Question Basic OS Questions

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I may want to buy a license for Windows 11 and install it on my computer, but I would like to test it first before I give the money.

I would like to install windows 11 on a USB flash drive and then boot it from the USB flash drive, without having to install it on my computer. Is this possible?

I will remove the SSD, then I will plug the USB, then will turn the computer on and press F-12 to open the BOOT menu, and then choose the USB.

Is this possible? I heard that I can do it with Windows To Go, but I see this software is no longer supported and available.

So, is there a way to test windows 11 without having to install it on my computer?
 
Windows 7 is installed in the C:/ partition. If I copy the C partition and paste it into a USB flash drive, then connect the flash drive to another computer, turn the computer on, and press F12 to open the boot menu, will the USB flash drive be visible, and will it be possible to boot Windows 7 if I select the USB flash drive and press Enter?
 
You could do that but a usb flash would be extremely slow and provide a miserable experience with running windows.
This procedure here will work for an usb flash as well as long as you have made your flash primary and bootable(made an uefi boot partition) , but if you place the .vhd on your ssd you will have a much better experience.


Go to disk management and create a virtual hard disk (VHD) and mount it (menu -action create- and -action attach- ) ,60Gb is a good size if you can keep your drive relatively clean,
after installing drivers and some basic apps it will be around 30Gb used.

For a clean install you can use the command line from your current windows.

Double click on the windows 11 iso you downloaded from MS to mount it.

This following command takes the installation file from drive E: and installs it to drive G:
change those drive letters to whatever the drives you want to install from and to are currently lettered as.

dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile E:\Sources\install.esd /index:1 /ApplyDir:G:\

index:1 takes the first option, usually windows x64 home, if you want to install something else
(always only install the version you have the license for) you can use this command to see your options.

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile E:\Sources\install.esd

This will completely ignore any tpm or cpu compatibilities.

To make this bootable add it to the boot menu either with easybcd, or by using this command from recovery.

G:\Windows\System32\bcdboot G:\Windows

Again changing G: to whatever your win 11 drive is currently lettered as.

To see the drive letters enter diskpart by typing diskpart and hitting enter.

then -list volume- gives you a list of the volumes.

If you are heavy into gaming running windows from a virtual drive might impact loading in textures and the like but otherwise you should not notice any difference.
If everything works well you can clone the virtual disk to a real one, or do this process again on a real disk.
If you are unhappy with it you can just delete the .vhd and remove the boot menu entry.
 
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There are two problems to that idea you must know:
  • As stated above, no - just copying files won't make it bootable, you need spechial clone tools for that (and still won't work because W7 was never meant to operate from an usb stick).
  • Moving a windows installation to another computer may not work because of different hardware on same install.
 
Yes, but not really.
It is a pain to get WIn 11 (or any Windows OS) running on an external thing.

A better test would be installing it in a VirtualMachine. (VM).
VirtualBox is a good tool for this.

There really isn't a whole lot of difference between Win 10 and 11.
People panic too much.
 
TheFlash1300 said:
Windows 7 is installed in the C:/ partition. If I copy the C partition and paste it into a USB flash drive, then connect the flash drive to another computer, turn the computer on, and press F12 to open the boot menu, will the USB flash drive be visible, and will it be possible to boot Windows 7 if I select the USB flash drive and press Enter?
Click to expand...
Not even close.
 
It's important to think that any edition of Windows (at least those with Vista or newer, with the WIM method of deployment) has very specific partitions required to make it work. Even if you clone your entire C:\ drive, you'll be missing partitions such as the EFI and MSR partitions. Those kinds of partitions are critical to make Windows (any version) work. The files need to be laid out very specifically, so just copy-and-pasting them will not work, since the command just finds free space on that directory to put those copied files onto.

Also, like what Grobe said, Windows was never meant to be run off of USB. Even in modern editions, when you attempt to install to USB, it'll give you an error, telling you that

"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. Setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks connected through a USB or IEEE 1394 port."

if you want to do this, use an imaging program, and then burn the image with a dedicated program (like rufus, if you made a VHD). If the firmware type is different (BIOS to UEFI or UEFI to BIOS), then this will likely not work, since the partitions are likely laid out differently in that case.
 
Hello. I thought that when it comes to installing operating systems, the motherboard doesn't matter. It turned out it matters, and that for the OS to work, the OS must be compatible with the motherboard.

If I buy the latest motherboard, old operating systems like Windows 7, XP, Vista, 98, and 95 won't be able to run, because they won't be compatible with the latest motherboard.

So, what makes a motherboard compatible, is it the BIOS?

If I install the Legacy Mode on the newest motherboard, will the motherboard be able to run the old operating systems I mentioned above?

Can any motherboard run the old operating system, as long as the motherboard has the Legacy Mode?

In short, I would like to know how to run old operating systems on new hardware.
 
TheFlash1300 said:
Hello. I thought that when it comes to installing operating systems, the motherboard doesn't matter. It turned out it matters, and that for the OS to work, the OS must be compatible with the motherboard.

If I buy the latest motherboard, old operating systems like Windows 7, XP, Vista, 98, and 95 won't be able to run, because they won't be compatible with the latest motherboard.

So, what makes a motherboard compatible, is it the BIOS?

If I install the Legacy Mode on the newest motherboard, will the motherboard be able to run the old operating systems I mentioned above?

Can any motherboard run the old operating system, as long as the motherboard has the Legacy Mode?

In short, I would like to know how to run old operating systems on new hardware.
Click to expand...
There is much more to it than just BIOS. To even try to install any OS even just to boot from install disk/USB, particular OS has to recognize and have drivers built in for at least elementary parts like CPU, Chipset, GPU, RAM etc. Even seemingly simple parts like CPU are very complicated having dozens of parts and even more functions that have to be supported by OS.
Since older OSs were made long time before said hardware was even on drawing board they would have to be updated but by that time they lost support.
You didn't say which system you have now as it may or may not support W7 as oldest, or may be able to inject drivers into it's installation disk. Beyond W7 only if system is 20 years + old.
 
CountMike said:
There is much more to it than just BIOS. To even try to install any OS even just to boot from install disk/USB, particular OS has to recognize and have drivers built in for at least elementary parts like CPU, Chipset, GPU, RAM etc. Even seemingly simple parts like CPU are very complicated having dozens of parts and even more functions that have to be supported by OS.
Since older OSs were made long time before said hardware was even on drawing board they would have to be updated but by that time they lost support.
You didn't say which system you have now as it may or may not support W7 as oldest, or may be able to inject drivers into it's installation disk. Beyond W7 only if system is 20 years + old.
Click to expand...
So, the CPUs, the motherboard and the GPUs don't have to have installed drivers in them, but the OS has.

In this case, if you want to run an operating system that isn't supported by modern hardware, can't you just download the drivers for the modern hardware, replace the OS's drivers for the older hardware that supports the OS, and then the OS will be able to recognize the modern hardware as if it is built for modern hardware, and it will be able to recognize modern hardware just like it was able to recognize the older hardware the system was built for?
 
TheFlash1300 said:
In this case, if you want to run an operating system that isn't supported by modern hardware, can't you just download the drivers for the modern hardware, replace the OS's drivers for the older hardware that supports the OS, and then the OS will be able to recognize the modern hardware as if it is built for modern hardware, and it will be able to recognize modern hardware just like it was able to recognize the older hardware the system was built for?
Click to expand...
The OS may be lacking the instruction set to run the CPU and RAM.
It is more than just "drivers".
 
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TheFlash1300 said:
So, the CPUs, the motherboard and the GPUs don't have to have installed drivers in them, but the OS has.

In this case, if you want to run an operating system that isn't supported by modern hardware, can't you just download the drivers for the modern hardware, replace the OS's drivers for the older hardware that supports the OS, and then the OS will be able to recognize the modern hardware as if it is built for modern hardware, and it will be able to recognize modern hardware just like it was able to recognize the older hardware the system was built for?
Click to expand...
Yes, drivers are installed in OS, they are software. Drivers are made and released by particular HW manufacturers and eventually also to OS developer. If drivers do not exist there's nothing you can do about. For ones that do exist you have to "Inject" them in installation disk by special procedure. It all depends on how far back they make them for, usually only for 1 to 2 generations of particular OS. Further back might not even be possible. Starting at about time XP came out, parts manufacturers started to include firmware in their parts for for OS and rivers to recognize them easier, so called "Plug and Play(P&P)" but that didn't work all good until about 10 years ago, we used to call them "Plug and PRAY" lol.
 
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TheFlash1300 said:
So, the CPUs, the motherboard and the GPUs don't have to have installed drivers in them, but the OS has.

In this case, if you want to run an operating system that isn't supported by modern hardware, can't you just download the drivers for the modern hardware, replace the OS's drivers for the older hardware that supports the OS, and then the OS will be able to recognize the modern hardware as if it is built for modern hardware, and it will be able to recognize modern hardware just like it was able to recognize the older hardware the system was built for?
Click to expand...
Sure you can, if they exist, but no company has any incentive to make any driver for ancient OSes that aren't making them any money, so new drivers for old OSes are extremely rare, if there are any.
 
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Do you use Windows 7? If yes, what is your hardware you have Windows 7 installed on? And what is the latest/newest hardware that is 100% compatible with Windows 7?
 
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