You’ve got your collection of Windows ISOs and maybe you’ve burned installation DVDs
or flash drives for them. But why not make yourself a master
installation drive that you can use to install any version of Windows?
Setting up a bootable USB Drive that includes multiple ISOs is
actually pretty easy, We’re going to do it using a clever little free
tool named WinSetupFromUSB,
so go ahead and download the latest version of that. You can even
include some non-windows ISOs on the disk, like Linux distributions and
antivirus rescue disks. For a complete list of what you can include on
your USB drive, check out their supported sources
page. There is one important note from that page worth calling out. The
tool works with single Windows ISOs from Microsoft. If you have a dual
ISO that includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, you
won’t be able to use it. But you can always download single ISOs (one for 32-bit and one for 64-bit) and stick them both on the USB if you need to.
Next, make sure you have blank USB drive big enough to hold all the
ISOs you want to install, along with a little extra space. A 16 GB drive
should give you enough space for two or three versions of Windows. If
you have a 32 GB drive, you should be able to fit all the versions of
Windows you could want. If you want to include other ISOs as well, you
might need a bigger drive.
WinSetupFromUSB is a portable tool, so there’s no installation. Once
you have it downloaded, double-click the archive to extract the files a
new folder. If you’re running a 64-bit version of Windows, run the
executable with “x64” in the name. If you’re running a 32-bit version of
Windows, run the file without the “x64” in the name.
If you already had your USB drive inserted when you launched the
tool, it should be listed in the box at the top of the window. If you
didn’t have it inserted already, go ahead and plug it in now and then
click Refresh.
Next, click the “Advanced Options” check box.
Instead of working like a regular check box, clicking it opens an
“Advanced Options” dialog box. In the Advanced Options dialog, select
the “Custom menu names for Vista/7/8/10/Server Source” check box. This
setting allows you to provide your own names for the folders in which
the Windows ISOs are stored and the boot menu names you see when you
start a computer using the USB drive. You can close the “Advanced
options” dialog when you’re done.
Now comes the somewhat tricky part. You’ll be adding Windows versions
one at a time. The first time you add something to the USB drive (and
only the first time), you’ll want to make sure that the “Auto format it
with FBinst” check box is selected. This lets WinSetupFromUSB format the
drive appropriately for booting. If you know you’ll be booting a
computer in UEFI mode (or if you’re unsure), then select the “FAT32”
option. Otherwise, you can use the “NTFS” option.
Next, select your first Windows ISO. Select the check box next to the
“Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 /Server 2008/2012 based ISO” section and
then click the browse button (“…”) to its right. Locate and open the ISO
you want to add.
If it’s a large ISO and you’re using the FAT32 file system, you may
get a notification that the file is too large and will be split in two.
That’s fine, so go ahead and click OK.
Double-check that you have the correct USB drive selected at the top
of the window and that the right ISO is shown in the box. Then, click
“GO.”
If you’re using a large USB drive, you may get a warning asking if
you’re sure that’s the drive you want to use. Go ahead and click “Yes.”
If the auto format option is enabled (and it should be for the first
ISO you add to a disk), you’ll also get a warning letting you know that
the drive will be formatted and anything on it will be erased. Click
“Yes” to continue.
WinSetupFromUSB will now format the drive and then pop up a window
where you can enter a custom folder name for the ISO that’s between 1
and 7 characters. If you don’t type anything for 30 seconds, the default
will be used automatically.
A similar window will now open that lets you type a custom name that
should appear in the boot menu. This time, the name can be between 5 and
35 characters, so you have a bit more room to be specific. And again,
you have 30 seconds to type a new name before the default is used
automatically.
At this point, WinSetupFromUSB will begin creating folders, adding
the ISO to your USB drive, and adding the options to the boot menu. This
can take several minutes and you can gauge the progress in the window’s
status bar.
When WinSetupFromUSB is done, you’ll get a simple “Job done” confirmation window. Click “OK.”
WinSetupFromUSB now returns you to the main window. You can exit the
program or you can continue adding additional ISOs to your boot disk.
You’ll add additional ISOs using the same process, but there are a
couple of things to keep in mind as you do it:
- When you add additional ISOs to an existing boot disk, make sure the “Auto format it with FBinst” check box is not selected. It won’t be by default when you return to the window (or when you start the program again), but it doesn’t hurt to make sure. You only want to format the disk with the very first ISO you add.
- You’ll need to click “Advanced Options” and enable the “Custom menu names for Vista/7/8/10/Server Source” check box each time you add a new ISO. Make sure you don’t forget this step before clicking Go or you won’t be able to add a custom name for the ISO to your menu.
But that’s it. Otherwise, just follow the same steps each time you
want to add a new ISO to the boot disk. You don’t have to add them all
in one session either. You can come back any time and add something new.
When you’re done, you can boot up a computer using your USB drive
(which you may be able to do even if your BIOS won’t let you) and be rewarded with a nice boot menu like this:
While it doesn’t sport the most intuitive interface, WinSetupFromUSB
is lightweight and works well. And once you get the hang of adding ISOs
to the package, it’s a breeze to set yourself up with a powerful boot
disk that will let you install whatever version of Windows you want, as
well as a number of other bootable tools.
Credit: Walter Glenn
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