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+---
+title: Windows 10, Bootable USB on Linux
+published: 2017-01-07
+---
+
+There are so many misleading, confusing and extremely complicated instructions 
+on how to create a bootable Windows USB stick on Linux that is not funny 
+anymore. This is mostly a "note to self" on how to do this.
+
+Microsoft conveniently 
+[provides](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO) 
+official Windows ISO files that you can use to perform fresh installations of
+Windows on PCs of relatives that you need to clean up. You don't even need to
+provide a "COA" key to download them, at least not for Windows >= 8.
+
+So, once you have the ISO and a USB stick (or external hard disk) of at least 
+4GB it is very easy, if the machine supports (U)EFI which all machines do that
+I got my hands on, even an old Samsung machine from 2009 supports it.
+
+We assume the USB device is `/dev/sdb`, please make sure this is correct for
+you.
+
+Empty the first MB of the USB device to clean any crap that may be there:
+
+    $ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb count=1024 bs=1024
+    [sudo] password for fkooman: 
+    1024+0 records in
+    1024+0 records out
+    1048576 bytes (1.0 MB, 1.0 MiB) copied, 0.174261 s, 6.0 MB/s
+
+Create a new partition using `fdisk`, it is important to create a partition of
+type `0x0c` and mark it as bootable:
+
+    $ sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
+
+    Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.28.2).
+    Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
+    Be careful before using the write command.
+
+    Device does not contain a recognized partition table.
+    Created a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x4ddb579b.
+
+    Command (m for help): n
+    Partition type
+       p   primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
+       e   extended (container for logical partitions)
+    Select (default p): p
+    Partition number (1-4, default 1): 
+    First sector (2048-30998527, default 2048): 
+    Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-30998527, default 30998527): 
+
+    Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 14.8 GiB.
+
+    Command (m for help): t
+    Selected partition 1
+    Partition type (type L to list all types): 0c 
+    Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'W95 FAT32 (LBA)'.
+
+    Command (m for help): a
+    Selected partition 1
+    The bootable flag on partition 1 is enabled now.
+
+    Command (m for help): p
+    Disk /dev/sdb: 14.8 GiB, 15871246336 bytes, 30998528 sectors
+    Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
+    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
+    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
+    Disklabel type: dos
+    Disk identifier: 0x4ddb579b
+
+    Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
+    /dev/sdb1  *     2048 30998527 30996480 14.8G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
+
+    Command (m for help): w
+    The partition table has been altered.
+    Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
+    Syncing disks.
+
+Now, create a FAT32 file system on the USB device:
+
+    $ sudo mkdosfs -F32 /dev/sdb1
+    mkfs.fat 4.0 (2016-05-06)
+
+Create some mount points:
+
+    $ sudo mkdir /mnt/usb
+    $ sudo mkdir /mnt/iso
+
+Mount the USB device:
+
+    $ sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
+
+Next we _mount_ the ISO to access the files on it:
+
+    $ sudo mount -o loop Win10_1607_English_x64.iso /mnt/iso
+
+Now, we copy the files from the ISO to the USB stick:
+
+    $ sudo cp -r /mnt/iso/* /mnt/usb/ && sync
+
+The `sync` is to make sure all data is written to the USB stick. 
+
+Unmount the ISO and USB stick:
+
+    $ sudo umount /mnt/iso
+    $ sudo umount /mnt/usb
+
+That's all!