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Microsoft introduced a feature called "Windows To Go" with Windows 8 Enterprise allowing to install Windows on a USB mass storage device similar to Linux Live distributions. The documentation supplied by Microsoft indicates that a volume licence is required and that a GUI tool exists to create the USB image.

On the web and here, users report that something equivalent can be achieved without an Enterprise volume license.

However this assumes that the user has install media or an iso-File, containing a file called install.wim. Preinstall OEM versions do not ship with media and neither the Windows partition nor the created recovery medium comes with a file install.wim.

How can you achieve "Windows To Go" with OEM versions?

Community
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Jan
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1 Answers1

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I have used non-Enterprise versions of Windows 8 several times to create a Windows on a stick. It works with Windows 8.1 in exactly the same way it did with Windows 8.

You activate Windows when you set it up the first time. If you later plug it into different physical hardware, you have to activate it again (which could become a problem if you use it a lot).

You could use versions of Windows that you don't have to activate, such as evaluation versions or Hyper-V Server.

So while it is technically possible, that doesn't mean the license allows you to do that. Often it says something like: 'you have the right to install this software on a single PC'

I can't say anything about the licencing aspect of this.

Peter Hahndorf
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