Ivan,

I am NOT saying this did not happen but I have been using this program for a couple of years and am here to pickup a copy (it will be installed on a bootable USB for my daughter who is taking computer forensic classes and needs test environments for her classes) and have not encountered the error you mention.

PeterD,
I too have noticed the performance issue and my best results have been using an SSD which has a USB-C connection. The reason I like this package is it allows me to quickly create test environments for particular scenarios with the luxury of being able to install just the apps you need for a particular task. I am not sure what all the legalities are but I have a couple of "spare" Windows licenses purchased from reputable online sellers to make sure that if Microsoft shows up at my door they cannot give me too much grief. If you are doing long term testing of a scenario you might want to "tweak" the registry because Microsoft sets some flags that can create some issues when Windows updates come out.

The Old Buzzard,
Re legalities, I'm not too worried about MS turning up at my door - they'd have to plow the street first! Re tweaks, feel free to share them with others to help avoid that unstated scenario. :-)

I too would like to know

Dattatraya Vaidya,

I am not sure but expect that it would. If you intend have an environment for that long you might want to get another Windows license because it is my belief that is required by Microsoft.

I have been using this program for a couple of years and am here to pickup another key for my daughter who is going back to school in computer forensics and will need test environments for some of her assignments.

Dattatraya Vaidya, I could not find a way to register. The top of this page mentions how to register, but has no reference to this. Anyway. After a couple of hours, it does not make any difference.

Antz, how would this work on an external SSD connected say via USB2 ?

"running off a USB drive is really slow."

A Win2Go drive using an SSD in a USB connected external housing runs almost as well as Windows on an internal drive. You can usually pick up a ~120GB SSD for ~$20, though Netac has been selling them for $14 on eBay. The enclosures to put the SSD in start at $7 at Newegg.

"But booting from USB should never be considered a legitimate way to run windows on a daily basis."

The original Win 2 Go idea, AFAIK, was to set up a copy of Win10 as you wanted/needed, and have that available using any PC/laptop. Running off an SSD the 2 main problems are 1) it can be a hassle to boot from USB, and 2) software Win10 auto-installs when it's used on some hardware can be incompatible with any other brand. If you can live with those, e.g. I can use a hot key during post to bring up a boot drive menu, a Win2Go drive uses the exact same Win10 you'd install normally, so no reason it needs to be limited to emergency situations.

"Once Windows is set up and running and can see the internet, Windows Updates work as they normally do."

The exception is that Windows installed to a USB drive or VHD [internal or external] cannot / will not handle a version upgrade that requires a reinstall. It's been a while but Win10 used to get those fairly regularly -- it's anyone's guess whether that'll happen in the future because Win11.

Haris, Have you tried "sharing' your internal HD? If it were available (password protected access of course) over the network, it might be available to the external boot system.

WIn10 was the 1st Windows version that supported installation to or on an external drive. On startup Win10 can detect what if any drivers are needed, and install those, so different hardware is usually not a problem, and it can handle the vagaries of running on a USB drive, which doesn't have a fixed drive number or letter. XP, Win7, & Win8 have to be modified to try and do the same thing, and that doesn't always as well.

"is it possible to use it from any computer or you have to use the computer you used for creating the USB version?"

From one of my other posts: The original Win 2 Go idea, AFAIK, was to set up a copy of Win10 as you wanted/needed, and have that available using any PC/laptop. Running off an SSD the 2 main problems are 1) it can be a hassle to boot from USB, and 2) software Win10 auto-installs when it's used on some hardware can be incompatible with any other brand.

"I'm also wondering if Windows Update works on it?"

Yes. The exception is that Windows installed to a USB drive or VHD [internal or external] cannot / will not handle a version upgrade that requires a reinstall. It's been a while but Win10 used to get those fairly regularly -- it's anyone's guess whether that'll happen in the future because Win11.

" How big (in bytes) does the USB drive need to be to create Win10 Home or Office on it? "

In a way that question is moot, since to have anywhere near acceptable performance you need to run Win2Go from an SSD, & those commonly start at 120GB. That said, a basic Win10 install, with Very minimal software, needs 32GB. If you're talking about putting existing copies of WIn10 on a USB drive, right click the drive letter for the Windows partition in Explorer, select properties, and note the GB of used space. Add at least 10-20GB to that.

"How do I force a PC to look for Windows on a USB drive?"

Depends on the PC/laptop/tablet... Check the docs that came with the device or Google for the manual. If you're lucky there's a hot key you can press while the device is starting from a powered off state that will bring up a menu of which drive to boot from. Otherwise you'll have to change the drive order that the BIOS uses when it's looking for boot files. You can often get into the BIOS setup by pressing the Delete or F2 keys repeatedly and immediately after turning the device on. IF that doesn't work you can get there using the Win10 troubleshooting boot menu -- you can get to that from Win10... you can also try right clicking the log in or lock screen's power button icon while holding down the Shift key.

Big Disappointment, try another USB stick/drive. Compatibility for booting etc. varies by brand model

Big Disappointment, If you go on their website they have lots of very good information on how to use their program. Check it out.

"Seems this would be a program that would be quite unlikely to work well, legally. I'd be glad to be wrong."

Well at least for Win10, be glad. :)

While there have been many projects to get Windows XP - 8 running off a USB drive, Microsoft themselves came up with the Windows to go drive with Win10. There's actually no modifications necessary. Windows setup routine will not let you select a USB drive as the installation target, so a Microsoft tool called DISM [it's included in your copy of Win10] is used to copy the needed files from the .wim or .esd image file included with the setup files to a MBR drive with a FAT32 partition where the boot files are added. In fact you don't need a 3rd party tool -- they just make it easier.

ngly, that's the idea.

" it wants ME to design a boot partition and operating system partition and find WIM files - why can't the software do all that?"

Win10's setup files, usually as an ISO, contain either a .wim or .esd file -- that's the image, sort of like a Zipped file, that holds all the files Win10 needs. While there are a few tools you can use, AFAIK all of them need you to browse to where that image file is located, e.g. to the proper folder on a mounted ISO. Most also have you select the type of boot files, since there is unfortunately not one solution that always works... Some devices use Legacy BIOS, while most current devices use UEFI. Usually the best solution is to have both on the drive, but that drives some devices bonkers -- they will only work with one of those 2 choices. You can Google on how to tell what your devices use, or just try it one way & if that doesn't work, try it another way.

In response to [ mike ],

Thanks.

Yeah, hence my surprise at "Easy" in the name of the website "EasyEUFI" - no, this software does not make anything "easy".

Also, I never use Windows 10 and would not want a portable version.

I tried this in a Windows 7 computer and every option was blank, it would do nothing.

I wonder if HasLeo/EasyEUFI just presume it's not for everyone and so they do not care to join us at GOTD to engage in any discussion.

I'm a 50+ year professional tech, and I can't make HasLeo/EasyEUFI software do anything, so who are they targeting?

Thanks for suggesting that there's a lot to do outside this software to make this software's job "easy" ... because the software can't do it all by itself from a running Windows computer.

Hello, HasLeo/EasyEUFI, are you there?!?
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