Install Windows 8.1 From Iso File

[Placido Teofilo]

Thistopic covers how to manually create a Windows installation flash drive from Windows installation ISO disc image file or DVD, and is intended for manufacturers looking into creating media that they can use to manufacture Windows devices.

The steps described on this page assume you have Windows installation media and access to a Windows technician PC. If you're looking for an easy, automated way to create a bootable Windows installation flash drive, see:

After re-reading, it looks like you already have an ISO on the thumb drive. VMware can't use your physical flash drive to boot, so just copy the ISO file on to your local hard drive and install it from there.

Make an ISO of the installer and copy the ISO to the host computer's hard drive, then in the properties for the VM after you've created it or (IIRC) when first setting up the VM, you can tell VMWare to use an ISO image file as the CD/DVD, browse to wherever you've stored the ISO and go.

If you are installing Windows 10 on a PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista, or if you need to create installation media to install Windows 10 on a different PC, see Using the tool to create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) to install Windows 10 on a different PC section below.

Note: Before you install Windows 10, check to make sure your PC meets the system requirements for Windows 10. We also recommend going to the PC manufacturer's website for any additional info about updated drivers and hardware compatibility.

After downloading and installing, the tool will walk you through how to set up Windows 10 on your PC. All Windows 10 editions are available when you select Windows 10,except for Enterprise edition. For more information on Enterprise edition,go to the Volume Licensing Service Center.

If you have Office 2010 or earlier and choose to perform a clean install of Windows 10, you will need to locate your Office product key. For tips on locating your product key, check Find your Office 2010 product key or Enter the product key for your Office 2007 program.

If your PC does not automatically boot to the USB or DVD media, you might have to open a boot menu or change the boot order in your PC's BIOS or UEFI settings. To open a boot menu or change the boot order, you'll typically need to press a key (such as F2, F12, Delete, or Esc) immediately after you turn on your PC. For instructions on accessing the boot menu or changing the boot order for your PC, check the documentation that came with your PC or go to the manufacturer's website. If you do not see the USB or DVD media device listed within the boot options, you may need to reach out to the PC manufacturer for instructions for temporarily disabling Secure Boot in your BIOS settings.

If changing the boot menu or order doesn't work, and your PC immediately boots into the OS you want to replace, it is possible the PC had not fully shut down. To ensure the PC fully shuts down, select the power button on the sign-in screen or on the Start menu and select Shut down.

If you downloaded an ISO file for Windows 10, the file is saved locally at the location you selected. If you have a third-party DVD burning program installed on your computer that you prefer to use for creating the installation DVD, that program might open by going to the location where the file is saved and double-clicking the ISO file, or right-click the ISO file, select Open with and choose your preferred DVD burning software.

If you want to use the Windows Disk Image Burner to create an installation DVD, go to the location where the ISO file is saved. Right-click the ISO file and select Properties. On the General tab, click Change and select Windows Explorer for the program you would like to use to open ISO files and select Apply. Then right-click the ISO file and select Burn disc image.

If you want to install Windows 10 directly from the ISO file without using a DVD or flash drive, you can do so by mounting the ISO file. This will perform an upgrade of your current operating system to Windows 10.

Note: The following method for reinstalling Windows is exclusively applicable to devices with x86/x64 architecture. For devices with ARM architecture (such as the Qualcomm CPU platform), you can refer to this article for operating system reinstallation: Cloud Recovery within MyASUS in WinRE - Introduction.

If your device encounters serious issues (such as being unable to enter the operating system) and you have not previously created a recovery drive (learn more about How to create and use Windows recovery drive), you can try using installation media to reinstall the Windows operating system. To use installation media for reinstalling Windows, you will need another device that can connect to the internet (if your device is unable to enter the operating system) and an empty USB flash drive (at least 8GB of space) to create the installation media for Windows.

Note: Reinstalling Windows using Microsoft's installation media will not retain personal files or ASUS bundled applications. Some programs may not be available for download from the ASUS website. If needed, please contact the ASUS service center for assistance. Learn more about How to search for and download utilities.

I'm not looking for an emulator. I would like to install Windows from within Ubuntu so that I can boot into Windows when I restart my computer. I would install Windows normally but my USB ports are shot and I don't have any optical drives. I'd appreciate any help.

If you install Windows, after installing Linux, the windows installation will wipe out your MBR (Master boot record). I think which ever way of install windows (after installing linux) by using a CD, USB, or PXE boot, you wont be able to restore your MBR... Which mean you will not get a ubuntu boot menu (grub or grub2 depends on your version of ubuntu), to select the OS you wish to boot into.

Now you will have to use ubuntu live cd, or some other live linux cd to boot into linux and restore grub.

But since you donot have USB or CD support. I think the only way is, if you motherboard supports PXE boot. So back to your question, to install windows without USB or CD room, follow link A, link B, link C. Then boot into linux using PXE boot again, restore grub. All the best, it looks too much of tricky work to me.

The crazy vmware idea should be doable using raw hard disk access. I did the opposite thing (installing Ubuntu on HDD partition while running Windows using Virtualbox). It was crazy, highly dangerous, yet worked. Even to the point of installing grub on the linux

Also another option would be find a way to insert an ISO boot menu into GRUB. I've been looking around for this but it seems that BURG has that option. So, you can boot into the Windows ISO file, and install Windows from there. (Again this is untested, but it is a possibility)

Here's a long shot possibility. Use a virtualization method that claims to be able to go from vm to physical. I think vmware offers a paid version of their software that will do this. The rest is obvious. Install windows, copy to real partition using vmware.

What will not work is using any ole vm software (like VirtualBox) and just copying the files over. For starters, I think ntldr will be broken. Secondly, a lot of the drivers will be specific to the vm, and will break once exposed to your hardware.

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk again and again, you just need to copy the iso file to the USB drive and boot it.

The windows ISO does not seem to be a hybrid so you have to set the bios to boot in the appropriate mode (uefi or legacy) to boot correctly for the install. Windows requires a GPT partitioned disk for uefi boot and an msdos partitioned disk for legacy (MBR) boot.

The usb device must not have any mounted partitions when written to. I have had failures in writing at times when I failed to dismount the auto-mounted partitions from the usb before using dd to write to it.

EDIT to add Ventoy and suggest that as well as the prepared Windows iso you can add the a recent copy of Linux as that should work such as and there is no need to install to the SSD as it will work from the USB stick.

We use Surface 4 laptops and have for the last year. We image them all the time and installing regular enterprise winders works, but you gotta do a bunch of updates shortly thereafter. We eventually reimaged after the updates were done.

Download the Boot Camp drivers to a pen-drive, format the device using the Windows installer before installing. Run the bootcamp.exe once Windows is up and you'll have all the drivers you'll ever need. Make sure you get the right drivers for your device.

3a8082e126