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Flpence's avatar
Flpence
Copper Contributor
Jul 13, 2026

How to download Windows 11 installer to a USB?

I'm trying to create a bootable USB drive with the Windows 11 installer, but I'm not sure about the right way to do it. Should I use the official Media Creation Tool, or can I download the ISO and us...
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OliverWang's avatar
OliverWang
Iron Contributor
Jul 14, 2026

PowerShell is an excellent feature built into Windows that allows you to create bootable installation media containing the Windows 11 installer without having to download third-party burning software. By using built-in commands to fully partition and format a USB drive, you can manually create a complete bootable storage device to hold the official installer.

Usage Guide: Open PowerShell with Administrator privileges, then follow the full set of command steps below.

Run the following commands to list all local disks and verify the number of your USB drive:

Get-Disk

Erase all data and the OEM partition from the target USB drive:

Clear-Disk -Number X -RemoveData -RemoveOEM

Initialize the USB drive using the GPT partition style to support UEFI boot:

Initialize-Disk -Number X -PartitionStyle GPT

Create a partition that occupies the entire capacity and assign it the drive letter E:

New-Partition -DiskNumber X -UseMaximumSize -DriveLetter E

Format the new partition with the FAT32 file system, which is compatible with Windows 11 boot:

Format-Volume -DriveLetter E -FileSystem FAT32

This native Windows method mounts your Windows 11 ISO and copies all files to formatted USB E to make a Windows 11 installer drive, free of third-party software and ideal for advanced users making offline repair or reinstall media.