difference is between these two methods is that changes to boot order will be permanent until you revert those changes back in BIOS settings.

Follow the steps to boot your computer from a USB Pen Drive/Flash Drive using BIOS Boot Order/Boot Priority:

  1. Start or Restart your Computer.
  2. Wait for the screen to appear. The message should read “Press Del to enter SETUP” or something similar. Your machine may have a different key, the most common BIOS keys are ESC, F1, F2, F8, F10 or DEL. Wait for setup to begin by pressing the key indicated on your keyboard.