How to create a windows 10 bootable usb flash drive in Linux PC

General Linux Question
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Of course it does - even more so - that’s my job - and remote support via the SHELL is an order of magnitude more efficient than Windows Admin “clickety-click-click”… and SSH with keypairs is infinitely simpler (IMHO) than shonky RDP and it GETS MY GOAT when some gobshite “on paper” security C__T thinks that some how RDP is more secure than SSH??? Seriously! WTF! These people get paid, and they walk amongst us, and they sometimes remember to (mouth) breathe…

But - can you imagine trying to talk someone who’s almost 100% computer iliterate how to setup a NAT or port forward rule on their router to allow SSH (NEVER mind RDP!) - and where to direct it to? Then you have to be able to walk them through setting a dedicated DHCP lease for their device - yeah yeah yeah - so much fun! And you have ZERO idea what their router even is and have to take guesses and punts?

FUGGEDABOUDIT!

Put windows on the piece of crap…

I’ve had a few rums and I’m a bit sloshed - if I remember - I’ll crank the piece of crap open before I hit the fartsack and let it continue updating…

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How Win configures its booting seems to be a black box. We dont know where it stores the info . We just have bcdedit commands?

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another note - before I wiped Ubuntu 18.04 (server) off this Dell - I ran that strings command to grab the OEM Windows license / product key :

sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM

And I’ve just managed to activate Windows 10 - so it looks like that Product Key got a Win10 upgrade from the original Win7 that it would have shipped with!

I didn’t let it finish updating overnight - so it’s still doing the 20H2 updates this morning / arvo…

Anyone here know if Windows Defender is enough - or should I put an additional virus scanner on there like Avast (that’s what I used to put on my kids’ computers when they still had PC’s and ran Windows).

What gets me about this whole process is the bizarreness of the complaint from new Linux users who’ve jumped from Windows, is HOW HARD LINUX IS!

WTF?

I find Windows an order of magnitude harder to setup… This has taken me nearly three days and I’m still not done with it!

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No you just activated a digital license with your W7 PDK, as long as it works, who cares.

Haven’t used a third party virus program in ages!!! You can also turn off a lot of notifications
in W10 so it does not bug you, but you cannot disable W10 updates, like you could in older
versions of Windows.
Remember W10 is slated to be unsupported, sometimes in 2025.

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Goshdarn!

I’m now about to build another Windows 10 machine - because I want to try an alternate feature for my new scooter… i.e. change the product number in firmware to a US product number (even though this scooter model’s not yet available in the USA) so that I can get 32 km/h instead of 25 km/h.

Why you may ask?

Well - I managed to fix my first Segway scooter, the shop I bought it from in July 2021 wanted $990 to fix it (3 months after warranty expiry, October/Novemer 2022). I used about $5 worth of connectors, about two bob’s worth of wire, about 4 hours of “on and off” elbow grease and I now have a working second scooter… Anyway I took it for a good long blat (did my back in, new one’s got shockies, old one doesn’t) and enjoyed cruise control AND 30 km/h…

Still waiting for a firmware update with cruise control for the newer scooter… But I’d also like 32 km/h (on the new scooter)…

So - I need a Windows 10 machine to change the product number… So I can get 32 kmh…

But do you think I can find the Windows 10 USB Boot stick I made a couple weeks ago? NO!!! FUDGEBAR!

Just realised… I’ve still got Bruv-in-law’s laptop here…
I can either

  1. use it to update the product number of the Segway e-scooter
  2. use it to create another Windows 10 install USB stick…

Goshdarn it again - I found a Ventoy Win10 stick I made yonks ago and it’s so much easier… I reckon I’m going to image that VENTOY stick again - I ever need to install Win10 again… So if I ever need to do this again : too easy! It’s installing - just using Win10 on it right now - but - I’ve left 256 GB free so I can install a Linux distro alongside and dual boot (probably ‘vanilla’ Ubuntu 22.04)… Handy having a Windows 10 system I guess…
And it’s Windows 22H1 I think… so less massive downloads of updates… If I’d found this Ventoy stick a couple weeks ago would have saved me a heap of time!

DAMN THAT WAS QUICK!

If only I’d had that Ventoy stick earlier! I’d have saved HOURS and HOURS

I’ve got a Windows 10 machine going and all the drivers are there and it’s just “working”… Got the scooter hacking thingie and paired via bluetooth from Windows 10 to the Segway scooter…

I’m having 2nd thoughts about increasing the speed limiter on it, all I really want is cruise control! But cruise control firmware not available in either the Android or iOS apps…

I chickened out and did not do the 32 km/h hack… 25 km/h on shared cycleways is plenty fast enough for me (despite constantly being overtaken by 100% pedal powered cyclists doing 35-45 km/h) - so I really have no need of Windows 10 - but it’s handy knowing I’ve got a machine I can use at a pinch, if it simply must be MS Windows!
All I really want is cruise control - there’s long stretches of pavement on my commute with no intersections - it’s a PITA to keep my thumb throttle depressed…

Also - I created an image of that Ventoy Stick in my Windows10 SOE folder on my NAS that I keep relevant documents and info for whenever I’m forced to (usually with threats) use a Windows 10 environment…

At least I have something to do Tuesday - install Ubuntu 22.04 alongside Windows 10 in a dual boot config…

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Damn - there’s something really dodgy about this Windows 10 image I had on a Ventoy stick…

I’m going to wipe it and try Windows 10 22H2 (on a Ventoy stick) from Microsoft themselves…

Ventoy’s great - makes a doddle of booting a USB stick and selecting an ISO on the stick, to boot :

Perth’s a great city for cycle paths (PSPs or “principle shared paths”), only learned recently, that Melbourne’s pretty shit for that…

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So what does Ventoy do that I cant do by copying the image to a usb stick and adding grub to the stick.?
I used to use a small Honda bike to commute to Uni. I guess todays equivalent is electric scooter or push bike. No parking problems either.

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there are parking problems with personal transport devices, like bicycles, e-bicycles and e-scooters in that today’s society (yes I am an old curmudgeon at times) is RIDDLED with thieves…

I didn’t go to Uni till I was in my early 30’s - evening and night class, I used to get there by motorcycle, first a Yamaha FJ1100, but had to sell it as my 286 PC wasn’t cutting the mustard, and bought an ex-cop Yamaha XJ750p to get to Uni - so I could boost my PC up to a 486 (still couldn’t afford a DX, so had to settle for an SX)…

Never had a motorcycle stolen, or even discovered aborted attempts to steal any of mine…

Just got some bad news on Thursday night, the $350 “mate’s rates” job to fix my Harley has probably turned into a $1500+ mate’s rates job (and I went and spent the $2000 I’d saved up instead of taking holidays to fix my Harley)…

My mate went away for a fortnight, gets back and my bike (2007 Harley) has a massive puddle of gear oil underneath - so it wasn’t the outer primary gasket, it must be the gearbox or the inner primary - either way it’s a massive job : remove the primary chain from the crank to the clutch, remove the clutch etc… Nothing’s ever easy!

It’s a no-brainer… Use the Ventoy GUI to format a stick (there’s also command line options too)… Once you’ve got a Ventoy stick, you just track and drop (or “cp”) ISO images onto it - can be anything, Windows 10, 11 etc, probably even 7, or Linux, or FreeBSD!
Maybe you’re okay with doing the heavy lifting, editing grub, copying files back and forth… Me? I reckon I’ll use Ventoy in the future!

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I once spent the whole of my Christmas break putting a $5 gasket in the gearbox case of my Landrover to stop it decorating the road with gear oil. There is always DIY.

It’s a no-brainer… Use the Ventoy GUI to format a stick (there’s also command line options too)… Once you’ve got a Ventoy stick, you just track and drop (or “cp”) ISO images onto it - can be anything, Windows 10, 11 etc, probably even 7, or Linux, or FreeBSD!
Maybe you’re okay with doing the heavy lifting, editing grub, copying files back and forth… Me? I reckon I’ll use Ventoy in the future!

Thanks I needed that intro to Ventoy.
I think I will test it out. Save my lowlevel efforts for real problems.
I believe it will even allow multiple iso`s on one stick?

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Yep…
I’ve got a USB 2 16 GB stick here with Windows 10 22H2 ISO on it (that I used already), I’ve put Ubuntu 22.04 on there too… Was going to see if I could squeeze Zorin on there too… and thought? Why bother?

I’ve got bigger better faster sticks lying around, I just formatted a 128 GB USB 3 stick using Ventoy and I’m plonking a whole bunch ISO image files on it, Win10 22H2, Ubuntu 22.04, Pop!_OS 22.04, ZorinOS 16…

Wish I’d thought of this earlier when I was struggling to build a Win10 laptop for my bother in law…

And sometimes, just occasionally, there are issues booting off USB 3 - I just go back to USB 2…

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