Skip to main content

Easily make a Windows bootable USB from within Linux Mint with WoeUSB

WoeUSB is an application for GNU/Linux that enables you to create bootable USB media for Windows from Windows ISO images or DVDs.

So, there’s many different tools out there for all operating systems, for making USB’s of other systems. However, when it comes to making USB’s of Windows, from within a Linux system, I find that WoeUSB tends to be my go-to, it’s quick, painless, and worked without issues in the past.

The github site describes WoeUSB as, “...a simple tool that enable you to create your own usb stick windows installer from an iso image or a real DVD. It is a fork of Congelli501's WinUSB.”

WoeUSB

WoeUSB

It goes on to continue:

This package contains two programs:

  • woeusb: A command-line utility that enables you to create your own bootable Windows installation USB storage device from an existing Windows Installation disc or disk image
  • woeusbgui: A GUI wrapper of woeusb based on WxWidgets
  • Supported images: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Window 8.x, Windows 10. All languages and any version (home, pro...) and Windows PE are supported.
  • Supported bootmodes: Legacy/MBR-style/IBM PC compatible bootmode. Native UEFI booting is supported for Windows 7 and later images (limited to the FAT filesystem as the target)

This project is a fork of Congelli501's WinUSB software, which has not been maintained since 2012, according to the official website.”

Installation of WoeUSB in Linux Mint or any Ubuntu based system is incredibly simple:

  • sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
  • sudo apt update
  • sudo apt install woeusb

WoeUSB is also available for Arch, Fedora, and Source, and more instructions can be found on the Github page. Essentially, most of the major systems can install without much of a hassle.

Using WoeUSB

Again, WoeUSB can’t really get much more simple. Select the ISO or CD/DVD image being used, select the target device from the list shown (your USB stick should automatically show up here), and let WoeUSB do its thing.

I found transferring to my no name 8GB USB stick took around 3-4 minutes to fire Windows 10 onto. You can then boot Windows from the USB Flash drive to install the operating system on a machine or upgrade an existing installation.

Last thoughts

Ultimately its a no-frills piece of software that doesn’t do anything fancy, but you don’t really need it to either. It simply works, I’ve never had an issue of any kind, and its the first thing I think of to recommend people in need of making a USB of Windows from within their GNU/Linux system.

 

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

HOME