Ignite - The Windows 10 tips you wished you knew last week #THR2152

How to boot from VHD file (Windows 10 Preview)

Although it is now easy to test things in a virtual machine it is still something that require, or work better, on a physical installation. Among other Hyper-V or devices with touch screen.

So now when "Windows 10 Technical Preview" is here it is an appropriate time to go through how to use the VHD files as a disk to install the OS. Which makes it possible to start the OS directly without going through a hypervisor, even though we use a VHD file as disk.
You need to have the Pro or Enterprise version of Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1

 

I will assume that you have downloaded the required ISO file, links can be found in my blog post

http://olavtvedt.blogspot.no/2014/10/microsoft-jumps-over-number-9-windows.html

TechEd Amsterdam: Windows 8 To Go

You want to check out Windows 8 and don't have hardware to spare, can't run virtual or if just want to check if your computer can run Windows 8 ?

Then you might try Window 8 To Go. You need a USB drive with some space available, running it on USB 3 will of course give faster speed, but I have runned it on several USB 2 disk (memory stick and USB 2/3 often got to hot, so I use disks instead) without problem. I runned the developer preview on a Lacie Rugged Disk 500 GB (7200 rpm) and did several session on it at NIC 2012 and Utmessan on this solution without any hickups or problems