Installing Windows 7 in a USB flash drive

By: Ivan Zhekov

Prepare Your 4GB USB flash drive!

Windows 7 is out there and apparently people want it. With the increasing number of customers owning small laptops or netbooks that do not have a built-in CD/DVD drive, the need for an alternative way to install Microsoft’s new OS is evident.

For those users, there is always the option to buy an external DVD drive and do the installation. In that sense, an additional amount of money has be given to be able to use Windows 7. To make life a little bit easier, Microsoft introduced a free tool called “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool”. It can create a bootable flash drive once the customer has purchased and downloaded a Windows 7 image file from Microsoft’s online store.

"This tool allows you to create a copy of the .iso file to a USB flash drive or a DVD," is said in the instructions for the tool. "To install Windows 7 from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive."

A 4GB flash drive is needed in order to install the OS on a netbook that lacks an optical drive. In addition, administrator rights and .Net Framework 2.0 or later are required. Moreover, the netbook’s BIOS must also be modified and the USB drive set to be the first on the boot list.

Reportedly, if users are unfamiliar with customizing the BIOS on their devices, they ought to seek help. "If you are not comfortable making this type of BIOS change, I recommend you seek some assistance from your favorite ‘tech geek,’" Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc advised in the Windows 7 blog.

The free “Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool” is 947KB and can be downloaded from Microsoft's site.