Most of you are probably aware that Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool allows you to create a USB key in a matter of seconds, which you can then use to install the latest version of Windows 10 on your PC or notebook. Fewer people know that you can also use the same tool to create an ISO file, which can be helpful to, among other things, if you want to install Windows on a virtual computer.
ISO file
How to install the operating system from a thumb drive?
You no longer need an optical drive to install Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 on a new computer. If your computer has a USB port, you can install the operating system from a USB stick. Microsoft’s own tool can be used for this, but there is also a clever free program, Rufus (https://rufus.ie/en/), which is much more versatile, handling Linux distributions and other ISO files. Of course, there are several such tools, but Rufus can even download a Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 ISO file on demand, just like the small tool offered by Microsoft, which is only available for Windows installation.