Usually, when you have to install a clean copy of Windows 10, you'll need a USB bootable media to start your device and continue with the setup wizard. However, if you're using a computer with a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), instead of the legacy Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), you have to make sure that the media will work with your firmware type.
Method #1 - Create UEFI Bootable USB Drive in Windows 10 Using Windows USB Tool. Microsoft supplies its own official tool to create bootable Windows 10 USB drive. Though you will not see any UEFI options, if you are on a UEFI supported system the tool will create UEFI bootable USB drive.
Watch how to create a bootable flash drive to install Windows 10, 8 or 7. This procedure is necessary when your PC, laptop or netbook lacks a DVD drive or it doesn’t work properly, if you have.
If you're using a newer firmware type, there are multiple methods that you can use to create a media to install Windows 10 from USB. Although it's not advertised, you can use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to download the installation files onto a removable drive with support for both, UEFI and legacy BIOS. Alternatively, you can also use Rufus, which is a third-party tool that makes it easy to create an installation boot media with support for UEFI.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to create a USB flash drive that includes UEFI support using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool and Rufus.
How to create a Windows 10 UEFI boot media using Media Creation Tool
This option will use the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft to download an ISO file and create a bootable USB flash drive that is 32-bit, 64-bit, or both, and be used to install Windows 10 with or without UEFI. 6 Uncheck the Use the recommended options for this PC box. (see screenshot below) Leaving. If you choose to download an ISO file so you can create a bootable file from a DVD or USB drive, copy the Windows ISO file onto your drive and then run the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool. Then simply install Windows onto your computer directly from your USB or DVD drive.
If you have a system using UEFI, you can use the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable USB media to perform an in-place upgrade or clean installation of Windows 10.
To create a bootable media, connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of space, and then use these steps:
Open Windows 10 download page.
Under the 'Create Windows 10 installation media' section, click the Download tool now button to save the file on your device.
Double-click the MediaCreationToolxxxx.exe file to launch the tool.
Click the Accept button to agree to the Microsoft terms.
Select the Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC option.
Click the Next button.
Clear the Use the recommended options for this PC option (if applicable).
Select the correct language, architecture, and edition of Windows 10.
Quick tip: If you'll be installing Windows 10 on multiple devices running 32-bit or 64-bit architecture, then use the 'Architecture' drop-down menu and select the Both option.
Click the Next button.
Select the USB flash drive option.
Click the Next button
Select the removable drive from the list. (If you don't see the drive, click the Refresh drive list option.)
Click the Next button.
Click the Finish button.
Once you complete the steps, the tool will download the required files and create a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows 10 installation files with support for UEFI and BIOS.
How to create a Windows 10 UEFI boot media using Rufus tool
If the Media Creation Tool isn't working, you can use Rufus to create an installation media with UEFI support using an existing ISO file. Or you can also use the tool to download the Windows 10 files and create the bootable flash media.
Creating boot media with Windows 10 ISO
To create a bootable media using a Windows 10 ISO file that you already have, connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of space, and use these steps:
Open Rufus download page.
Under the 'Download' section, click the latest release of the tool to save the file on your device.
Double-click the Rufus-x.x.exe file to launch the tool.
Under the 'Device' section, select the USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space.
Under the 'Boot selection' section, click the Select button on the right.
Select the Windows 10 ISO file from its folder location.
Click the Open button.
Use the 'Image option' drop-down menu to select the Standard Windows installation option.
Use the 'Partition scheme' drop-down menu to select the GPT option.
Use the 'Target system' drop-down menu to select the UEFI (non CSM) option.
Under the 'Show Advanced drive properties' section, leave the default settings.
Under the 'Volume label' field, enter a descriptive name for the drive — for example, 'win10_1903_usb.'
Under the 'File system' and 'Cluster size' section, leave the default settings.
Click the Show advanced format options button.
Select the 'Quick format' and 'Create extended label and icon files' options.
Click the Start button.
Click the OK button to confirm.
Click the Close button.
After you complete the steps, Rufus will create a bootable USB flash drive to install Windows 10 with the image that you provided.
Creating boot media downloading Windows 10 ISO
If you don't have a Windows 10 ISO file, you can use Rufus to download the ISO and create the bootable USB flash media. Connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of space, and use these steps:
Open Rufus download page.
Under the 'Download' section, click the latest release of the tool to save the file on your device.
Double-click the Rufus-x.x.exe file to launch the tool.
Under the 'Device' section, select the USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space.
Under the 'Boot selection' section, click the arrow button next to the 'Select' option on the right and choose the Download option.
Click the Download button.
Use the 'Version' drop-down menu and select Windows 10.
Click the Continue button.
Select the 19H1 (Build 18362.30 - 2019.05) option to download the Windows 10 May 2019 Update.
Click the Continue button.
Use the 'Edition' drop-down menu and select the Windows 10 Home/Pro option.
Click the Continue button.
Use the 'Language' drop-down menu and select your installation language.
Click the Continue button.
Use the 'Architecture' drop-down menu and select the 32-bit or 64-bit (recommended).
Click the Download button.
Select a folder location to temporarily download the ISO file from the Microsoft servers.
Click the Save button.
Use the 'Image option' drop-down menu to select the Standard Windows installation option.
Use the 'Partition scheme' drop-down menu to select the GPT option.
Use the 'Target system' drop-down menu to select the UEFI (non CSM) option.
Under the 'Show Advanced drive properties' section, leave the default settings.
Under the 'Volume label' field, enter a descriptive name for the drive — for example, 'win10_1903_usb.'
Under the 'File system' and 'Cluster size' section, leave the default settings.
Click the Show advanced format options button.
Select the 'Quick format' and 'Create extended label and icon files' options.
Click the Start button.
Click the OK button to confirm.
Click the Close button.
Once you complete the steps, the tool will run the script to download the Windows 10 ISO file, and then, it'll use that file to create a bootable media, which you can then use to install Windows 10 on devices using UEFI.
Now that you have a USB bootable media with support for UEFI, you can start your computer to perform an in-place upgrade or clean installation of Windows 10.
More Windows 10 resources
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
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Preparing a bootable USB of Windows 10 is as simple as making a bootable USB of Windows 8 or Windows 7. In fact, all the methods and tools out there to create Windows 7 bootable USB work great with Windows 10 as well.
To prepare the bootable UEFI USB drive of Windows 10, we recommend using a free tool called Rufus over the Microsoft USB/DVD Download Tool as Rufus is more reliable and offers more features when compared to other tools in the market.
But since there are many users who might want to use the official Windows USB/DVD Download Tool, we will be using the tool to prepare the bootable USB of Windows 10. And we will use the free Rufus tool to prepare bootable UEFI Windows 10 USB drive (method 1).
Method 1 of 2
Bootable UEFI USB of Windows 10 using Rufus
UPDATE on April 2nd, 2019: Rufus now supports downloading Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft. Refer to our how to download Windows 10 ISO using Rufus guide for directions.
Step 1: Visit this page and download the latest version of Rufus. Rufus is a portable utility and hence doesn’t require an installation.
Step 2: Connect your 8GB+ USB drive to your PC. Be sure to backup all data from your USB drive.
Step 3: Run the Rufus utility. Click the Yes button when you see the UAC prompt to launch the tool.
Step 4: Under the Device section, select the USB drive that you want to make bootable, select MBR partition scheme for BIOS or UEFI computers, or GPT partition scheme for UEFI computer depending the type of partition type on your PC.
Step 5: Next, select the File system as FAT32 (default) as it supports both BIOS and UEFI. But if you’re sure that your PC doesn’t support UEFI, you can choose NTFS for a faster installation.
Step 6: Enter a volume label, click on the CD/DVD drive icon to browse to the Windows 10 ISO image file. Select the file. To download the latest ISO, please go through download Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft guide.
Step 7: Finally, click the Start button, click the OK button when you see the warning dialog to continue its job.
Once Rufus completes its job, you’ll see the “Done” message. That’s it!
You can now open UEFI settings and make necessary changes to boot from USB drive.
Method 2 of 2
Windows 10 bootable USB using USB/DVD Download Tool
IMP: If you get “The selected file is not a valid ISO file” error, please follow the instructions mentioned in our how to fix the selected file is not a valid ISO file error guide.
WARNING: Before using this tool, please make sure that your PC doesn’t support UEFI as Windows USB/DVD Download Tool doesn’t help you prepare the bootable USB for UEFI PCs. To create a bootable USB of Windows 10 for UEFI supported PCs, please follow the instructions in Method 1.
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Step 1: Click on this official link to download Windows USB/DVD Download Tool directly from Microsoft servers.
Step 2: Connect a USB flash or hard drive with 4GB+ capacity and backup data before continuing further. Please be sure to back up all data from your USB drive as the drive will be formatted in the coming steps.
Windows 10 Installation Usb Download
Step 3: Run the downloaded USB/DVD Download Tool setup file and then follow the easy on-screen instructions to get it installed on your PC running Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1.
Step 4: Launch Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, click the Browse button to browse to the folder where Windows 10 ISO image file is located. After selecting the ISO image, click the Next button.
Step 5: In the following screen, you need to select the USB device as your media type. To do so, click on the USB device button. And if you want to prepare the bootable DVD, please click DVD instead.
Create Windows 10 Usb Installer From Iso
Step 6: Next, you’ll be asked to select your USB drive. Please carefully select your USB drive from the drop-down list before clicking the Begin Copying button. Again, it’s important to note that a wrong selection of drive will cause data loss.
The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool starts copying all the contents of the ISO image to the USB drive and will make it bootable in a couple of minutes.
Once done, you can connect bootable USB to the PC on which you want to install Windows 10, change BIOS settings to boot from USB, and start installing Windows 10.