Microsoft started offering Windows 11 to a select group of users at the beginning of this month. The new update comes with a brand-new user interface (UI) and is now available publicly. Microsoft is also offering Windows 11 ISO so you can create your very own installation disk and install Windows 11 on multiple devices. There are a couple of ways to create an installation disk, including using Rufus and the Windows Media Creation tool.
Method 1: Using Rufus
Go to Microsoft’s website to download the ISO. You need to scroll down to the third option on Microsoft’s website- “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO)”. Select Windows 11 from the dropdown and click on ‘Download’. Select your preferred language then click on ’64-bit Download’ to start downloading the ISO. Once the ISO is downloaded, you will need to download a free utility called Rufus and open it.
Insert a USB drive that you want to turn into a Windows 11 bootable drive. Make sure your USB drive is selected under the device option. Select ‘Disk or ISO image’ under the boot selection option and click on ‘Select’. Select the ‘Standard Windows installation (TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, 8GB+ RAM)’ under image option. Point to be noted that you will need to select the ‘Extended Windows installation (no TPM 2.0/no Secure Boot, 8GB+ RAM)’ option if you are planning to use the ISO for installation on unsupported hardware. Select the following options to complete the setup:
Partition scheme > GPT
Target system > UEFI (non CSM)
Volume label > Name of the bootable media
File system > NTFS
Cluster size > 4096 bytes
Do not change the advanced format settings unless you know what you are doing.
Once you are ready, click on ‘start’. You will now get a warning informing you that all the data on the USB drive will be deleted if you proceed. You need to click on ‘ok’ after you have taken a backup of the USB drive. Once the process is completed, you will have a bootable Windows 11 drive that you can plug into any system and install Windows 11.
Method 2: Windows Media Creation tool
The Redmond giant is also offering its own utility to help users create a Windows 11 bootable drive. You can follow the steps below to use the Windows Media Creation tool in order to create a bootable drive:
The first step is common for both the methods and you will need to open Microsoft’s Windows 11 download page. Select the second option on the page- “Create Windows 11 Installation Media”. Click on ‘download’ to get the Media Creation tool and open it. Accept the Windows 11 license agreement. Select language and edition options. If you need to change those options then uncheck the “Use the recommended options for this PC” option and click on ‘next’.
You will now get the option to create a bootable USB drive or an ISO file. Select USB option > Select the ISO option (if you need to get an ISO file, which can be burned onto a drive later using software such as Rufus). Plugin a USB drive that you need to use as a bootable media drive, then click on ‘next’. Select the USB drive that you just connected. Click on ‘next’ to start the download. Once the download and installation are finished, Windows 11 will be ready for use and you just need to plug in the drive and start the installation process. It is noteworthy that you can always roll back to Windows 10.
