With a Windows 11 bootable USB drive at your disposal, you can easily perform a clean installation of the operating system or even upgrade the current OS. To upgrade your computer to Windows 11, you’ll need to create an installation media using a USB flash drive. Creating an installation media for Windows 11 is a breeze, thanks to Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool and the popular third-party tool Rufus. This guide will take you through the steps of creating a bootable USB media, which can be used for the installation of Windows 11.
Prerequisites
Before you can create the installation media, you need to download the Windows 11 ISO image. You can get it from the official Microsoft website. To download the ISO image, follow these steps:
- Go to the official Microsoft page to download Windows 11.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the ‘Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO)’ section.
- On the drop-down menu, select Windows 11.
- Hit the Download button to proceed.
- The page will load additional information and display the “Select the product language” section. Choose your preferred language from the drop-down menu labeled “Choose one”.
- Confirm your selection by clicking the Confirm button.
- Once the download section loads, click the 64-bit Download button.
Once you’ve successfully downloaded the ISO file, you can proceed to create a Windows 11 bootable USB drive by following any of the methods outlined below.
1. Create a bootable USB using Rufus
Rufus is a free and open-source tool that allows you to create bootable USB drives from ISO images. It’s a fast and reliable tool that is widely used by many tech enthusiasts. To create a bootable USB using Rufus, follow these steps:
Step 1: Download Rufus from its official website.
Step 2: Once downloaded, run the executable file and click “Yes” if prompted by UAC.
Step 3: Connect your USB flash drive to your PC and wait for Rufus to detect it; it should appear under the “Device” section.
Step 4: From the “Boot selection” drop-down, select “Disk or ISO image” and then click the “SELECT” button.
Step 5: Select the Windows 11 ISO file and click “Open”.
Step 6: From the “Image” drop-down, select “Standard Windows 11 Installation (TPM 2.0 + Secure Boot)” or “Extended Windows 11 Installation (no TPM / no Secure Boot)” if you want to create a bootable drive for an unsupported system.
Step 7: Keep the “Partition scheme (GPT)” and “Target system (UEFI)” options as default.
Step 8: Enter a name for your USB flash drive under the “Volume label” section.
Step 9: Leave the “File system” and “Cluster size” options, as well as any other options, as default.
Step 10: Make sure the “Quick format” and “Create extended label and icon files” options are checked.
Step 11: Click the “Start” button to initiate the creation process for your Windows 11 bootable USB drive.
2. Using Media Creation Tool
Another easy way to create a bootable USB drive for Windows 11 is to use the Media Creation Tool. This tool is provided by Microsoft and is designed to help users create installation media for Windows easily without any fuss. To create a bootable USB using the Media Creation Tool, follow these steps:
Step 1: Before proceeding, connect a USB flash drive with at least 8GB of storage to your PC.
Step 2: Ensure that the drive is recognized by your computer and backup any important files that are stored on it, as the process will erase all data on the drive.
Step 3: Now, download the Media Creation Tool from the official Microsoft website.
Step 4: Download the Media Creation Tool from the “Create Windows 11 Installation Media” section.
Step 5: Once the tool downloads, run the MediacreationtoolW11.exe file and click Yes to the UAC prompt.
Step 6: Agree to the terms by clicking the Accept button.
Step 7: Choose the language by unchecking the “Use the recommended options for this PC” box (if necessary).
Step 8: Select the USB flash drive as the media to use.
Step 9: Choose your USB drive from the available list.
Step 10: Wait while the Media Creation Tool downloads the necessary files and creates the installation media.
Step 11: When the message “your USB flash drive is ready” appears, click Finish to close the setup wizard.
Step 12: You can boot using the USB drive to perform a clean install of Windows 11.
Install Windows 11 in No Time
Creating a bootable USB drive for Windows 11 is easy and straightforward. You can either use Rufus or the Media Creation Tool to create the installation media. Both tools are free and easy to use. Simply follow the steps outlined in this article, and you will have a bootable USB drive ready to install Windows 11 in no time.
