Usually, when you have to install a clean copy of Windows 10, you'll need a USB bootable media to start your device and continue with the setup wizard. However, if you're using a computer with a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), instead of the legacy Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), you have to make sure that the media will work with your firmware type.
If you're using a newer firmware type, there are multiple methods that you can use to create a media to install Windows 10 from USB. Although it's not advertised, you can use the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to download the installation files onto a removable drive with support for both, UEFI and legacy BIOS. Alternatively, you can also use Rufus, which is a third-party tool that makes it easy to create an installation boot media with support for UEFI.
In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to create a USB flash drive that includes UEFI support using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool and Rufus.
![Pro Pro](/uploads/1/2/4/8/124889623/117327292.png)
We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Installing Windows 10 How to install Windows 10 from USB with UEFI support About to install the latest version of Windows 10 on. Looking to figure out how to install Windows 10 via USB or DVD? Well, you’ve come to the right spot. Windows 10 has been around for a while now, with Microsoft bringing in a number of welcome. Jul 29, 2019 Upgrade using a Windows 10 Pro product key. Select the Start button, then select Settings Update & Security Activation. Select Change product key, and then enter the 25-character Windows 10 Pro product key. Select Next to start the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. In addition, some people have reported that it won’t fix some system corruption issues, in which case you’d want to perform a real clean install using Option One above. To reset your Windows 10 PC, open the Settings app, select Update & security, select Recovery, and click the “Get started” button under Reset this PC. Windows 10 Pro for Workstations is a high-end edition of Windows 10 Pro, comes with unique support for server grade PC hardware and is designed to meet demanding needs of mission critical and compute intensive workloads. If you are trying to install a 64-bit version of Windows 10, you can boot into BIOS and try to disable Legacy USB and Legacy BIOS. Before you plug in the flash installation drive, make sure that you’ve enabled the AHCI.
How to create a Windows 10 UEFI boot media using Media Creation Tool
If you have a system using UEFI, you can use the Media Creation Tool to create a bootable USB media to perform an in-place upgrade or clean installation of Windows 10.
To create a bootable media, connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of space, and then use these steps:
- Open Windows 10 download page.
- Under the 'Create Windows 10 installation media' section, click the Download tool now button to save the file on your device.
- Double-click the MediaCreationToolxxxx.exe file to launch the tool.
- Click the Accept button to agree to the Microsoft terms.
- Select the Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC option.
- Click the Next button.
- Clear the Use the recommended options for this PC option (if applicable).
- Select the correct language, architecture, and edition of Windows 10.Quick tip: If you'll be installing Windows 10 on multiple devices running 32-bit or 64-bit architecture, then use the 'Architecture' drop-down menu and select the Both option.
- Click the Next button.
- Select the USB flash drive option.
- Click the Next button
- Select the removable drive from the list. (If you don't see the drive, click the Refresh drive list option.)
- Click the Next button.
- Click the Finish button.
Once you complete the steps, the tool will download the required files and create a bootable USB flash drive with the Windows 10 installation files with support for UEFI and BIOS.
How to create a Windows 10 UEFI boot media using Rufus tool
If the Media Creation Tool isn't working, you can use Rufus to create an installation media with UEFI support using an existing ISO file. Or you can also use the tool to download the Windows 10 files and create the bootable flash media.
Creating boot media with Windows 10 ISO
To create a bootable media using a Windows 10 ISO file that you already have, connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of space, and use these steps:
- Open Rufus download page.
- Under the 'Download' section, click the latest release of the tool to save the file on your device.
- Double-click the Rufus-x.x.exe file to launch the tool.
- Under the 'Device' section, select the USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space.
- Under the 'Boot selection' section, click the Select button on the right.
- Select the Windows 10 ISO file from its folder location.
- Click the Open button.
- Use the 'Image option' drop-down menu to select the Standard Windows installation option.
- Use the 'Partition scheme' drop-down menu to select the GPT option.
- Use the 'Target system' drop-down menu to select the UEFI (non CSM) option.
- Under the 'Show Advanced drive properties' section, leave the default settings.
- Under the 'Volume label' field, enter a descriptive name for the drive — for example, 'win10_1903_usb.'
- Under the 'File system' and 'Cluster size' section, leave the default settings.
- Click the Show advanced format options button.
- Select the 'Quick format' and 'Create extended label and icon files' options.
- Click the Start button.
- Click the OK button to confirm.
- Click the Close button.
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After you complete the steps, Rufus will create a bootable USB flash drive to install Windows 10 with the image that you provided.
Creating boot media downloading Windows 10 ISO
If you don't have a Windows 10 ISO file, you can use Rufus to download the ISO from the Microsoft servers and create the bootable USB flash media. Connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of space, and use these steps:
- Open Rufus download page.
- Under the 'Download' section, click the latest release of the tool to save the file on your device.
- Double-click the Rufus-x.x.exe file to launch the tool.
- Under the 'Device' section, select the USB flash drive with at least 8GB of space.
- Under the 'Boot selection' section, click the arrow button next to the 'Select' option on the right and choose the Download option.
- Click the Download button.
- Use the 'Version' drop-down menu and select Windows 10.
- Click the Continue button.
- Select the 19H1 (Build 18362.30 - 2019.05) option to download the Windows 10 May 2019 Update.
- Click the Continue button.
- Use the 'Edition' drop-down menu and select the Windows 10 Home/Pro option.
- Click the Continue button.
- Use the 'Language' drop-down menu and select your installation language.
- Click the Continue button.
- Use the 'Architecture' drop-down menu and select the 32-bit or 64-bit (recommended).
- Click the Download button.
- Select a folder location to temporarily download the ISO file from the Microsoft servers.
- Click the Save button.
- Use the 'Image option' drop-down menu to select the Standard Windows installation option.
- Use the 'Partition scheme' drop-down menu to select the GPT option.
- Use the 'Target system' drop-down menu to select the UEFI (non CSM) option.
- Under the 'Show Advanced drive properties' section, leave the default settings.
- Under the 'Volume label' field, enter a descriptive name for the drive — for example, 'win10_1903_usb.'
- Under the 'File system' and 'Cluster size' section, leave the default settings.
- Click the Show advanced format options button.
- Select the 'Quick format' and 'Create extended label and icon files' options.
- Click the Start button.
- Click the OK button to confirm.
- Click the Close button.
Once you complete the steps, the tool will run the script to download the Windows 10 ISO file from the Microsoft servers, and then, it'll use that file to create a bootable media, which you can then use to install Windows 10 on devices using UEFI.
Now that you have a USB bootable media with support for UEFI, you can start your computer to perform an in-place upgrade or clean installation of Windows 10.
More Windows 10 resources
For more helpful articles, coverage, and answers to common questions about Windows 10, visit the following resources:
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Now that the big November Update has been released and Microsoft is letting users activate their Windows 10 installation using Windows 7/8.1 key, a significant percent of Windows 10 users downloading fresh ISOs (which now includes November Updates) and performing clean install of Windows 10 from ISO or USB.
To help users easily download ISO images of Windows 10, an official tool called Media Creation Tool is available ever since the release of Windows 10, and the ISO that you download using Media Creation Tool now includes November Update.
While the procedure to download Windows 10 ISO using the Media Creation tool is pretty much the same, many users who have used the Media Creation Tool over the past few days have been reporting that there is no option to download the Windows 10 Pro edition.
That is, the screen where you are asked to select the edition of Windows 10 that you want to download doesn’t list the Windows 10 Pro edition. The list shows only Windows 10 and Windows 10 N editions, and there is no mention of Windows 10 Pro.
Well, the fact is that the Windows 10 ISO that you download using Media Creation Tool includes both Home as well as Pro, meaning Microsoft is no longer offering separate ISOs for Home and Pro editions.
When you create a bootable USB of Windows 10 using the ISO and attempt to install Windows 10 from it, the setup of Windows 10 automatically checks your BIOS/UEFI for embedded product key (if available), and installs the right version based on its findings. And when you are installing Windows 10 on a new PC or on a PC without the embedded product key, it displays the prompt asking you to select the edition of Windows 10 that you would like to install.
In simple words, for instance, if you had previously activated Windows 10 Home edition on the PC, when you run the setup of Windows 10, it automatically installs the Home edition without allowing you to select the edition.
![Installing Windows 10 Pro Installing Windows 10 Pro](/uploads/1/2/4/8/124889623/800596008.jpg)
If you want see the edition selection screen while installing Windows 10 on a PC which includes the product key in the BIOS, you need to edit the ISO file to include ei.cfg file or add ei.cfg file the bootable USB.
Follow the directions in Method 1 to add ei.cfg file to the bootable USB and follow Method 2 to include ei.cfg file in the bootable ISO of Windows 10.
Method 1
Add ei.cfg to bootable USB to see the edition selection screen
Step 1: Create the bootable USB of Windows 10 either using Rufus, Media Creation Tool, or any other software. To create the same using Command Prompt, please refer to our how to install Windows 10 from USB guide.
Step 2: Once the bootable USB of Windows 10 is ready, open This PC, double-click on the USB drive icon to open up the same.
Step 3: Open up Sources folder, download ei.cfg ZIP file by clicking here, extract the ZIP file to get ei.cfg file, and place it in the Sources folder.
NOTE: You can open the downloaded ei.cfg file with Notepad to see what it includes. Following the is picture of the same.
That’s all. You can now boot from the USB drive to see the edition selection screen as shown below.
Method 2
Add ei.cfg file to bootable Windows 10 ISO
If you plan to reinstall or perform a clean install of Windows 10 from an ISO image file instead of bootable USB/DVD, you can do so by following step-by-step instructions given below.
Step 1: We need to extract the contents of the ISO file to the newly created Install Files using 7-Zip (free), WinRAR or any other tool. We are using the free 7-Zip in this guide.
Step 2: Navigate to the folder containing Windows 10 ISO image, right-click on it, click 7-Zip, click Extract files, select a location with at least 5 GB of disk space. When you extract the file, 7-Zip will create a new folder and will name it after your ISO file name.
7-Zip might take a couple minutes to complete the extraction job. Once done, proceed to the next step.
Step 3: Download ei.cfg ZIP file by clicking here, extract the ZIP file to get ei.cfg file, open up the Windows 10 folder containing extracted ISO file contents, open up the Sources folder, and then place the ei.cfg file under Sources folder as shown in the picture below.
Step 4: Next, to create a bootable ISO image of Windows 10 containing this newly added ei.cfg file, please follow the instructions in our how to create bootable 10 ISO of Windows from files/folders guide for step-by-step instructions.
NOTE: Some paid software like UltraISO and MagicISO allow you edit the bootable ISO without having to extract it. If you feel that this method is tiresome, simply download the ei.cfg file from the link mentioned above and place it in the Sources folder of the ISO file using one of these paid software. Our how to add files to bootable Windows ISO image guide might also you.