The official launch of Windows 8 is just around the corner and with it comes a new feature that could change how some businesses distribute and manage Windows installations for their employees.This new feature, “Windows To Go”, has been missing from the Windows OS environment for some time now.
Windows To Go allows Windows 8 to be installed, loaded, and operated from USB devices. Previously, Windows had to be installed on local hard disks only, and each install of previous versions of Windows could not easily be transferred from one computer to another. Now, Windows can be installed to a USB drive and then moved from one computer to another while leaving the user’s profile, program installs, and documents all identical.
This could benefit business in that they can issue Windows To Go thumb drives to their employees instead of complete computer or laptop systems. That way, employees can use their own laptop for personal use separate from the corporate system, then when they need to do work-related projects, they can boot from the thumb drive and use the Windows 8 installation that their employer set up specifically for them.
Windows To Go also has the added benefit of allowing people to test out Windows 8 without having to re-install the operating system on their own machine. Users can boot to a Windows To Go thumb drive, and test it out before committing to it on their machine. If they don’t like it can just shut down, unplug the USB drive, and reboot back into their original setup with their previous OS.
