How to create a Windows 11 arm64 (ARM) bootable USB using Rufus

• To create a Windows 11 ARM64 bootable USB with Rufus, download the tool, choose the “Download” option, and select the “ARM64” architecture.
• Rufus will let you download the ISO directly from Microsoft and write it to a USB flash drive for installation on ARM-based devices, such as Copilot+ devices.

If you have an ARM-based device, such as a Copilot+ PC with a Snapdragon processor, you can use the Rufus tool to create a Windows 11 USB bootable media, and in this guide, I’ll show you how to complete this process.

Although the official Media Creation Tool doesn’t come with the support to create a USB bootable media, the Rufus tool not only includes this functionality but also features an option to download the arm64 version of the ISO file directly from the Microsoft servers without relying on extra tools.

In this guide, I’ll outline the easy steps to use the popular open-source tool to download the ISO file and create a USB flash drive to install Windows 11 on an ARM-based computer, such as on a Copilot+ PC.

Create a Windows 11 ARM64 USB using Rufus

To create an ARM64 USB bootable media to install Windows 11 on a Copilot+ PC or another ARM-based device, connect a USB flash drive with 8GB of space, and then use these steps:

1. Open the Rufus website.

2. Click the link to download the latest version under the “Download” section.

3. Double-click the Rufus executable file to launch the tool.

4. Click the Settings button (third button from the left) at the bottom of the page.

   Quick note: You only have to change the update settings if the “Download” option isn’t available.

5. Choose the Daily option in the “Check for updates” setting and under the “Settings” section.

6. Click the Close button.

7. Click the Close button again.

8. Open Rufus again.

9. Choose the USB flash drive under the “Device” section (if applicable).

10. Click the down-arrow button (on the right side) and select the Download option.

    

11. Click the Download button.

12. Select the Windows 11 option.

13. Click the Continue button.

14. Select the latest release of the operating system.

15. Click the Continue button.

16. Select the Windows 11 Home/Pro/Edu option.

17. Click the Continue button.

18. Select the installation language.

19. Click the Continue button.

20. (Important) Select the ARM64 architecture option.

    

21. Click the Download button.

22. Select the location to save the Windows 11 ARM64 ISO file automatically.

23. Continue with the default settings provided by the Rufus tool.

24. (Optional) Specify a name for the drive (for example, Windows 11 24H2 Setup) under the “Volume label” setting.

25. Click the Start button.

26. Clear all the options from the “Windows User Experience” page to create an installation media without modifications.

    

27. Click the OK button.

After completing the steps, a bootable USB will be created to install Windows 11 on a Copilot+ PC or another compatible device using an ARM-based processor.