I create my "Windows To Go" external drives by manually creating a system partition (100 MB), then a second partition for the OS. If you partition the external drive as MBR, and create a FAT32 system partition marked as active, followed by an NTFS partition for the OS, the external drive will be bootable on both legacy BIOS and UEFI computers. I then use the dism /apply-image command to apply the image from a Windows 10 ISO file to the NTFS partition on the external drive:
Code:
C:\Windows\system32>dism /apply-image /?
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.329
/Apply-Image /ImageFile:<path_to_image_file> /ApplyDir:<target_directory>
{/Index:<image_index> | /Name:<image_name>} [/CheckIntegrity] [/Verify]
[/NoRpFix] [/SWMFile:<pattern>] [/ConfirmTrustedFile] [/WIMBoot] [/Compact] [/EA]
Applies an image to a specified drive.
Use /CheckIntegrity to stop the operation if WIM file corruption is detected.
Use /Verify to check for errors and file duplication.
Use /NoRpFix to disable the reparse point tag fix.
Use /SWMFile to reference split WIM files (SWMs). <pattern> is the naming
pattern and location of split files.
Use /ConfirmTrustedFile to validate the image for Trusted Desktop. See
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=309482 for more information about
supported platforms.
Use /WIMBoot to apply the image with WIMBoot configuration.
Use /Compact to apply the image in compact mode.
Use /EA to apply extended attributes.
Use /SFUFile to reference split FFU files (SFUs). <pattern> is the naming
pattern and location of split files.
Examples:
DISM.exe /Apply-Image /ImageFile:install.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:D:\
DISM.exe /Apply-Image /ImageFile:install.swm /SWMFile:install*.swm
/ApplyDir:D:\ /Index:1
Then I use the bcdboot command to write the boot files to the FAT32 system partition:
Code:
C:\Windows\system32>bcdboot /?
Bcdboot - Bcd boot file creation and repair tool.
The bcdboot.exe command-line tool is used to copy critical boot files to the
system partition and to create a new system BCD store.
bcdboot <source> [/l <locale>] [/s <volume-letter> [/f <firmware>]] [/v]
[/vbcd] [/m [{OS Loader ID}]] [/addlast] [/p] [/c]
source Specifies the location of the windows system root.
/l Specifies an optional locale parameter to use when
initializing the BCD store. The default is US English.
/s Specifies an optional volume letter parameter to designate
the target system partition where boot environment files are
copied. The default is the system partition identified by
the firmware.
/v Enables verbose mode.
/vbcd Enables BCD logging.
/m If an OS loader GUID is provided, this option merges the
given loader object with the system template to produce a
bootable entry. Otherwise, only global objects are merged.
/d Specifies that the existing default windows boot entry
should be preserved.
/f Used with the /s command, specifies the firmware type of the
target system partition. Options for <firmware> are 'UEFI',
'BIOS', or 'ALL'.
/addlast Specifies that the windows boot manager firmware entry
should be added last. The default behavior is to add it
first.
/bcdclean Clean the BCD Store. By default, simply removes any duplicate
entries in the BCD. Can be followed by 'full'. In this case,
each entry is scanned. If the corresponding device for that entry
does not exist, the entry is deleted.
/p Specifies that the windows boot manager firmware entry
position should be preserved. If entry does not exist,
new entry will be added in the first position.
/c Specifies that any existing objects described by the template
should not be migrated.
Examples: bcdboot c:\windows /l en-us
bcdboot c:\windows /s h:
bcdboot c:\windows /s h: /f UEFI
bcdboot c:\windows /m {d58d10c6-df53-11dc-878f-00064f4f4e08}
bcdboot c:\windows /d /addlast
bcdboot c:\windows /p
This work with any edition of Windows 10, Home, Pro, etc. The edition you get is determined by the index number you use in the dism /apply-image command:
Code:
F:\sources>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:install.wim
Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.19041.1
Details for image : install.wim
Index : 1
Name : Windows 10 Home
Description : Windows 10 Home
Size : 14,212,376,596 bytes
Index : 2
Name : Windows 10 Home N
Description : Windows 10 Home N
Size : 13,441,677,475 bytes
Index : 3
Name : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Description : Windows 10 Home Single Language
Size : 14,211,972,277 bytes
Index : 4
Name : Windows 10 Education
Description : Windows 10 Education
Size : 14,450,251,000 bytes
Index : 5
Name : Windows 10 Education N
Description : Windows 10 Education N
Size : 13,693,633,242 bytes
Index : 6
Name : Windows 10 Pro
Description : Windows 10 Pro
Size : 14,450,428,963 bytes
Index : 7
Name : Windows 10 Pro N
Description : Windows 10 Pro N
Size : 13,691,468,430 bytes
Index : 8
Name : Windows 10 Pro Education
Description : Windows 10 Pro Education
Size : 14,450,189,418 bytes
Index : 9
Name : Windows 10 Pro Education N
Description : Windows 10 Pro Education N
Size : 13,693,570,760 bytes
Index : 10
Name : Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Description : Windows 10 Pro for Workstations
Size : 14,450,220,209 bytes
Index : 11
Name : Windows 10 Pro N for Workstations
Description : Windows 10 Pro N for Workstations
Size : 13,693,602,001 bytes
The operation completed successfully.
When you boot a computer from the external drive, so long as that computer has had that same edition of Windows 10 activated on it before and has a digital license, the Windows on the external will activate, if it is connected to the internet.
This way you don't need any external programs to create the drive.
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