This guide will be helpful if you have a computer, laptop, or other computing device that currently has an operating system (OS) installed which uses GRUB as its boot menu. With this guide, you will be able to boot from a Windows USB stick even if USB boot is disabled or the boot menu is locked.
Requirements:
• Windows 8 or newer• USB-Stick (at least 8 GB)
• Windows 10 or 11 ISO
• Rufus
Step 1:
Download the Windows iso via the official webpage from Microsoft.
Step 2:
Download the newest version of Rufus form rufus.ie.
Step 3:
Start the rufus exe file you downloaded.![image of rufus after start](/img/rufus-after-start.png)
Step 4:
Plug in your USB Stick and select it in rufus.![image of rufus after the usb drive is selected](/img/rufus-after-usb-select.png)
Make sure the USB drive dose not have any important data on it, as all data on the drive will be wiped!
Step 5:
Select the Windows ISO you downloaded.![image of rufus after the iso file is selected](/img/rufus-after-iso-select.png)
Step 6:
Change the Partition scheme to MBR and press Start to start the flashing of the USB Drive.![image of rufus with part sceam changed to MBR](/img/rufus-final.png)
Step 7:
After the flashing has finished, unplug the usb drive and plug it in to the device you want to install Windows on.
Step 8:
Start the Computer and press ESC until you see a command line like this:![grub command line](/img/grub-commandline.png)
Step 9:
You can enter the command:
ls
to see all possible drives and partitions.
Step 10:
Select the boot partition on the Windows USB drive. Its will be named something like (hd[NUMBER],msdos[NUMBER]). You can select a partition with the command:
set
root=(hd0,msdos1)
The part after the root= shudt be your Windows boot partition on the USB drive. If you have multiple options you have to
try all of them.
Step 11:
Select the boot file:
chainloader
/efi/Boot/bootx64.efi
If this command fails you might have to try a different partition.
Step 12:
Enter the command:
boot
to boot the selected Windows install.