How to Install Windows 8 from a USB stick?!

So I wondered. I could not use the Windows 7 tool to copy the ISO file to USB. It reported the Windows 8 ISO is not the right format. So what then? Burn a DVD… aaargh.

Somewhere on the consumer preview site windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/consumer-preview it mentioned that the setup would allow you to install from USB one way or the other.

Thus I started on my production tablet PC the downloaded Windows8-ConsumerPreview-setup.exe file to see what would happen. No guts no glory!

The setup started with a check of available apps and hardware. Gave me the list of what is OK and what needs an upgrade. Bravely I clicked next. It offered the product key. After that I stopped. I canceled the setup.

Now in the mean time it had installed on the desktop an shortcut Install Windows. OK, before you hit that icon, make sure you have a USB stick with sufficient memory inserted in your system. I had this due to the fact I had previously tried the Windows 7 tool to unpack the ISO on the USB stick.

And now it is happily downloading the installation bits to this USB stick… Smile

Hope this is useful to somebody Winking smile