How to create a Windows 11 (or 10) bootable USB from macOS

• You can create Windows 11 or Windows 10 installation media from macOS without using a Windows PC.
• The Terminal method uses diskutil, rsync, Homebrew, and wimlib to format the USB and split the oversized install.wim file.
• WinDiskWriter provides a simpler graphical method that avoids most Terminal commands.
• Both methods erase the USB drive, so important files should be backed up first.

If you have to install Windows 11 (or 10) on a computer but only have a Mac running Apple’s macOS, you can create a bootable USB flash drive using a non-Windows machine in the same way you can use a Windows computer to create a macOS bootable USB installer.

Although you have multiple methods to create an installation media for Windows 11, they are only available for Windows devices. However, you can also use macOS. The only issue is that the operating system lets you format the USB storage only with the FAT32 file system, which can store files under 4GB, while the “install.wim” file (containing the installation files) is usually larger than 4GB (usually 5.6GB). As a result, you have to use third-party tools to split the image into two smaller files to complete the process.

You can also use WinDiskWriter, a third-party app available for free on GitHub, which streamlines the USB flash drive creation process to a few clicks without needing the Terminal command console.

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How to create a Windows 11 (or 10) bootable USB from macOS

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In this guide, I will outline the steps to create a bootable USB using macOS to install Windows 11 as well as Windows 10 using the macOS Terminal command console and the WinDiskWriter app.

• Create Windows 11 (or 10) bootable USB on macOS using Terminal
• Create Windows 11 (or 10) bootable USB on macOS using WinDiskWriter

Create Windows 11 (or 10) bootable USB on macOS using Terminal

To create a bootable USB to clean install Windows 11 using macOS, use these steps:

1. Open the Windows 11 ISO download page.

   Quick tip: You can download the Windows 10 ISO file from this Microsoft support website.

2. Choose the Windows 11 option under the “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices” setting.

   

3. Click the Download Now button.

4. Select the installation language.

   

5. Click the Confirm button.

6. Click the “64-bit Download” button to save the ISO file on your macOS device, more specifically in the “Downloads” folder.

   

7. Connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of storage.

   Quick note: This process erases everything on the drive. As such, it’s recommended that any important data be backed up off the storage.

8. Open Launchpad.

9. Search for Terminal and click on the top result to open the command console.

10. Type the following command to identify the USB flash drive storage and press Return:

    diskutil list

    

    Quick note: In my case, the USB is identified as “disk4.”

11. Type the following command to clean and format the USB flash drive to make it bootable, and press Return:

    diskutil eraseDisk MS-DOS "Windows_USB" MBR disk4

    

    Quick tip: You can change “Windows_USB” to any name you want, but to avoid issues while running typing commands, make sure the name doesn’t include any spaces. I made that mistake and had to retype some commands because names with spaces must be specified with quotation marks. Also, change “disk4” to the identifier of your USB flash drive.

12. Type the following command to open the “Downloads” folder where the ISO file is located and press Return:

    cd Downloads

13. Type the following command to mount the Windows 11 ISO file to macOS and press Return:

    hdiutil mount Win11_2xH2_English_x64vx.iso

    

14. Type the following command to transfer the installation files from the ISO file to the USB flash drive (excluding the “install.wim” file because it’s too large for a FAT32 partition) and press Return:

    rsync -avh --progress --exclude=sources/install.wim /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/ /Volumes/Windows_USB

    

15. Type the following command to install the Homebrew tool on macOS and press Return:

    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

    

    Quick note: Homebrew is a package manager that lets you install the “wimlib” command tool to split the “install.wim” file and transfer it to the USB flash drive.

16. Confirm your macOS account password and press Return to continue.

17. Type the following two commands to add Homebrew to your “PATH” and press Return on each line:

    (echo; echo 'eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew sheval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"ellenv)"') >> /Users/YOUR-ACCOUNT/.zprofile
    eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
    

    

    In the command, update “YOUR-ACCOUNT” to match the name of your macOS account.

18. Type the following command to install the wimlib tool and press Return:

    brew install wimlib

    

19. Type the following command to split the “install.wim” image and transfer the packages to the USB flash drive, and press Return:

    wimlib-imagex split /Volumes/CCCOMA_X64FRE_EN-US_DV9/sources/install.wim /Volumes/Windows_USB/sources/install.swm 3500

    

    Quick note: The “3500” number is the size in MiB of the file split. You can specify any number as long as it’s less than 4GB.

Once you complete the steps, you will end up with a bootable USB flash drive that you can connect to a computer to perform a clean install of the operating system.

Create Windows 11 (or 10) bootable USB on macOS using WinDiskWriter

To create a Windows 11 bootable USB with the WinDiskWriter tool, use these steps:

1. Open the Windows 11 ISO download page.

   Quick tip: You can download the Windows 10 ISO file from this Microsoft support website.

2. Choose the Windows 11 option under the “Download Windows 11 Disk Image (ISO) for x64 devices” setting.

   

3. Click the Download Now button.

4. Select the installation language.

   

5. Click the Confirm button.

6. Click the “64-bit Download” button to save the ISO file on your macOS device, more specifically in the “Downloads” folder.

   

7. Connect a USB flash drive of at least 8GB of storage.

   Quick note: This process erases everything on the drive. As such, back up any important data off the drive.

8. Open the WinDiskWriter download page.

9. Click the WinDiskWriter.x.x.zip option to download the file on your Mac.

   

10. Press the Control key + click the WinDiskWriter Zip file, and choose the Open option to extract the tool.

11. Press the Control key + click the extracted WinDiskWriter tool file, and choose the Open option.

    

    Quick note: Since this is not an official app, you will receive the “WinDiskWriter.app can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software” message, which is expected behavior for this app.

12. Press the Control key + click the extracted WinDiskWriter tool file again, and choose the Open option.

    

13. Click the Open button.

14. Click the Choose button in the “Windows Image” setting.

    

15. Select the Windows 11 (or 10) ISO image.

16. Click the Open button.

17. (Optional) Check the “Patch Installer Requirements” option to install Windows on unsupported hardware.

18. (Optional) Check the “Install Legacy BIOS Boot Sector” option to install the operating system on a device without UEFI firmware. (This option will require reopening the app.)

19. Click the Start button.

20. Click the Start button again.

21. Click the Allow button.

After you complete the steps, you will have a bootable USB flash drive to install the operating system.