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Is it possible to boot Windows 7 from a USB thumb drive?

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026360 views
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Problem

I know this is easy to do these days with Linux, is there any way to do it with Windows 7? I don't mean install it from a thumb drive, but run it from one.

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Fix for: Is it possible to boot Windows 7 from a USB thumb drive?

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Technically, no. Microsoft prevents Windows 7 from being installed to an external drive. I found a forum that details using VMware to install Windows Vista (process is supposed to be the same for Windows 7) to an external harddrive, and then doing a…

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