What is Windows To Go?

Windows to go is like Linux live, Windows on disk.

Good, and can does it save data on windowa, or after shutdown all data are gone?
Another thing, can i do sync of xhanges between desktop home wineows and windows on the go؟

It is a Windows installation on a USB stick which you can use in different PC's, and it is fully functional. But it only comes with the enterprise version of Windows 8.x.

Hi hassanayoub85,

Please visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/enterprise/products-and-technologies/devices/windowstogo.aspx and you will get more information.

There are certain USBs which Windows To go can be stored on

Regards

Okay, I read that,
but lets say i have windows in home, and windows in work.
And i set up this stick. when i go work and do my work, then go back home, can i resume my work, an sync changes with my home pc?

You can store the data on the stick, so you wouldn't need to do any syncing.

But Windows 8.x by default uses m$ user accounts linked to m$ hotmail and the OneDrive cloud storage. With such accounts the data stored in your profile is automatically synced with OneDrive and available over all Windows 8.x devices that use that same account. But that has nothing to do with Windows to Go.

Hi.
"can does it save data on windowa, or after shutdown all data are gone?" - It's a portable windows that saves changes and doesn't discard anything when unplugged. Like you were already told, you can save your data on the USB drive so it's available anywhere you plug that usb drive.
It works with nearly any usb drive but Microsoft recommends certain devices and I have seen big differences in performance. I can recommend the Kingston data traveler drives. Very fast, even on USB2.0 it's nice to use.

Local disks are not accessible, all read/writes go to the USB stick.

Local disks are not accessible by default, but can be made accessible in disk management.

Ok good info fom you all.
Last 2 things:
1- I have a hard drive 2 TTB, when I installed Windows-To-Go, it installed in whole harddrive. can I Install it in a particular partition, to use other partition for data?
2- When using Windows-To-Go version, I can access the local harddrive, can i access the windows-to-go data from a host pc?

1. If you just want to use a partition why did you not just install Windows?
2. not recommended. but possible.

1. In diskmanagement you can shrink the volume, then add a new partition in the freed up space.

2. Can be done, but why? Just boot that PC directly from Windows to go and you have your data.

1 see Rindi
2 sure, in diskmanagement, set the other drive to "online" and add a drive letter.

David Johnson, CD, MVP:
1- I have 2 TB harddisk, so i want to isntall windows to go on a 100GB, and use the rest as dta backup, got my point?
2- How to do that and access windows to go data from host?

rindi:
1- If I shrink it from diskmanagement, the partition will not be shown on my host pc.
2- How to be done?

McKnife:
2- I am not able to see the whole hard drive in my host pc to set it to online!!!

1. I have just shrunk a Windows to go partition directly from within Windows to go. But I don't know if you can reduce it's size that much.  Windows diskmanagement is a bit limited at the amount of the reduction. So if you can't shrink the partition by that much, you'll need to use a 3rd party utility.

2. The same way as McKnife mentioned, but while booted into the Windows to Go disk. Set the PC's internal disk to online, assign a drive letter, and copy...

rindi:
1- If you shrink the HDD from inside windows to go drive, it is shriked successfully, however, if you unplug the drive, and pulg it into already running windows pc, you cant see the shrinked partition.
2- Same scenario, I am on a indows host pc, then i lugged the windows to go drive, so I cant boot it up, i am already on windows host pc, so, how to access the data on the windws to go drive?

2 open disk management. There, you will see "the other" hard drive, no matter if 2go is booted or the static system. There you set it to "online", there you assign a drive letter.

2- Nothing related to the external hard drive is shown in diskmanagement!!!!

Then open device manager to see if it shows up in the drives section. It has to, otherwise it is not rpoperly connected/recognized at the hardware level.

It is found in the device manager, and it is booting normally to windows to go!!!

What is found? The very drive that you don't see in disk management?
If so, are we talking about the same disk management? I meant diskmgmt.msc, open that one.

The whole idea behind Windows to go is that you can boot up into your Windows environment directly even when using a foreign PC, by just using your USB stick or disk, you don't have to carry your PC or laptop around with you. It isn't the idea of Windows to go to transfer data between to go and the native OS on the PC, that would usually be a huge security issue and something every company wants to avoid at all costs. As this is only available with Windows 8.x Enterprise, which can only be acquired in Volume Licenses for companies, it is targeted only for companies, and therefore any access to the local PC's disks (or vice versa, if you booted from the local disk's OS) is disabled by default.

But via diskmanagement I can assign drive letters to the to go disk, as well as from the to go disk to the local disks, provided you have the password to the administrator's accounts.

McKnife: Yes, diskmgmt.msc, and nothing found there, but the windows to go boot normally when restarting the system.
rindi:I got it, but the to go usb drive is not shown in disk management to be able to access it!!!!

As I said: then it seems, as if the drive is not found at the hardware layer already. So please check if the BIOS sees it.

Dear, if the bios dont see it, so how come it is booting normally to windows to go?
And why it was working perfectly before converting it to windows to go?

Did you by any chance enable encryption when you setup Windows to Go? That's what I could imagine that could cause this. I am at the moment playing around with Windows to Go, and I can see the disk when bootet from the PC's OS. Have you checked whether it can be seen on another PC, maybe also another OS (Windows 7)?

Oh dear. I am not talking about the to go hardware but the built-in drive. If to go's device manager does not see that drive, I recommend to go to the bios and see if it's still recognized. Of course you can stop that if the hard drive installation (not the to go one, but the built-in one) still boots.

rindi: Yes, ive enabled bitlocker while creating it.
McKnife: the to go works perfectly, abdd can see local hdd. I want the reverse, i want to access to-go's drive from host.

I don't think you can do that with encryption on.

How to turn it off?

So,why my ToGo drive works perfectly and oad perfectly on 2 machines, but, it is not shown in winxp, seven, or 8 host PCs!?
As I need to format the hard drive, to use it as data backup!!!

I donno how and why, but it is now working, and can see it and manage it form host!!!
I just updated windows 8 and removed hyperv, and it worked. lol.
thanks alot guys

Why just a "C" grade? Your Question was what is Windows to Go, and that was answered perfectly.

You are right I am sorry, how to change it?

Use the "Request Attention" button in the Question.