Easily create customizable bootable USB drives for fast system installations, recovery tools, and antivirus solutions
Easily create customizable bootable USB drives for fast system installations, recovery tools, and antivirus solutions
Vote (170 votes)
Program license Free
Developer Novicorp
Version 1.13.00.00
Works under Windows
Vote
(170 votes)
Developer
Novicorp
Works under
Windows
Program license
Free
Version
1.13.00.00
Pros
- Install Windows from USB
- Full Windows 10 support
- Many customization options
Cons
- None
Use WinToFlash to install Windows via USB on any device.
WinToFlash is a utility for Windows that makes it easy to create Windows configurations that install from USB. Microsoft even has its own tool to help with such challenges, but WinToFlash is also freeware and comes with many additional features and customization options.
WinToFlash has been fully updated to support Windows 10, supports Windows flavors as far back as XP and even supports MS-DOS, BartPE, Hiren’s BCD and more. Once your bootable USB has been created, installations are simple. Better yet, they’re faster than installing from optical drives, and it’s convenient since it’s becoming increasingly common for PCs and other devices to not have optical drives.
This program supports both 32-bit and 64-bit configurations. It all supports all Windows versions, such as Server, Professional, Home, Ultimate and so forth. It works with any USB flash drive as well as any bootable USB drive, such as an external drive. As long as the drive has the necessary space, there are no other requirements or restrictions. WinToFlash can even support non-official Windows installations, such as custom configurations you or others have created.
If your drive is large enough, create multiple installation packages on it. It’s possible to have a single USB flash drive that contains a recovery program, an offline antivirus solution, live Linux and an unlimited number of Windows installations. This powerful solution lets IT professionals carry everything they may ever need on a single pen drive. It even supports UEFI in addition to traditional BIOS booting.
Need a nonstandard bootloader? Not a problem. WinToFlash can handle that as well. There’s also no need to mount drives or unpack archives. There’s in-place support for CAB, ZIP, RAR and DVD and CD ISO files. If you deal with old-style motherboards that need flashing programs, you can include those as well. You can even limit the size of the drive—or partition—to meet the needs of old DOS solutions. Most prevalent file systems are supported as well, including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT with CHS and LBA addressing.
Custom profiles are supported and can be loaded and saved as needed. When you run an installation, a detailed log is generated and written to the USB where the install is. There’s really no cons to mention. Many of the complaints that were once levied against WinToFlash—such as limited language support—have been rectified. It’s a great tool to have in any Windows user’s toolbox because installing from USB is not only convenient but increasingly necessary.
Pros
- Install Windows from USB
- Full Windows 10 support
- Many customization options
Cons
- None
Pros
- Creates a bootable USB with a Windows installation
- Works with all Windows versions since XP
- Multiboot and emergency recovery support
Cons
- Requires an installation disc
- Limited usefulness for the average user
WinToFlash is a program that creates bootable USB drives for the installation of Windows from an installation disc.
Provided the proper installation disc, WinToFlash can create a bootable USB that includes all of the necessary files to install Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10. It’s important to note that it does require the appropriate installation disc and may not work in an OEM scenario where the necessary files are on a special partition.
In addition to letting you install 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows from a bootable flash drive, WinToFlash has multiboot support. That means that you can have all the supported operating systems that you own prepared on a single USB drive. The program even supports Ubuntu and other Linux flavors. These can all be together, and WinToFlash also supports emergency recovery and Live USB, and it supports more than a hundred images that you can include, such as Bitdefender Rescue CD, Symantec PC Tools and Windows XP Recovery Console.
If you deal with older motherboards that require DOS flashing programs, WinToFlash can add MS-DOS as well. It also supports all popular container formats, such as ZIP, RAR and ISO. The program can run in compatibility modes for FAT16, FAT32, LBA and NTFS in CHS. WinToFlash is portable, of course, and can limit drive size to support legacy hardware, handle different bootloaders and supports profiles so that you can boot the USB under different configurations depending on the environment.
WinToFlash may have limited usefulness to the average user, and the primary reason for this is that Microsoft now provides similar tools online. You don’t even need to have purchased Windows online to use it. Simply have an MS account, follow the instructions, and the MS website will create your bootable installation USB. WinToFlash is, of course, a powerful tool for advanced users since it supports multiboot, lets you add programs and supports Windows versions that Microsoft has abandoned.
Pros
- Creates a bootable USB with a Windows installation
- Works with all Windows versions since XP
- Multiboot and emergency recovery support
Cons
- Requires an installation disc
- Limited usefulness for the average user
