Write the ISO to a USB stick

Prepare a USB stick for the WinDoesNot live system.

Before you start

You need a USB stick with at least 8 GB of space. Writing the ISO erases all data on the stick. Back it up first. Download the English or German ISO from the download page. The two ISOs differ only in their starting language. At the boot prompt, you can change it with windoesnot.lang=en or windoesnot.lang=de.

Check the downloaded ISO's SHA256 checksum. On Windows, use PowerShell:

Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 File.iso

Or use this Windows command:

certutil -hashfile File.iso SHA256

On Linux:

sha256sum File.iso

On macOS:

shasum -a 256 File.iso

Replace File.iso with your file's name. Compare the result with the matching .sha256 file or the SHA256 value shown on the download page. They must match exactly.

Write the stick on Windows

Rufus

1. Insert the USB stick. In Rufus, select the stick and the downloaded ISO.
2. Choose GPT as the partition scheme and UEFI (non CSM) as the target system.
3. Click Start. If Rufus asks for a writing mode, choose Write in DD Image mode. Do not choose ISO mode. DD mode is the reliable choice for archiso based ISOs.
4. If Rufus asks to download extra files, decline and choose DD mode. Confirm that the stick will be erased.

balenaEtcher

Choose Flash from file, then select the ISO and the USB stick. Click Flash!.

Ventoy may work, but we have not tested it. We have not tried these writing tools ourselves on every system. These steps follow the tools' documentation.

Write the stick on Linux

• GNOME Disks (gnome-disks): Select the stick, open the menu and choose Restore Disk Image. Select the ISO and confirm.
• KDE ISO Image Writer: Select the ISO and the stick, then start writing.
• balenaEtcher: Its AppImage is another option. Select the ISO and stick, then click Flash!.

Command line

First, find the USB stick's device name:

lsblk

Warning: Check the device name and size carefully. The target must be the whole USB stick, such as /dev/sdX, not a partition such as /dev/sdX1 and never your system drive. The next command overwrites the selected device.

sudo dd if=windoesnot-....iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsync

Replace the ISO name and /dev/sdX with the real values. Wait for the command to finish. Then run:

sync

Write the stick on macOS

Use balenaEtcher: choose Flash from file, select the ISO and stick, then click Flash!.

Boot from the stick

Restart the computer with the stick inserted and open its boot menu. The key depends on the device. Common keys include F12, F10, F9, Esc and Delete. Choose the stick in UEFI mode. Secure Boot has not been verified for WinDoesNot. If booting fails, you can turn off Secure Boot in the firmware settings and try again. In the live system, open Install WinDoesNot. The installation guide covers the next steps.

Try it without a stick

You can attach the ISO directly to a virtual machine, such as QEMU with KVM (Linux, virt-manager) or UTM (Mac). Enable UEFI and allow at least 4 GB of RAM and 30 GB of virtual disk space. VMware and VirtualBox are limited for WinDoesNot, see Known limitations.

Common problems

• The stick does not boot: Check whether Rufus wrote it in DD mode and whether UEFI is selected instead of CSM. If booting still fails, check Secure Boot as described above.
• The file is reported as damaged: Compare its SHA256 checksum. If it differs, download the ISO again.
• Writing stops with an error: Try another USB port or another stick.