Liliputing

  • Reviews
  • Deals
  • How To…
  • Mini PCs
  • Shop
  • About
    • About Liliputing
    • Contact us
    • Advertise on Liliputing
    • Support Liliputing
    • Privacy Policy

You’ll be able to install Windows 8 “Portable Workspace” on a USB flash drive

04/15/2011 at 11:30 AM by Brad Linder 8 Comments

People have been figuring out ways to run operating systems from portable USB flash drives for pretty much as they’ve been available. But while installing a Linux distribution on a USB key is often pretty simple, Windows is another story. Sure, you can run Windows from a flash drive, but it’s kind of a pain.

It looks like that could change when Windows 8 hits the scene. The folks at MyDigitalLife got their hands on a leaked pre-release copy of Windows 8 and spotted a new feature called Portable Workspaces.

The Portable Workspace Creator utility will let  Windows users load a portable Windows installation onto a USB flash drive with 16GB of storage or more.

You’ll need Windows 8 Enterprise Edition to get this working, suggesting the feature is designed for business users who may need to frequently switch physical computers or IT folks who may find the feature useful for PC maintenance tasks.

It seems likely that a Portable Workspace will be linked to your full blown Windows 8 license, so it’s not clear how many workspaces you’ll be able to create, how many machines you’ll be able to run a workspace on, or whether there may be any other restrictions. But it certainly seems like it could be a nifty new feature for enterprise customers — and probably to a fair number of consumers as well.

via WinRumors and Engadget

 

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pocket
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Daily Deals (12-13-2019)

Every week this year, the Epic Games Store has offered up at least one game for free, and sometimes two. This week is one of the twofer weeks -- you … [Read More...]



Support Liliputing

Liliputing’s primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the “Shop” button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we’ll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you’re using an ad blocker and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or…

Contribute via PayPal

  • donate monthly
  • donate once only
Select a Donation Option (USD)

Enter Donation Amount (USD)

8
Leave a Reply

Login with
Facebook Google Twitter WordPress Yahoo! Disqus Reddit Stackoverflow GitHub
avatar
This comment form collects your name, email address, and content to allow us to keep track of comments placed on this website. Please read our privacy policy for more details.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser cookies for the next time I comment.
6 Comment threads
2 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
7 Comment authors
santoshBlackmixsolaCyberGusaaltfuels Recent comment authors
avatar
This comment form collects your name, email address, and content to allow us to keep track of comments placed on this website. Please read our privacy policy for more details.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser cookies for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
Aaron H
Guest
Aaron H

Looks interesting, but then again, this is probably knee jerk to Chrome OS and WebOS making big inroads in innovation. Microsoft knows this and are trying to preserve the laptops, desktops and netbooks out there.

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
8 years ago
Guest 2
Guest
Guest 2

This capabiliy won’t come cheap. You’ll probably need at least a 32 GB
USB 3.0 flash drive or Class 10 SDHC SD card (or similar) to fit
a barebones version of Windows. Reminds me of the attempts to
shoehorn Windows versions later than XP onto UMPCs with SSDs
these past few years.

And that doesn’t include the space required by applications you’ll need
to install on the removable media.

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
8 years ago
aiden9
Guest
aiden9

Guessing by the sentence next to the red X that it’ll require at least 16gb.=p

“The selected device is too small for use with Portable Workspace. Select a device that is at least 16GB in size.”

*edit*
Unless you meant 32GB to include useful programs then that is a possibility. A lot of programs for windows tend to be oversized. Sorry if so.

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
8 years ago
altfuels
Guest
altfuels

Er, is this about installing a full Windows setup on a flash drive, or just about installing user settings, applications, etc.? The 16 GB requirement makes it sound like the former, though “Guest 2” suggests even that might not be enough. I’m coming from a Mac perspective, where for decades I’ve been able to install an operating system on an external drive and to boot multiple machines from it; I gather that activation requirements (absent from the Mac OS and Mac OS X, not to mention Linux) make this a less trivial exercise for Windows — is that correct? If so, then the Enterprise Edition requirement might be due to a server-based management of activations, licensing, and the like. If, on the other hand, this is about carrying around your user data and settings on a thumb drive and maybe some applications, then isn’t it just a generalization of U3,… Read more »

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
8 years ago
CyberGusa
Guest
CyberGusa

[“Er, is this about installing a full Windows setup on a flash drive, or just about installing user settings, applications, etc.?”] Since it requires installation files and formating of the drive, I’d say the former… Especially since you would boot off this USB drive once created. Simple U3 type setup wouldn’t require all of those steps… [“I gather that activation requirements (absent from the Mac OS and Mac OS X, not to mention Linux) make this a less trivial exercise for Windows — is that correct?”] In part, yes… Windows also defaults to run from C partition and has to be modified to run from a different drive. So presently it is easier to just create a VM of Windows to run on another Windows system. The large install size is another issue but we’ve yet to see how large Win 8 will be and Flash Memory is getting cheaper… Read more »

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
8 years ago
sola
Guest
sola

Wow, Windows8 “may” be able to run from a USB key.

Graphical, full-fledged Linux distros have been doing this for AGES.

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
8 years ago
Blackmix
Guest
Blackmix

You need at least a 32gb flashdrive. But it works great on my usb hard drive.

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
8 years ago
santosh
Guest
santosh

i want to use live window 8 without hard disk….is it possible?? if yes then plz help me

You Must Be Logged In To Vote0You Must Be Logged In To Vote  Reply
6 years ago

Follow Liliputing:

Facebook Twitter YouTube tumblr RSS Patreon
Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by Skimlinks and Amazon's and eBay's affiliate programs.

Latest News

Apple and Spotify bring podcasts to Amazon Echo devices (and other Alexa-enabled gadgets)

Amazon's Echo line of products may have introduced the world to the idea of … [Read More...]

Lenovo Tab M8 HD

Lenovo may have a Chrome OS tablet on the way

Chrome OS tablets have been a thing for the past year and a half or so, but … [Read More...]

Xbox Series X coming in late 2020 (It’s pretty much a gaming PC in console form)

Microsoft has taken the wraps off its next-gen Xbox game console and the Xbox … [Read More...]

Featured articles

Magic Ben MAG1 8.9 inch mini laptop review

It's tricky to make a great mini-laptop. Want a super-small screen and a device … [Read More...]

Amazon Fire tablet hacking resources (Fall 2019 edition)

As usual, Amazon is offering deep discounts on Fire tablets for the holiday … [Read More...]

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 review (Ice Lake convertible laptop)

Dell's XPS 13 line of laptops have set the standard in recent years for just how … [Read More...]

Login

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2019 Liliputing · About Liliputing · Contact Us · Privacy Policy · Go to top of page

wpDiscuz
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.