Installing Windows 10 from USB with UEFI support

Most devices now support the new BIOS interface specification called UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), introducing support for the Secure boot and GPT partition scheme.

Moving from traditional MBR (Master Boot Record) to the more versatile GPT format prevents older USB installation tools such as "Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool" from being used, requiring a new tool.

GPT versus MBR

The MBR (Master Boot Record) partition scheme dates to 1983. This special disk area holds OS boot files and information about logical partitions. Its replacement is the GTP partition scheme used by the new UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) BIOS specification.

Advantages of GPT partitions

Compared with MBR, GPT supports disks larger than 2 TB, CRC (cyclic redundancy check) corruption detection, up to 128 partitions instead of four, and generally faster OS startup.

Rufus

How do we create a bootable Windows 10 installation USB drive with UEFI support?

Use Rufus.

Rufus easily creates bootable drives. Its choice of partition schemes also suits UEFI installation media.

Download Rufus here:

• Rufus 2.12 (928 KB)
• Rufus 2.12 Portable (928 KB)

Creating a bootable Windows 10 USB drive with UEFI support

In Rufus, create bootable Windows 10 installation media with UEFI support as follows:

1. Device – Select the USB drive to turn into installation media (it will be erased)
2. Partition scheme and target system type – Vyberte “GPT partition scheme for UEFI“
3. File system – Up to 4 GB, leave "FAT32"; otherwise change to "NTFS“
4. Cluster size – Keep the default
5. New volume label – Keep the default name or change as needed
6. Check device for bad blocks – Select to check the USB drive for bad sectors first
7. Quick format – Leave selected (formatting is required to change the partition scheme)
8. Create a bootable disk – Leave selected with "Standard Windows installation" and select the Windows 10 installation ISO
9. Create extended label and icon files – Leave selected

Click "Run" to create the installation USB drive.

When finished, close Rufus and install Windows 10 from the prepared UEFI-compatible USB drive.

Update, 24 April 2017

These instructions primarily target hardware supporting a 64-bit UEFI bootloader. If your hardware does not support a 64-bit OS, copy the 32-bit UEFI bootloader bootia32.efi.
The boot file bootia32.efi is available for download HERE and must be copied on the USB drive to \efi\boot\bootia32.efi.

Jirka, thank you for pointing this out 🙂