ISO to USBfor Windows

To make devices lighter, laptop manufacturers often leave out CD/DVD drives. This means that a different program must be used to install a program or boot up from a portable storage unit. ISO to USB enables you to use a USB as your installation drive for Windows operating systems.

What is ISO to USB? 

ISO to USB is a small, free program that helps make any USB drive bootable. It also provides an easy interface for placing a copy of the program onto the USB drive.

Are all USBs bootable?

No, they usually have the FAT32 file system. However, with ISO to USB, you can make any USB the boot drive when starting your PC.

Can I just copy Windows ISO to USB?

Not without reformatting the USB first. This is because the typical format of a USB drive is the FAT32 system,  which means you can’t store files larger than 4GB on them. For example, the ISO image of the Fall 2020 Windows update was around 4.4GB. Therefore, you need to use a program like ISO to USB to change the USB file system to the EXFAT or NTFS format.

How do I install Windows from an ISO file?

After you have used ISO to USB to format your USB drive, copy the Windows ISO file to your USB, then follow these steps to install Windows:

1. Insert the USB drive into your device
2. Boot up the device
3. In File Explorer, navigate to the root folder drive
4. Double-click on the setup.exe file to run it

Our take

We haven't seen any safety issues with ISO to USB, but there are alternatives to try including Microsoft’s Windows USB/DVD Download Tool and Rufus.

Should you download it?

Yes. The program is easy to use, even for inexperienced users.