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Windows To Go: Windows 8 on MacBook Pro

A new feature in Windows 8 Server, due out at the aforementioned time as Windows 8 itself, allows you to boot almost any computer into Windows viii using a USB thumb drive. Dubbed Windows To Go, it is finer a Windows alive CD — though, every bit far as nosotros know, you won't be downloading a Windows To Go ISO from Microsoft: it'southward an enterprise tool for It administrators. For a hands-on review of Windows To Go, watch the video below — or read on.

Basically, you insert a blank USB drive into a Windows 8 Server auto, click "Provision removable bulldoze with Windows To Go" (or similar — the verbal process isn't known), and that'southward it. Unlike a live CD, though, you lot can create a Windows To Go installation with your documents on information technology — and then yous could, in theory, acquit an up-to-date copy of your files and a bootable copy of Windows 8 in your pocket at all times. Unfortunately, for licensing reasons, it's unlikely that Windows To Become will exist available for consumer installations of Windows 8 — unless you lot purchase a 2nd license, perhaps — but who knows, it might be a characteristic of Windows 8 Ultimate.

In practice, Windows To Get actually, and rather surprisingly… works. You plug it in, select the USB stick during kick, and about thirty seconds later you are looking at the Windows 8 Beginning screen. We're told that this really is a total version of Windows eight — and it sure feels every bit fast and fluid as the existent thing — only the verbal characteristic set is undetermined (you will probably exist able to select/deselect features during disk creation). Nosotros tin can presume that information technology should at to the lowest degree back up domains, though, which volition go far ideal for hot desking or chop-chop returning a calculator to a usable country.

Everyone here in the ExtremeTech bunker would love the ability to give our ancestors a USB stick on Windows To Become; simply imagine, if they mess the installation up with malware, just burn them a fresh stick. Documents in Windows viii are automatically synced to your Windows Live SkyDrive, too… so it really would be like shooting fish in a barrel to but nuke everything and start again.

To come across Windows To Go in action, sentinel our hands-on video below.