Portable Windows??

[birchy]

Possibly a bit of a newbie question (despite using nothing but Linux for 5 years+)...

I have played around with portable Linux distros in the past, mostly installing to 4GB pen drives/flash drives/USB sticks/whatever you want to call them. I now have a need to run a couple of Windows-only apps that won't work in Wine. I don't particularly want to fatten my desktop machine with VirtualBox, so am wondering if I can install Windows ON a flash drive or portable HDD? Google suggests a lot of posts regarding installing Windows FROM a flash drive, but nothing about installing ONTO one.

Is it even possible? I've looked at Windows PE but it's command line only and the software I need to install is graphical. Would Bart PE do what I want?

[xenopeek]

As this is not about Linux, moving it here. Perhaps this is useful (first hit on searching for what you asked about): http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-insta ... must-read/. If you need more assistance with that, perhaps ask this question on a Windows support forum

[birchy]

Unfortunately duckduckgo (LMDE default search engine) didn't seem to find that page at all. Although I was searching for XP rather than Windows 7+. That guide (as do several others) require the user to already have Windows installed, which I do not. I did manage to install XP to a flash drive but it fails during boot up. I haven't used Windows at all for over 4 years. I've been lucky so far...