Finally Microsoft embraces not-so-recent technological advances and offers Windows 10 on a USB flash drive! Optical drives have progressively diminished throughout the years due to almost all software being readily available via download on the internet, so it’s refreshing to see Microsoft finally “get with the times” and start distributing their flagship OS in a more modern fashion.
So, what difference does a humble USB flash drive make and how on earth do you use one to install Windows 10? Well, enthusiasts and businesses alike have been using USB’s to install Windows for years and for good reason:
- More durable
- Take up less space
- Easier to carry around
- Significantly better transfer speeds
The optical drive is something of a fossil in the technology industry and many manufacturers have simply stopped supplying them with their machines due to them simply becoming an unnecessary component in today’s modern world, with all software essentially being available for download via the internet. Also removing the optical drive from a machine enables manufacturers to reduce their costs and the size of their machines, which are both big positives for an OEM; this has resulted in the vast majority of modern PC’s having no optical drive, making the requirement of installing software via CD/DVD somewhat problematic.
This simple fact that most PC’s these days generally do not have an optical drive has been a big reason for end-users opting to install their Windows OS via USB – convenience.
The biggest reason to use a USB for installing Windows though, is speed!
One reason optical drives are so antiquated is their terrible data speeds. The disc also has to spin up and is generally much slower to access than a USB flash drive. You’re looking at single figure rates of megabytes a second – less than a megabyte a second in some cases and laptop optical drives can be even worse. A USB flash drive on the other hand can dish out data at tens of megabytes a second – even hundreds with the fastest USB 3 flash drives.