By: O.J. Dueñas | May 24, 2012

Way back then, one would need to use a 3rd party application such as imgburn or win2flash to create a bootable USB installer of past versions of Windows. Both of which are still very good options, but with the imminent release of Microsoft’s latest version of Windows, you don’t need to be “geeky” enough to make one, all you really have to do is download a free application from Microsoft’s site.

This guide will teach you how to make a bootable USB (Flash drive) installer of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview build. You need at least an 8gb Flash Drive for this to work and if you don’t have the ISO yet, click this link and download the Windows 8 version you want to install.

I will be using the 64-bit version in this guide, please take note that you will need a 64-bit capable processor (CPU) in order to use the 64-bit version of Windows 8. If you already have the Windows 8 ISO, click this link to download Microsoft’s Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool (Don’t worry, it will work perfectly with a Windows 8 ISO).

What you need:

• 8gb (Minimum size) USB Flash Drive
• Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO
• Windows 8 USB/DVD Download Tool

DIRECTIONS:

• Install Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool:

• After installing, open Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool and click on Browse:

• Go to the directory or folder in your PC where you downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO, in my case it’s in my Windows 7 Downloads folder under my username which is “X”:

• After choosing your ISO, click on USB Device and choose the letter of your USB Flash Drive you wish to use as your Windows 8 USB installer:

• It will ask you to erase your USB Device

• Just click through the prompts, please take note that it will erase the entire contents of your USB device so make sure you have all its contents backed up.

It will take about 5 to 10 minutes depending on the speed rate of your flash drive but once it’s done, you’re all set, so congratulations!, you just made a Windows 8 USB Installer.

You  may now browse to your newly created Windows 8 installer, click on setup and choose the upgrade option (and retain most of your files and documents) via Windows or go to your bios, set it up to boot via USB and and make a clean format and install.

• Screenshot 1: How to initiate Windows 8 setup from Within Windows 7.

• Screenshot 2: Windows 8 setup from within Windows 7.