Download the latest Windows ISO: How to Create a USB Drive for Windows 11 Installation

Windows 11 will start rolling out to eligible devices today, but not everyone understands right away. The free update brings many new features, complete with a new start menu, widgets and a redesigned interface. Even the Microsoft Store gets a major update (although don’t expect to see) android apps immediately). Follow the instructions in this post to install the Windows 11 ISO.

Launches will undoubtedly encounter issues and bugs. Sometimes these issues can force you to reinstall Windows 11. An easy way to do that is to use a USB installation drive that contains a copy of Windows 11. With the update safely stored on a flash drive, you can reinstall it at any time should the problems get so bad that your only option is to reinstall the update.

You can also use a USB drive to make installing Windows 11 on multiple computers easier, or quickly set up a virtual machine to enable testing without compromising your personal information.

Microsoft has its Media creation tool to include Windows 11. You can download the ISO image directly from the source and flash it to a USB drive yourself.

To create a Windows 11 installation disc, you’ll need a blank 8GB USB drive, a Windows PC, and at most a few hours of your time. You can download the system image using a Linux computer or Mac, but we’re going to focus on using a PC in this guide. Below are the steps to follow.

Get the latest Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft

To download the Windows 11 ISO image, you need to create a bootable USB drive. First visit the Download Windows 11 page. You see a few other options for installation, but you are looking for Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO).

Scroll down the page until you see a dropdown labeled Select Download. Click the drop-down list and then select Windows 11 and then click To download. You will then be asked to select a language and then click Confirm again, followed by clicking the 64-bit download to finally start downloading the ISO. It’s quite a large 5.1 GB file, so depending on your internet connection, it may take a while to complete the download.

Once the download is complete, your work isn’t quite done. You need to burn that ISO image to a USB drive. And for that you need some extra software. Don’t worry though, it’s a simple process.

How to flash Windows 11 to your USB drive

To turn a standard USB drive into an installation drive, you need to use a program called Rufus. It’s the same app as Microsoft itself used in his guide in front of create a bootable drive for Windows 10. Visit the company’s website to download and install Rufus, which should only take a few seconds. It’s a small program.

Plug in your USB drive and open Rufus. Select your USB drive using the Device drop. Remember that everything on your USB stick will be erased during this process — so make sure it’s empty and/or you have everything you need.

below Boot Selection select Disc or ISO image and then click on the text that reads CHOOSE and choose the ISO file you created in the previous step.

There is a section in Rufus labeled Image option with different settings — leave everything as default. The same can be said for format options, unless you want to rename the USB drive to something like “Windows 11 install” or something like that.

Click Get started when you are done, all options are set. You’ll again have to wait while the program does its job, but it should be a much faster process than downloading and creating the ISO. It took just over 15 minutes on a Surface Pro X for me.

What to do with a Windows 11 installation disc?

Once Rufus is done, you can remove the USB drive from your PC and keep it in a safe place in case you need to reinstall Windows 11 on your PC, or you can plug it into another PC and use it to run Windows 11 to install by opening the drive and double-clicking the setup.exe File. A few seconds later, a Windows 11 installation screen will appear and guide you through the rest of the process.

Alternatively, you can try using the USB drive as a bootable installation disc. However, this is where it gets even more complicated because Windows 11 requires Secure Boot and the USB drive we just created isn’t compatible with that feature. I suggest waiting for Microsoft to release an official tool, but if you insist, I’ve found a guide that walks you through the extra steps of creating a bootable USB drive compatible with secure boot on Tom’s hardware starting at step 11.

Curious about all the fuss about Windows 11? We are behind you. There is a big interface redesign makes its debut that includes a centered Start menu, but don’t worry, you can move it back to the left corner if you want. And finally, if you’ve ever had a desire to run Android apps on your PC, well, Microsoft makes that possible.