WinToUSB

Undoubtedly, many of us have ever imagined how useful it would be to carry our entire operating systems with us using a device like, say, a pen drive.

Well, this is not only possible but also easy to achieve thanks to programs such as WinToUSB. It allows you to clone your PC's Windows operating system into a USB flash drive and run it on any PC, regardless of its installed system. Besides, you can also create a USB Windows installer from its original DVD or ISO image file, and use it to install Windows on PCs without a CD/DVD drive.

The program is really intuitive and easy to use. You just need to select the operation you want to perform among "Image to USB", "CDROM to USB" and "Physical to USB". The first two of them will install a fully-functional Windows operating system onto a USB drive as a portable Windows, after that, you can carry the fully-functional Windows operating system USB drive to anywhere and use it on any computer. The third option, on the other hand, allows you to clone your currently running OS into a USB drive, though this feature only supports Windows 7, 8, 8.1 or 10. All those options behave like a wizard and allow you to select the source disc or image file and the destination drive, which is basically all the information required by the program to perform its job.

In case your selected disc image file or source DVD contain multiple editions or Windows (e.g. it's an all-in-one installer), you are allowed to select the one you want to transfer to your USB drive. In addition, you have some extra tools you can use to make the tasks even easier, like the "Windows To Go Conversion" tool. It allows you to clone your PC's Windows system into a USB drive too, but also to perform the opposite operation: copy your portable Windows in your USB drive back to your hard disk, setting it as your "fixed" operating system. This means you can even use the program as a basic backup tool.

To sum it all up, WinToUSB is a versatile software tool that provides a unique and very useful feature: giving you the chance to carry your entire Windows operating system with you. Best of all, you can use it totally free of charge, however, you also have Professional and Enterprise editions you can buy starting at $29.95 to get even more functionality, like creating a VHDX-based Windows To Go workspace.