Windows To Go is one way of installing Windows onto a USB drive or other removable media. Generally speaking, with USB drives you either buy one that’s Windows To Go certified, or you go with some third-party method off the internet. I tried the third-party route. It worked, but it’s not reliable, not stable — a couple of upgrades and it’s probably dead. In the end I just bought a Kingston with Windows To Go certification on eBay. For the list of certified products, see Microsoft’s official page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_To_Go

Starting with Windows 8, there’s a feature called Windows To Go. Basically you install your entire Windows system onto a USB drive, find a computer, plug the drive in, and boot into your own system. Pretty cool, right? It’s essentially the same idea as a Linux Live CD. Even so, it’s not exactly easy to pull off. Microsoft gives you a wizard in the Control Panel, but it’s useless, because when you run it, it tells you “only Microsoft WTG-certified USB drives can be used to create Windows To Go.” And those certified drives? Either you can’t buy them, or the only one you can get on JD.com starts at 699 yuan. Absolutely makes you want to scream. So we just have to ignore that dumb wizard and do it ourselves.