BYOD “Bring Your Own Device” is a current development trend, but it brings problems to the company's IT department. Employees not only bring their phones and tablets into the office, connect to email systems, applications and sharing centers, but also start using their own laptops and PCs in the workplace —— which makes IT management more complicated. How can an administrator isolate business applications from their personal information data, preventing data information from crossing the boundaries between the two and creating leaks? Complete desktop virtualization is not only expensive but also less effective.
Running Windows 8 on USB flash drive
Using Windows 8 Enterprise's Windows To Go function, users can use a large-capacity high-speed USB flash drive to provide a Win8 environment. When a USB flash drive is inserted into a PC, you can use the PC's CPU and Memory does not affect the PC's hard drive or data.
With the Windows To Go feature, users can access their Win 8 desktops and applications, as well as data stored on the remote file sharing center and on this USB stick. Because it uses local computing resources, Windows in Windows To Go is very fast, so applications that depend on system performance will work well.
At the same time, this method is also safer. When using the Windows To Go USB stick, the user cannot see the data on this PC. For Windows To Go, the drive for this PC is hidden, so information is difficult to copy to the Windows To Go USB stick. But users can access other removable storage devices and network resources, so make sure that any image has endpoint security. Windows To Go doesn't leave any traces on the PC. If you want to copy the data to a Windows To Go USB stick, you need to use network resources or removable drives.
The disadvantages of Windows To Go
Windows To Go also has a disadvantage, that is, USB flash drives are easy to lose. However, Microsoft provides a full-disk encryption tool, BitLocker, which is very easy to encrypt Windows To Go USB flash drives. It is highly recommended to ensure that BitLocker is turned on and add a password when creating a Windows To Go USB stick to protect your data.
Step-by-Step Guide to Using Windows To Go Features
Creating Windows To Go USB with Win8 Enterprise is very simple. Prepare a system image, then open the Windows To Go wizard and insert a high-speed USB flash drive with a minimum capacity of 32GB (Microsoft has certified some USB flash drives and recommends USB 3.0 USB flash drives). Then select the USB device, system image, and start the process. The target USB flash drive will be reformatted and the installation process takes about 10 minutes. Finally, the system will ask if you want to reconfigure this PC so that it can be booted directly from USB. BitLocker protection is recommended during the process.
1, the first step to start installing Windows To Go is to insert and select the appropriate USB device. Microsoft recommends using a USB 3.0 USB stick and has certified some products.
Illustration: Select a USB device to be used for Windows To Go
2. The Windows To Go Wizard will scan the local drive for a suitable Windows image. Alternatively, you can manually connect to the shared installation and select the image file of the pre-configured system and application provided by the Windows Deployment Tool.
Illustration: Windows To Go Wizard scans local drive
3. After selecting the U disk and image file, confirm and start creating Windows To Go disk.
Illustration: Ready to start creating Windows To Go disk
4. You can choose to use BitLocker to encrypt Windows To Go USB flash drive during installation. For security reasons, it is strongly recommended to use only the password.
Illustration: Using BitLocker to encrypt Windows To Go
5, the preparation process is not only to format the USB flash drive, but also to partition it. Just like a full Windows installation, the USB flash drive will also have a recovery partition.
Illustration: USB flash drive partition is similar to normal hard disk partition
6, ready to install Win8 on the USB flash drive, the system begins to create Windows To Go workspace on the USB flash drive, this step is the longest time of.
Illustration: Ready to install Windows 8
7 on the USB flash drive. After the Windows To Go USB flash drive is created, we can use it to boot the PC from the USB device.
Illustration: Once created, Windows 8 can now be booted from a USB stick. The device will be scanned and the appropriate drivers installed, and Windows To Go will be launched faster in the future. USB flash drives can accommodate several system configurations, and users can use it in the workplace, at home, in Internet cafes, in customers' offices, in friends' homes, without worrying about losing data or drivers. For those employees who can work on any PC anywhere, the flexibility of Windows To Go makes it an ideal tool. When you need to securely access your business system and don't want to take a laptop around, you can put your Windows To Go USB flash drive in your pocket and use it whenever you want.
When properly set up, the Windows To Go system is the same as other Windows PC systems, except that it runs on a USB stick. You can see the familiar “Start Screen”, you can use the Windows Store that comes with Win8, and any software pre-installed in the image. You can log in to Windows To Go with a Microsoft account, but by default you can't use it to access the Windows Store.
Windows To Go is low cost, easy to set up, and relatively secure. The IT team doesn't need to learn anything new, and users can easily use their own programs and data without having to reconfigure their computers. Windows To Go is one of the components of Win8 Enterprise and is only available to organizations that participate in the Microsoft Software Assurance program. If your company participates in Microsoft's Software Assurance program, Windows To Go may be a good reason to upgrade to Win8.
With the Windows To Go feature, IT technicians can deploy a corporate environment to users in a new mode, providing employees with Windows To Go drives for use during work, so they can quickly improve employee work. Efficiency, while ensuring that corporate data is not stored on a private PC; it ensures both corporate information security and equipment costs.