Create a Windows 10 or 11 bootable USB with UEFI support

Normally, a USB flash drive is used to start the “Windows Setup” wizard and complete the installation procedure when installing a brand-new copy of Windows. But when installing Windows on a device that uses the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of the legacy Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), it is important to use the correct boot file for the firmware type. In this article, you will learn how to Create a Windows 10 or 11 bootable USB with UEFI support. Please these exciting guides: How to create a bootable USB using Rufus on Windows, Install ADK|WinPE|MDT and deploy Windows with WDS, and How to fix the external display not working on Windows 11.

You can create a USB drive on Windows using at least two different programs. The files can be downloaded onto a removable disk that supports both UEFI and legacy firmware using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. Or Rufus, a third-party utility that makes it simple to create a flash drive with UEFI capability to install Windows.

Here are other detailed guides about Windows installations: Create a multiboot USB Drive: How to put multiple OS ISO files in one Bootable USB Drive, and How to create Windows 11 Bootable USB drive with the Media Creation Tool.

Create Windows 10 or 11 UEFI boot media with Media Creation Tool

To make bootable USB media for Windows 10 or 11 in-place upgrades or fresh installations, the Media Creation Tool is the best tool to use.

Connect a flash drive with at least 8 GB of storage space, and then follow these steps to create a Windows 10 USB media. Go to the Microsoft Windows software download site. Click the Windows tab on the page to select the version of Windows you want to download.

Click “Download Now” under “Create Windows 10 or 11 installation media,” depending on the Windows version you choose.

Run the MediaCreationTool22H2.exe file to launch the setup.

Select “Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC” and click Next.

Please see also how to fix the external display not working on Windows 11 and how to link a removable media to a Deployment Share: Replicate Deployment share to a removable device.

Select the language, architecture, and edition of Windows 10 and click the Next button. If you want to install Windows on multiple machines with 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, use the “Architecture” drop-down menu and choose “Both” to make media that will work on both types of systems.

On this window, select USB flash drive and click the Next button.

Select the flash drive from the list and click Next. (If you do not see the device, click the “Refresh drive list” option.)

Click the Finish button to create a media image.

You can now proceed to install Windows 10 or 11 on systems with UEFI support using the bootable flash drive.

How to create a bootable USB drive with an existing ISO file

Rufus is a well-liked, free third-party utility that lets you create an installation disc with support for UEFI systems, so you can try it if the Media Creation Tool does not function or if you do not want to use it.

There are two ways to make the installation media: by using an existing ISO file or by using the app to directly download the image from the Microsoft servers.

Connect a flash drive with at least 8 GB of storage capacity and follow the steps below to create a USB drive using an existing Windows 10 ISO file.

Download Rufus

1 :Go to the Rufus download page. Click the latest release (first link) in the “Download” section and save the file.

2. Run the Rufus.exe file to launch the tool. Under the “Device” section, select the USB flash drive.

3: Under “Boot Selection” select Disk or ISO image. Click the SELECT button on the right to open a folder location and select the Windows 10 or 11 ISO file to use.

4: Under “Image option” drop-down menu, select the “Standard Windows installation” option.

5: For “Partition scheme” click the drop-down menu and choose GPT and for the “Target system” click the drop-down menu and select the UEFI (non CSM) option. Leave the default settings as it is under the “Show Advanced drive properties” section.

6. Under the “Volume label” field, confirm a name for the drive — for example, “Windows 10 USB.”
7. Leave the default settings in the “File system” and “Cluster size” options.
8. Leave the default settings in the “Show advanced format options” setting.
9. Click the Start button to begin the USB creation and close the program when the process is complete.

Once you complete the steps, Rufus will create a USB flash drive that you can use to install Windows 10 on a UEFI-enabled computer.

Please see how to remove Microsoft Defender update on Windows 10 and Windows Server image, and how to view Microsoft Defender Antivirus update details on Windows 10 image (install.wim).

Create a bootable USB drive downloading Windows 10 or 11 ISO

The application also allows you to download the Windows 10 ISO file, which you can then use to make a USB flash drive with which to install Windows 10.

Connect a flash drive with at least 8 GB of storage capacity and follow these steps to use Rufus to download and make an installation disk that works with UEFI:

Run the Rufus.exe file to launch the tool. Under the “Device” section, select the USB flash drive.

Under the “Boot selection” section, click the drop-down next to “SELECT” and choose the Download option.

3. Now, click the Download button.

4: Once you click the download button, Rufus will automatically launch a “Download ISO Image” screen. Select the Windows Version (e.g., Windows 10) and click Continue.

5: Select the Release (e.g., 22H2 Build 19045.2006) and click Continue. Follow by the windows Edition (E.g., Windows 10 Home/Pro/Edu) and click Continue.

Click on Download Window 10 ISO file

6: Next, choose your Windows Language (e.g., English International) and click Continue. After that, select your Windows system Architecture (e.g., 32-bit or 64-bit) and then click the Download button.

7: You will be prompted to select a folder to save the ISO file, then click Save.

Summary

Once you’re done, Rufus will run the script to automatically download the Windows ISO file from Microsoft’s servers.

The utility can then be used to make bootable media for installing Windows 10 or 11 on a UEFI system. Please see how to check your current Runlevel in Linux, and how to fix error 0x800f0830: Discard the modified Image and start again, no operation was performed.

Now, use the bootable flash drive to start the “Windows Setup” process to install a clean installation or in-place upgrade of Windows.

But because the “UEFI: NTFS bootloader” option in Rufus doesn’t have a digital signature for secure boot, you have to temporarily turn off secure boot on the motherboard firmware before booting into the setup. Here is a detailed guide on how to disable Secure Boot on Windows 10 and 11.

I hope you find this post helpful on how to create a Windows 10 or 11 bootable USB with UEFI support. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comment section below.