A few weeks back, we reported about the availability of 90-day trial version of Windows 8 Enterprise edition for developers and consumers who want to test drive the RTM build. In addition to all features present in Windows 8 Pro edition, the Enterprise edition includes many more features.
One feature that has been introduced in Windows 8 and available only in the Enterprise edition is Windows To Go. Windows To Go is an enterprise feature that enables you boot and run Windows from USB drive.
Users who are running the 90-day trial copy of Windows 8 Enterprise may want to experience this feature. Complete the below mentioned instructions to create your Windows To Go drive.
What you need:
# A USB drive, 32 GB or larger
# Windows 8 Enterprise edition DVD or ISO file
# A PC running Windows 8 Enterprise edition
# 7-Zip, PeeZip, or WinZip software
Please note that Microsoft recommends you use a Windows To Go certified USB 3.0 drive from Kingston or Super Talent.
Procedure:
Step 1: Start the procedure by extracting install.wim file to a folder. The install.wim is located in Sources directory of your Windows 8 DVD/ISO file. If you have an ISO file, right-click on the ISO file to mount it (see how to mount ISO file in Windows 8), open the new virtual drive that appear in Computer, open Sources folder to find install.wim file.
You can use 7-Zip (free), WinZip or PeeZip (free) to extract install.wim. Open 7-Zip, WinZip or PeeZip with admin rights and then use the extract feature to safely extract all files from install.wim to a folder.
Step 2: Connect the flash drive to your PC running Windows 8 Enterprise edition.
Step 3: Press Windows + W keys, type Windows To Go in search box, and then press Enter key to launch Create a Windows To Go Workplace wizard.
Step 4: Select the USB drive you inserted to create Windows To Go and then click Next button.
Step 5: In this step, you need to browse to previously extracted install.wim files. Click Add search location button to browse to the folder where you have saved files extracted from install.wim file. Select the folder and click Open button to load the image.
Click Next button to continue.
Step 6: In the following step, you will be asked to enter a password to protect your Windows To Go workplace with BitLocker encryption. Enter a password and click Next button to continue, or simply click Skip button to proceed to the next step.
Step 7: Finally click Create button to begin creating your Windows To Go drive. The procedure might take a while. Once done, you can connect your Windows To Go drive to a PC and test it.
Step 8: When asked “Do you want to automatically boot from it when you restart your PC?”, select Yes to automatically boot from it. You are done!
Yo Mama says
You don’t need a 32 GB Flash Drive for Windows To Go. In order for it to boot from a USB it has to have the Fat32 Format. Fat32 Format only allows 4 MB file sizes. So at most you need a 4 GB Flash Drive.