How to Use Rufus to Install Windows 11 (with Pictures)
What is Rufus?
If you are looking for a clean install of the Windows 11 operating system on your PC and wondering how to use Rufus to install Windows 11, then the best way to do so is by creating a bootable USB drive. Rufus utility will help you create a bootable USB drive on your PC.
Rufus is a utility software that helps users to create or format bootable USB flash drives. Rufus is used when you need a USB installation media from bootable ISO, which includes Linux, UEFI, and Windows, to install on a PC without any operating system.
* Do you know how to create a Windows bootable USB with Rufus?
How to use Rufus to install Windows 11
To reduce the chance of getting stuck in the process of the bootable USB creation with Rufus, get to know the four basic requirements and prepare for them in advance.
1. An empty USB stick, flash drive
Once the installation process of the Rufus utility is complete, users will now need an empty flash drive to burn the ISO image. Make sure the USB device you are using is empty. Format the drive before going on to the next step.
2. Download Windows 11 ISO image
There are multiple Windows 11 files available on the internet, so downloading it is quite simple. All you have to do is open the internet and look for Windows 11 ISO images. Make sure to download the file from a renowned website to be sure that the file is not corrupt.
*This guide tells you how to download Windows 11 automatically without searching iso around.
3. Download and install Rufus on your PC
If you want to download and install Windows 11 with the help of Rufus, then you have to download and install the Rufus utility on your PC. When you are downloading Rufus if you are asked to download the update, make sure to do that as well.
4. Burn ISO image to the USB drive in Rufus
Launch the Rufus application and select the USB flash drive you want to use under devices. Click on the Select button on the right-hand side of the application. This will open up a new window where you need to select the Windows 11 ISO file you have downloaded from the internet.
Full guide for how to create and install Windows 11 with Rufus
Step 1. Now go to the third option available on the Rufus utility called "Image Option". Select on the dropdown to Standard Windows Installation. Go to the partition option and select GPT. Click on the Volume Label and type the name of the USB drive as you like.
Step 2. Keep all the rest options as it is and click on the Start button. You will see a warning come up on the screen which says all data on the flash drive will be wiped, so make sure you click on the OK button.
Step 3. Wait for the USB drive to get created. You can check on the Status section to stay updated on how much the installation has been completed.
Once the process is complete, you would get to see the following media bar.
Step 4. Once the USB drive is completed, insert the USB drive on the computer you are looking to install the OS and reboot the system. This will start up the installation process. Proceed ahead, and your OS will be installed in a very short time.
How to run Windows 11 from a bootable USB drive
The other case is that you need a bootable Windows 11 USB drive from other computers. Rufus can help you clean install a Windows 11 operating system on a computer, but with Qiling Disk Master, you can try to copy a Windows 11 operating system to a USB drive and then make it bootable on any device, including another PC and Mac.
What's Qiling OS2Go?
Qiling OS2GO is a popular Windows bootable USB creation tool that helps in creating a portable USB drive from an Already installed Microsoft Windows operating system. It helps in cloning an already installed OS into a USB drive.
A simple comparison between OS2Go and Rufus
Qiling OS2GO and Rufus are utility software that helps in creating bootable USB drives, but both of them are quite different from each other. Rufus is used when you already have an ISO file of the operating system, and all you have to do is creating the bootable USB drive. Whereas Qiling OS2Go is used to directly clone and make a USB bootable drive from a previously installed operating system. Both of the utility software have their uses.
Guide for how to create a bootable Windows 11 bootable drive with OS2Go
Step 1. Install Qiling OS2Go on your Windows computer, it will display your system drive's used space. Plug in a USB drive that is larger than the system drive used space. Choose the target USB drive and click Next to continue.
Step 2. Qiling OS2Go will notify you that the following operation would delete all data on your drive. Make sure that you have backed up all the important data. Click the Continue button to proceed.
Step 3. Adjust disk layout. The default disk layout on the target drive will be exactly the same as the resource drive. You could also edit the layout according to your needs. Tick the option there if you're using a Solid State Drive as the Windows bootable drive. Next, click Proceed.
Step 4. Then Qiling OS2Go will start to create the portable USB drive. It usually takes a while depending on your OS and Network condition. When the progress reaches 100%, the USB drive should be bootable now.
Step 5. Insert the portable Windows USB and start your computer. Press the required key (F2, DEL, F10...) to access BIOS. Choose to boot from the USB disk.
Note: Please make sure that the boot mode (UEFI or Legacy) of the portable USB and your target computer are the same, otherwise you may not be able to boot.
Both Rufus and Qiling OS2GO are popular in the market when creating a bootable USB drive. They are just used in different scenarios. You can choose the process you want depending on how and where you are creating a bootable drive.
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