A newbie question on Windows To Go

DeaconFrost said:

You won't get anywhere near the performance of Windows 10 that's running on an SSD. You also could be space-limited, even with a large flash drive.

I have to ask though...you seem to hint that Windows 10 isn't reliable. Windows 7 was very reliable for me. Windows 8.1 was very reliable for me. Windows 10 is every bit as reliable, or more, than any previous version. In fact, it's been so reliable and performs so well, I've begun rolling it out to across my company.

I used a 128GB SSD and attached it to the eSata port. Works like a charm. USB3 ports are nearly as fast.

And here is how I did it.

Windows 10 - Setup and Run on USB Flash Drive - Windows 10 Forums

lx07 said:

The Howtogeek tutorial (if you mean this How to Create a Windows To Go USB Drive Without the Enterprise Edition) is missing 2 steps.

It doesn't set SanPolicy to 4 (which stops you accessing local disks) and it doesn't disable recovery environment. It will work without these steps though but be careful not to write anything to your normal boot disks especially if you have fast boot or hibernation enabled.

Why not give it a try anyway? If you install Enterprise evaluation you'll not have worry about activation.

It will be my next new project.
Thank you.

whs said:

I used a 128GB SSD and attached it to the eSata port. Works like a charm. USB3 ports are nearly as fast.

Sounds like a good rainy project for me.

Kyhi said:

http://www.easyuefi.com/wintousb/

Thank you. Both tutorials have been kept in my ext. hdd. for future reference.

Has anyone figured out a way to update an unofficial WinToGo USB drive to the latest rev?

Windows updates worked fine for me until TH2 which, as we know, required a complete in-place reinstall.

All means of forcing it on a WinToGO drive failed for me with some variant of "You Can't Install Windows to a USB Flash Drive Using Setup". That includes changing the PortableOS registry key to "no".

What would happen if you used DISM to apply a newer install.wim to an older USB installation? Would it work? If it did, would the existing content (instlaled applications, etc) be lost?

Hi there

Can't get it to work (latest rev) -- I think until there's a brand new ISO available it won't work. TH2 only installs in place which kills it.

With an external SSD though I've found the best way to have a portable Windows system is simply to install any distro of Linux that supports Virtual Machines and then create a bog standard Windows VM to run on it Both VBOX and VMWARE run easily enough on pretty well all sensible Linux distros.

Booting from an SSD connected to a USB3 Port via SATA--USB3 connector port only takes a few seconds and starting the Windows VM is fine --speed really isn't an issue when running of USB3 and an SSD - the Linux host has minimal overhead so the Windows VM is fine.

Even using a USB2 port the speed can be perfectly acceptable -- I often use this now for different Office Languages as I do work all over the place from time to time in various different countries and English isn't always available --at least not without a lot of hassle. !!!

An advantage also of this method is that as you are using a VM the "Virtual Hardware" doesn't change so activation when used on different devices isn't normally the issue as would be the case with the Standard Windows to Go. IMO seems a bit pointless having a "Portable system" but then needs reactivation every time you use it "out in the field" - or at different clients sites where the tool would be really useful !!!

On to a slightly different topic concerning booting from a VHD -- I'd like to try a W12 server on a similar NAS box to mine - mine has -- currently 4 data HDD's and the system booted up from the micro sd card and SSD using CENTOS.

I've fitted an SSD over where a DVD would go but using AHCI only boot from an Internal (USB2) slot, a micro sd card or HDD1/2 is possible. I could plug the SSD into the internal USB slot but it's a waste of the SATA speed of the SSD.

Currently the CENTOS system can BOOT from the micro SD card which then loads the OS from the SSD and runs fine.

I need to create a similar installation for a colleague -- but it must use Windows 10 or preferably W2012 server. (W2016 server too new and all sorts of changes in licensing too).

Is there any mechanism that would allow the micro SD card to boot and load a Windows VHD on to the SSD and then Windows would be running on the SSD as a normal Windows system.

Screen shot shows what I want to do





/dev/sde is a 32 GB micro sd card on the mobo (removable card) which is the boot device (only 400MB used for boot and OS loader)

/dev/sdf is the SSD where I would want my Windows OS

the other device is the storage pool of the 4HDD's - 14 TB for the NAS. I don't want any OS on those -- pure data / storage volumes.

Any ideas from you Windows Gurus on making this work. It's the stupid hardware that will only allow you to boot from the CD port if you pull out all 4 HDD's (then they aren't hot swap either so you can't access after boot !!!) if you don't enable the poor RAID (software) system. I'm using the AHCI hardware sata controller.

The Microserver is a great piece of kit --stores neatly under the TV Hidden and out of the way -- if I need to access the OS now I do it via RDP from a laptop or mobile phone --works fine --just annoys me that you have to try all sorts of dodges to use an SSD --afte all who needs a DVD device on a SERVER !!!!!.


Cheers
jimbo