[SOLVED] How to install Windows on a new device without an optical drive?

Sep 16, 2019
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I looked around on the internet and wasn't sure how confident I felt about the answers. How do you install Windows without an optical drive? Or should I just get an optical drive for sole purpose of installing Windows since they're cheap?
 
Solution
You definitely need a functioning PC if the one you're going to install on is "a clean slate" and never had any OS on it.

My personal preference is actually to use the Media Creation Tool's option to create media for another computer and, further, to download the ISO file itself. Then I use Rufus or another utility to create the bootable USB media. The reason this is my preference is I have had occasions both when using the Update Assistant (which is not applicable in this case) or the Media Creation Tool to directly create the USB where the full ISO download was clearly successful but something went wrong afterward. When that has occurred I have never been able to find the ISO, which is what takes forever to download if you don't...

britechguy

Commendable
Jul 2, 2019
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You definitely need a functioning PC if the one you're going to install on is "a clean slate" and never had any OS on it.

My personal preference is actually to use the Media Creation Tool's option to create media for another computer and, further, to download the ISO file itself. Then I use Rufus or another utility to create the bootable USB media. The reason this is my preference is I have had occasions both when using the Update Assistant (which is not applicable in this case) or the Media Creation Tool to directly create the USB where the full ISO download was clearly successful but something went wrong afterward. When that has occurred I have never been able to find the ISO, which is what takes forever to download if you don't have a very high speed internet connection, and then the whole process has to start from scratch again. At least when you choose to download the ISO you know, if it succeeds, that "the whole enchilada" is already there and you have the added bonus of having it around if a repair install were to be necessary or to use to install on as many other machines as you might need to.
 
Solution
Sep 16, 2019
119
8
85
You definitely need a functioning PC if the one you're going to install on is "a clean slate" and never had any OS on it.

My personal preference is actually to use the Media Creation Tool's option to create media for another computer and, further, to download the ISO file itself. Then I use Rufus or another utility to create the bootable USB media. The reason this is my preference is I have had occasions both when using the Update Assistant (which is not applicable in this case) or the Media Creation Tool to directly create the USB where the full ISO download was clearly successful but something went wrong afterward. When that has occurred I have never been able to find the ISO, which is what takes forever to download if you don't have a very high speed internet connection, and then the whole process has to start from scratch again. At least when you choose to download the ISO you know, if it succeeds, that "the whole enchilada" is already there and you have the added bonus of having it around if a repair install were to be necessary or to use to install on as many other machines as you might need to.
Bit late but that's exactly what I did with the same answer coming from another user on a different thread. I really appreciate your help and the help of everyone else.