How to create bootable MS windows USB under Linux

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a bootable Microsoft Windows USB. This will allow you to install Microsoft Windows on another computer. Two methods of bootable Windows USB creation will be shown, depending on if you want to create it via GUI or command line. You can be using any GNU/Linux distribution to follow along with us below.

In this tutorial you will learn:

• How to create bootable MS windows USB via command line
• How to create bootable MS windows USB via GUI

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions

Category	Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System	Any Linux distro
Software	WoeUSB, ddrescue
Other	Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions	# – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Create bootable MS windows USB step by step instructions

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How to create bootable MS windows USB from command line

One way to create a bootable MS windows USB stick is to use the ddrescue command. The advantage of this method is that it can be used on any existing GNU/Linux distribution and does not require GUI to be available as long as the ddrescue command is available.

1. The first step is to download Windows 10 or download Windows 11 ISO file from the Microsoft official website or another legal medium.
2. Insert your USB stick which will be used to create the bootable MS windows USB startup disk.
   WARNING – ALL DATA WILL BE IRREVERSIBLY DELETED
   Make sure to backup any data prior creating the bootable MS windows USB startup disk.
3. Install the ddrescue command:

   DEBIAN/UBUNTU:
   $ sudo apt install gddrescue 
   
   CENTOS/FEDORA:
   $ sudo dnf install ddrescue
   

4. Locate your USB stick block device name:

   $ sudo fdisk -l
   Disk /dev/sdX: 7.22 GiB, 7747397632 bytes, 15131636 sectors
   Disk model: DataTraveler 2.0
   Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
   Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
   Disklabel type: dos
   Disk identifier: 0x00000000
   

5. Use ddrescue to create the bootable MS windows USB startup disk. For example if your usb block device name is called /dev/sdX and the downloaded MS Windows ISO image is named windows10.iso then the command to create bootable MS Windows USB startup disk will be:

   $ sudo ddrescue windows10.iso /dev/sdX --force -D
   

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Once the bootable MS Windows USB startup disk creation process is completed, remove your USB stick. All done.

How to create bootable MS Windows USB using desktop GUI

The process for creating a bootable USB in GUI is going to vary depending on your Linux distro and the installed desktop environment. For the steps below, we are using Ubuntu Linux.

1. Get started by opening a command line terminal and entering the following commands to install the WoeUSB application.

   UBUNTU:
   $ sudo apt install git p7zip-full python3-pip python3-wxgtk4.0 grub2-common grub-pc-bin
   $ sudo pip3 install WoeUSB-ng
   
   FEDORA:
   $ sudo dnf install git p7zip p7zip-plugins python3-pip python3-wxpython4
   $ sudo pip3 install WoeUSB-ng
   

2. The next step is to download Windows 10 or download Windows 11 ISO file from the Microsoft official website or another legal medium.
3. Insert your USB stick which will be used to create the bootable MS windows USB startup disk.
   WARNING – ALL DATA WILL BE IRREVERSIBLY DELETED
   Make sure to backup any data prior creating the bootable MS windows USB startup disk.
4. Use the Activities menu to start the WoeUSB application.

   

5. Select the From disk image and point it to your Windows ISO, then select the appropriate Target device. Once ready hit the Install button.

   

Once the bootable MS Windows startup disk creation process is completed, remove your disk. All done.

Closing Thoughts

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In this tutorial, you saw how to create a bootable MS Windows USB startup disk on a Linux system. Once the operating system is done installing to your USB, you can insert the device into any computer to boot into an installation environment. This environment can be used to perform system rescue or to install Microsoft Windows onto the computer.