About Transfer

FlashBoot is not bound to hardware. You may install it on any number of computers you own, and use it to format any USB storage devices without limitation. FlashBoot does not require activation and does not access network during installation or operation. You may transfer FlashBoot to another computer at any time.

About Updates

We provide free lifetime upgrades for all users of FlashBoot, since 2005.

If you need to update your copy of the FlashBoot Pro to the latest version (with fixed bugs, added features etc), then just redownload from your order result URL and reinstall the software. For you convenience, this URL is also displayed on the "More Info..." screen of first page of FlashBoot wizard.

If you are user of FlashBoot 2.0-2.3a or FlashBoot 1.x, then you can update in such way: download and install FlashBoot Free, then copy your license key to its installation folder, e.g. C:\Program Files\FlashBoot.

RSS Feed

Mar, 08 of 2024 Minor update 3.3q released.

• Windows Setup on USB scenario, FAT32 filesystem: when OS installation image is larger than 4Gb and compressed in solid mode, FlashBoot no longer emits WIM split error.
• Bootable clones: when FlashBoot fails to duplicate original security descriptor to the target filesystem on a USB storage device, this is no longer a fatal error.
• UEFI-related scenarios: when user-supplied ISO file lacks 64-bit UEFI bootloader (due to third-party customizations or x86/x64 confusion), ISO file is rejected outright at the Wizard phase, rather than later at USB storage device formatting phase, with reference to missing Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi in installation WIM (as in the previous FlashBoot versions).

Jun, 24 of 2023 Minor update 3.3p released.

Hardware compatibility improvements for "Windows 7 installation to the modern computers" feature.

Starting from this version, VGA emulation patch for UEFI loader skips GOP video modes which are advertised by UEFI firmware but do not fit into the firmware-allocated framebuffer. This fixes black screen problem for recent nVidia GPUs whose UEFI Option ROM truncates UEFI GOP framebuffer to 1024x768 but leaves higher-resolution video modes in the UEFI GOP mode table.

Mar, 10 of 2023 Minor update 3.3n released.

• New feature for Full OS on USB and Bootable Clone scenarios: now you can specify whether a portable OS running from a USB device should have access to local fixed disks (such as SATA, NVMe, IDE etc) or should it be restricted to removable USB storage devices only.
• New feature for latest builds of Windows 11: now you can allow installation of Windows 11 without mandatory creation of online account. The same applies to the first boot of Full OS on USB scenario.
• New feature for installable clones of Windows 7 x64 in UEFI mode: now you can apply OS loader patch for VGA emulation on modern UEFI-based computers lacking VGA-compatible hardware. Previous versions of FlashBoot Pro supported this feature only for fresh installations of this OS.

Apr, 04 of 2022 Minor update 3.3m released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot accepts source WIM/ESD files with duplicate descriptions for the different WIM images (OS editions).

Nov, 19 of 2021 Minor update 3.3k released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot fully supports Windows 11 in all modes and scenarios (including FlashBoot Free which now has TPM/RAM/SecureBoot check bypass options for Windows 11 setup).

In addition, since this version, cloning without compression is the default mode for bootable clones.

Also we have updated all screenshots in the FlashBoot User Guide to match the latest software version.

Aug, 19 of 2021 Minor update 3.3j released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot Pro can reinstall Windows from an installable clone in UEFI mode even if UEFI runtime services refuse to update UEFI boot order variables (due to a bugs in UEFI firmware).

In previous versions, errors of this type were fatal, and so they interrupted Windows reinstallation process, leaving OS in an unbootable state. Starting from this version, errors of this type are converted to warnings, they do not interrupt the reinstallation process, and (if any) are displayed in a joint informational message after completion of the reinstallation.

Jun, 11 of 2021 Minor update 3.3i released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot Free automatically splits large (4 Gb or more) install.wim to install.swm, install2.swm etc when converting Windows Setup from ISO file or DVD disc to the bootable USB thumbdrive with FAT32 filesystem.

Likewise, FlashBoot Pro automatically splits install.wim if it overgrows 4 Gb during the driver integration phase in the same scenario.

May, 26 of 2021 Minor update 3.3h released.

The following error was fixed (it occured in full-OS-to-USB scenarios for some Windows 8.x/10 setup ISO files):

Failed to rename or move file or directory ...\Boot\bootnxt to ...\bootnxt:

Cannot create a file when that file already exists.

Feb, 05 of 2021 Important update 3.3g released.

Fixed serious driver integration regression/bug which was introduced in version 3.3f. All users of version 3.3f are recommended to update to version 3.3g. (Binary file for version 3.3f was replaced as well.)

Feb, 02 of 2021 Minor update 3.3f released.

• Added clearer error indication for special condition when WIM file exceeds 4Gb file size limit for FAT32 filesystem on the target USB storage device.
• Fixed "pathname is ill-formed" error (for virtual filesystem inside WIM file) which occured for dot and double-dot path components. This error was related to slipstreaming of some third-party drivers.
• Implemented ordered directory creation during interpretation of INF files (driver slipstreaming).

Oct, 13 of 2020 Minor update 3.3e released.

Further improvements for "Windows 7 installation to the modern computers" feature.

Starting from this version, VGA emulation patch for UEFI loader takes into account the native resolution of the monitor or LCD panel as specified by its EDID block.

Also, starting from this version, Windows Update won't overwrite VGA emulation patch in the UEFI loader.

Oct, 08 of 2020 Important update 3.3d released.

Collection of vendor-specific NVMe drivers (Intel, Liteon, OCZ and Samsung) had been superseded with one grand unified NVMe driver. This generic NVMe driver no longer halts Windows 7 at boot time (at the glowing logo phase).

So, starting from this version, FlashBoot Pro can aid in installation of Windows 7 to the modern computers which have any type of NVMe storage device from any vendor.

Sep, 28 of 2020 Important update 3.3c released.

Large collection of vendor-specific USB 3.0 Host Controller drivers (Intel, AMD, ASMedia, Texas Instruments, VIA, Renesas and Etron) had been superseded with one grand unified USB 3.0/3.1/3.2 Host Controller driver.

So, starting from this version, FlashBoot Pro can aid in installation of Windows 7 to the modern computers which have Intel chipsets with USB 3.1/3.2 Host Controllers (B360, B365, B460, H370, H470, Z370, Z390, Z490) and AMD chipsets with USB 3.2 Host Controllers (B550, X570).

Sep, 24 of 2020 Minor update 3.3b released.

• Fixed the following error which occurred for bootable clones without compression (only on 32-bit editions of Windows 10 and Windows 8.x):

  Failed to create child process: The system cannot find the path specified.

• Fixed the following error during NTFS formatting of large (1 Tb+) USB storage devices:

  Device is too big, too small or cluster size constraint can't be accomplished.

  This applies both to FlashBoot itself and to the self-extracting EXE files created by FlashBoot.

Sep, 19 of 2020 Minor update 3.3a released.

FlashBoot contains an optional shim layer for VGA emulation, required for installation of Windows 7 to the modern UEFI-based computers without CSM/BIOS and without VGA hardware.

FlashBoot version 3.3a features multiple improvements in this subsystem.

Starting from this version of FlashBoot, Windows 7 can be installed to UEFI-based computers where video memory (UEFI GOP framebuffer) is mapped above 4 Gb boundary. Previous versions of VGA emulation shim would fail with "Unsupported hardware" error under these conditions.

Also, starting from this version, an entire area of LCD screen is available to Windows 7 via Standard VGA Driver. Previous versions of VGA emulation shim restricted available resolution to 1024x768 and displayed black sidebars until vendor-provided GPU driver was installed by the user.

Additionally, starting from this version, GOP framebuffer is mapped with page granularity (4 Kb). Previous versions used to map it with 64 Kb granularity. This enhancement should reduce number of cases when Windows 7 boot process hangs at the logo/flag phase, before the desktop is displayed.

Sep, 01 of 2020 New version 3.3 released.

• Starting from this version, FlashBoot supports Windows To Go scenario for Insider Preview builds of Windows 10 in the UEFI mode with Secure Boot option enabled.
• Registry validation rules for bootable and installable clones were relaxed, starting from this version the following condition no longer results in a fatal error:

  KS-Cell #0x... has non-matching actual and stored reference count

• The process of registry validation for bootable and installable clones has become less verbose, warnings and errors are issued only at the first iteration (up to five attempts are made to capture Windows Registry in the consistent state, then FlashBoot continues with Windows Registry as is).
• Starting from this version, compressed bootable clones are created without warnings if cloned OS contains files larger than 4.2 GB.

Jul, 20 of 2020 Minor update 3.2z released.

This update fixes the following bug which is related to "installable clones" feature and occurred only in the Special Edition of FlashBoot Pro 3.2y for users of SharewareOnSale.com:

  FlashBoot WinPE Application error:

  Device "\\?\PhysicalDrive1\" not found.

Users of Standard Edition of FlashBoot Pro 3.2y are not affected by this bug.

Users of Special Edition of FlashBoot Pro 3.2y (SharewareOnSale.com) are encouraged to update. Version 3.2z accepts promo license keys which were issued for version 3.2y.

Download FlashBoot 3.2z setup or FlashBoot 3.2z portable.

May, 26 of 2020 Minor update 3.2y released.

Fixed a bug in FlashBoot which prevented FAT16 quickformatting of large USB storage devices by specifying sufficiently large unallocated space. This applies to FlashBoot Free and FlashBoot Pro.

Feb, 07 of 2020 Minor update 3.2x released.

Rules of Windows Registry hive validator (which is employed during Windows 8.x/10 cloning for snapshot consistency check) were relaxed to allow UTF-16 characters which are inconvertible to Unicode (these ones are used by third-party software).

Nov, 28 of 2019 Minor update 3.2w released.

• Size of EFI partition created by FlashBoot on USB storage devices has been increased from 32 MB to 100 MB (for compatibility with Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19033 and higher).
• Starting from this version, for scenarios related to UEFI, FlashBoot tries to extract Windows UEFI Loader both from \sources\install.wim(esd) and from \sources\boot.wim. Previous versions tried to extract the Windows UEFI Loader only from \sources\install.wim(esd).

Nov, 20 of 2019 Minor update 3.2v released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot can oust competing processes which prevent exclusive write access to the target USB storage device.

This applies both to FlashBoot itself and self-extracting EXE files generated by FlashBoot.

Oct, 14 of 2019 Minor update 3.2u released.

FlashBoot contains optional shim layer for VGA emulation on the pure UEFI systems, for Windows 7 compatibility.

Starting from version 3.2u, this layer employs multiple ways of obtaining interface for the UEFI Graphics Output Protocol.

So the following error (which used to occur on some firmware) was fixed: "UEFI GOP protocol is not supported. Press Enter to continue."

Oct, 07 of 2019 Minor update 3.2t released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot displays whether current computer is BIOS-based or UEFI-based, to avoid confusion.

Also the following error has been fixed in the cloning scenarios of FlashBoot Pro (it occasionally occurred for Windows 10.1903 registry hives):

L2 validation failed: Log header does not match hive header in field Minor

(value in hive = 0x00000003,

 value in log = 0x00000005)

Jun, 12 of 2019 Minor update 3.2s released.

The following error was fixed (it occurred in a loop during registry validation in cloning scenarios):

Could not replay logs for registry hive ...: L4 validation failed:

  KS-cell #0x... has invalid chain of UTF-16 byte pairs instead of its name

  Details: Can't convert string encoded in UTF-16: inconversible character (...) encountered at offset ...

Jun, 04 of 2019 Minor update 3.2r released.

• Updated prepacked Intel NVMe driver: added support for PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0A55 storage device.
• Patch for Windows 7 UEFI loader for compatibility with modern computers without VGA hardware: starting from this version, native LCD screen resolution with optional black sidebars is used instead of coarse pixels to futher improve compatibility with modern hardware.

May, 19 of 2019 Minor update 3.2q released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot Pro prints count of scanned files and folders, then number of processed bytes every 10 seconds, so software does not appear as stuck anymore when cloning large HDDs with many small files.

Apr, 19 of 2019 Minor update 3.2p released.

Fixed assertion failure when restoring image files whose size is not divisible by sector size.

Mar, 04 of 2019 Minor update 3.2n released.

Fixed a bug in FlashBoot Pro which prevented correct cloning of Windows 10 Store Apps.

Feb, 27 of 2019 Minor update 3.2m released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot Pro can patch Windows 7 UEFI loader for compatibility with modern computers which have no VGA hardware. This is an optional feature, disabled by default. It is located on the driver integration page, under "OS installer -> USB" main menu item. This feature is available only for Windows 7 x64 in UEFI mode. It should be applied if Windows Setup halts when displaying OS logo.

Feb, 17 of 2019 Minor update 3.2k released.

Improved compatibility of FlashBoot clones with NTFS reparse points under Windows 10, version 1709 and later versions.

Feb, 08 of 2019 Minor update 3.2j released.

• Performance improvements (clones of all types work faster since this version)
• OneDrive files which are not stored locally no longer cause FlashBoot to fail (all OneDrive files and folders are skipped during cloning)

Jan, 31 of 2019 Minor update 3.2i released.

Due to reports of insufficiency of 20-second delay for propagation of updated partition table from USB device through Windows 10 kernel (on some cheap underpowered tablets), starting from this version FlashBoot additionally waits for 30-second stabilization of observable partition table before attempting to create NTFS filesystem. Also both delays are doubled when FlashBoot runs under Windows 10.

Jan, 25 of 2019 Minor update 3.2h released.

The following error was fixed (it occurred on certain editions of Windows 10 in bootable clone creation scenarios without compression):

Failed to open file \\?\Volume{...}\\Windows\System32\Recovery\ReAgent.xml:

  The system cannot find the path specified.

Jan, 24 of 2019 Minor update 3.2g released.

The following errors were fixed (they occurred in a loop during registry validation in cloning scenarios):

• Could not replay logs for registry hive ...: L4 validation failed:

    KS-cell #0x... has abnormally large length of security descriptor

• Validation warning for ... registry hive: L4 validation WARNING:

    Index-of-subkeys cell #0x... has type IR,

    but there are not enough subkeys to be contained in IR

Jan, 11 of 2019 Minor update 3.2f released.

• Registry hive validation rules (which are used to enforce consistency during Windows 8/8.1/10 cloning) were relaxed to allow zero-sized registry hives. This should prevent erroneus loop during snapshot validation in cloning scenarios.
• Prepackaged Windows 7 driver for Intel USB 3.0 Host Controller was updated, added support for the following new devices:

  PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B5

  PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B6

  PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15C1

  PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D4

  PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DB

  PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A22F

  PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A2AF

Dec, 17 of 2018 Minor update 3.2e released.

Fixed regression which was introduced in the previous version (crash during decompression of WIM file).

Dec, 16 of 2018 Minor update 3.2d released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot Pro supports creation of bootable clones without compression.

Dec, 12 of 2018 Minor update 3.2c released.

Fixed the following error for non-UEFI scenarios:

no valid version info in Windows\Boot\PCAT\bootmbr

Dec, 03 of 2018 Minor update 3.2b released.

• Registry validator: increased tolerance to the leaks of allocated cells in the registry hives. They started to appear since Windows 10.1804 and seem to be caused by recent changes in MS Windows registry implementation code. FlashBoot must be able to create OS clone with such registry hives regardless.
• Also relaxed registry hive validation rules during registry log replay phase of OS cloning: starting from this version, any hashes in the registry indices are allowed.

Dec, 02 of 2018 Minor update 3.2a released.

• Fixed FlashBoot Pro which could not create an OS clone when there was a registry key or registry value with embedded NUL character.
• Increased verbosity for registry validation errors during OS clone creation process.

Sep, 23 of 2018 Major update 3.2 released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot Pro supports creation of installable clones. They can be used to transfer Windows with all installed apps and settings between PCs, to move OS from HDD to SSD, to move OS to/from RAID array, to change OS boot method between UEFI/non-UEFI, to gain unpartitioned disk space for dual-boot configurations, or just as self-extracting backup.

Also, severe data corruption bug (in INFCACHE.1) was fixed in driver integration subsystem. This applies to Windows 7 and Windows Vista only.

Jun, 04 of 2018 Minor update 3.1k released.

Added prepackaged drivers for Intel USB Host Controller with device IDs 1E26 and 1E2D (Panther Point).

May, 25 of 2018 Minor update 3.1j released.

Prepackaged drivers: Intel hybrid USB 3.0/3.1 Host Controller driver turned out to be a bad apple, so it was reverted to known-good previous version (pure USB 3.0 Host Controller driver).

May, 24 of 2018 Important update 3.1i released.

Fixed severe data corruption bug in WIM recompression subsystem: unrelated files with matching DIRENTRY.liHardLink were erroneously coalesced into single file. This bug could occur with WIM images originally captured on one NTFS volume, then updated from another NTFS volume. It sometimes manifested as invalid contents of \Windows\System32\oobe\WinLGDep.dll file inside \sources\install.wim of Windows 7 x64 setup image after driver integration.

May, 17 of 2018 Minor update 3.1h released.

Samsung NVMe controller driver was updated from version 2.2.0.1703 to 3.0.0.1802, and now it supports new device PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A808.

May, 15 of 2018 Minor update 3.1g released.

Fixed "too many USB logical disks after soft replug" problem which occurred for full-featured Windows 8/8.1/10 installation and cloning scenarios in UEFI mode, if target USB storage device was USB HDD, and if host OS was Windows 10 1804.

May, 14 of 2018 Minor update 3.1f released.

Added handling of specific condition when pre-existing EFI System Partition or Microsoft Reserved Partition could prevent reformatting of fixed USB mass storage device with GPT partition layout. This applies both to FlashBoot itself and self-extracting EXE files generated by FlashBoot.

May, 12 of 2018 Minor update 3.1e released.

The following prepackaged drivers were added:

• Intel(R) USB 3.0 Host Controller Adaptation Driver for Windows 8/8.1
• ASMedia USB 3.1 Extensible Host Controller Driver for Windows 7 and above
• Etron USB 3.0 Extensible Host Controller Driver for Windows 7 and above
• Fresco Logic xHCI (USB3) Device Driver for Windows 7 and above
• Texas Instruments USB 3.0 Host Controller Driver for Windows Vista and above
• Intel(R) 8 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller Driver for Windows 7 and above
• Intel(R) 9 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller Driver for Windows 7 and above
• Intel(R) ESB2 SATA AHCI/RAID Controller Driver for Windows 7
• Intel(R) ICH8R/DH/DO SATA AHCI Controller Driver for Windows 7
• Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller Driver for Windows 7
• Intel(R) ICH9R/DO/DH SATA AHCI Controller Driver for Windows 7

May, 11 of 2018 Minor update 3.1d released.

All builtin links to prime-expert.com and subdomains were changed from http to https.

Apr, 28 of 2018 Minor update 3.1c released.

For Windows Setup Media conversion scenarios (from ISO to USB), if size of install.wim/install.esd is larger than or equal to 4 Gb, and target filesystem is not NTFS, then this file is recompressed in solid mode. This is strictly necessary for post-November 2017 builds of Windows 10, and this is on par with MS Media Creation Tool.

Apr, 21 of 2018 Minor update 3.1b released.

Starting from this version, FlashBoot driver integration feature supports Windows Setup images with mixed bitness (32-bit/64-bit).

Mar, 26 of 2018 Important update 3.1a released.

• Starting from this version, Windows Recovery is installed to the target USB storage device along with mainline Windows in all ToGo scenarios (installing full-featured Windows 8/8.1/10, creating bootable clone of Windows 8.1/10). Windows Recovery takes part in major updates of Windows 10 (such as Fall Creators Update), so functional Windows Recovery is essential for this OS to survive major updates in ToGo mode.
• Driver slipstreaming feature for Windows Vista/7/8/8.1/10 now updates Windows Recovery Image (in addition to Windows Image and Windows Setup Image, as in previous versions), so Windows Recovery will be able to detect USB 3.0 peripheral HID and Windows Partition on NVMe/RAID storage devices. One more reason to slipstream drivers via FlashBoot Pro instead of sideloading them in Windows Setup.
• Prepackaged driver for Intel USB 3.0 Host Controller was updated, now it supports the following additional devices:
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B5
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15B6
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15C1
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15D4
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15DB
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A1AF
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A22F
  • PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A2AF
• Backward navigation in wizard for cloning scenario was fixed (used to skip file/folder exclusion page).
• Grey background used to flicker occasionally on the splash screen, that's fixed now.

Mar, 16 of 2018 Major update 3.1 released.

New feature in FlashBoot Pro: Create bootable clone of Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 on USB thumbdrive or USB HDD, which will boot independently from the main OS on internal HDD/SSD. Entire OS is cloned, including apps, settings, documents, games, browsers etc.

Mar, 02 of 2018 Minor update 3.0h released.

New method of UEFI bootloader installation for the following scenarios:

• PrepareWinVista78or10InstallerOnUSB_FromDVD_UefiMode
• PrepareWinVista78or10InstallerOnUSB_FromESD_UefiMode
• InstallWindows8or10ToUSB_FromDVD_UefiMode

Feb, 17 of 2018 Minor update 3.0g released.

Fixed the following error which occurred for all scenarios with CHS geometry translation (DOS, Windows XP, BartPE) starting from FlashBoot version 3.0:

Boot from USB disk failed, status <000003033>.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to reboot.

Feb, 13 of 2018 Minor update 3.0f released.

Fixed regression for Windows 8 which was introduced in FlashBoot 3.0d. Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 were not affected.

Feb, 10 of 2018 Minor update 3.0e released.

Added AMD USB 3.1 host controller driver to FlashBoot builtin drivers

Feb, 03 of 2018 Minor update 3.0d released.

Full-featured Windows on USB storage device (installed from ISO/DVD in BIOS mode): fixed "OS not found" problem

Jan, 31 of 2018 Minor update 3.0c released.

Fixed a regression in VFS code which was introduced in version 3.0b

Jan, 26 of 2018 Minor update 3.0b released.

Starting from this version, it's possible to create self-extracting archives specifying root directory of some volume as a source directory.

Jan, 25 of 2018 Minor update 3.0a released.

• Raw image writing: fixed stall of progress indication during zero padding operation
• FlashBoot size was reduced due to better compression of screenshots in the help file

Jan, 22 of 2018 New version 3.0 released.

• New features: driver integration and creation of self-extracting USB formatter EXE files
• Dropped a lot of obsolete features related to floppies, CDs, DOS, Windows 9x and 10-year old versions of Linux
• Simpler licensing model: Free and Pro editions, without time/use limitations
• Free edition is useful on its own and roughly corresponds to other free tools on the market
• Most of features from version 2.x were moved to Free edition
• Simpler main menu, clearly separated "OS installer on USB" from "full OS on USB"
• Improvements in command line version: flexible arguments, faster start time