How to Change “Windows to Go Startup” Options on Windows 10

There are various companies, and educational institutions request their users to work from home or any location of the world where they stay. In this case, these institutions also ask the employees to follow all the privacy guidelines to make the data secure and confidential. The confidential data can’t be compromised in any circumstances. In this state, these organizations and firms use the “Windows to Go” feature.

“Windows to Go” is a brilliant workspace feature that permits the Operating System to be copied into other external drives such as flash drive, USB drive or portable hard drive. In this article, we will guide you on how to modify the Windows To Go Startup feature on Windows 10.

Modifying Windows to Go Startup Feature

Windows to Go Startup Feature is a very interesting feature having the capacity to store Windows 10 on a USB stick. You have to connect to any device and restart from the same machine. The system windows ensure that all the resources are available at their command. Then, pursue these guidelines to know how to turn on, apply or modify this great feature on Windows 10.

Editions for Using Windows to Go Feature

There are two Windows editions that you can use to run or modify the feature of Windows to Go.

1. Windows Education
2. Windows Enterprise

Using the Windows Control Panel

Pursue these indications to modify the startup options:

• First of all, launch the traditional Control Panel by navigating the Settings icon.
• After that, hit the section “Sound and Hardware” and then hit the tab “Printers and Device.”
• Now, press the option available for modifying Windows to Go Startup feature.
• Then, a new prompt window will launch on your device, where you see two different options there for activating and deactivating the feature. In case you wish to boot the PC from Windows to GO workspace feature in automatic mode, then follow these guidelines:
• Tap the “Yes” button after selecting the USB drive option and ensuring that you are going to connect. It should be connected to the particular USB drive consisting of the workspace just before the restarting of the system.
• Hit the “No” tab, if you want to deactivate the option and to ensure to modify the particular boot section in the firmware of your PC, e.g., UEFI or BIOS.
• Once can cancel the prompt up box by entering the under mentioned command into the run dialog box:

“rundll32.exe_pwlauncher_dll,Show_PortableWorkspace_Launcher//Configuration_UX?.”

• After performing these actions, hit the Yes tab there.

Switching “Windows To Go” Feature to On or Off via PowerShell

The command line featured tool can also be beneficial in switching the Windows to Go feature automatically. It is directed to run the undermentioned “pwlauncher” command to activate and deactivate the feature. In case you are using the tool, it is not mandatory to get into the particular firmware and modify the startup options there.

• Type the command into the command window to run the pwlauncher tool for switching to any mode of Windows to Go feature:

“pwlauncher_disable” or “pwlauncher_enable.”

• In case you run the pwlauncher command, you will deactivate the status of the Windows to Go feature automatically.

Configuring “Windows to Go” through Registry Editor

In case you wish to modify the “Windows to Go” feature on more than one device, then it is requested to use this procedure with ease.  To do so, first of all, you have to perform this method on your primary device and then export various modifications of your registry entries. The final stage is to import them to other devices with ease.

• Follow these guidelines to configure the feature “Windows to Go” through registry entries on multiple devices:
• In the beginning, hit the Registry Editor tool to launch.
• After that, go to the option: “HKEY/LOCAL/MACHINE_SOFTWARE_Policies-Microsoft-Portable_Operating_System.”
• Then hit the Enter to continue. You have to change the DWORD keyword with the name “Launcher.” It can be modified to Disable (1) or turn On (0).

Using Group Policy Editor to Activate and Deactivate Windows to Go Feature

• First of all, hit the Group Policy Editor to launch by hitting the Run Dialog box. Then insert the keywords: “gpedit.msc” followed by the tab Enter.
• After that, go to the Computer Configuration section and then hit the Administrative Templates option there.
• After that, press the option Windows Components.
• Next, press the Portable Operating System section there.
• After that, modify the option to deactivate and activate as per your requirement.

Source :- https://momcafee.com/how-to-change-windows-to-go-startup-options-on-windows-10/

Daisy Martin  is an avid technical blogger, a magazine contributor, a publisher of guides at mcafee.com/activate and a professional cyber security analyst. Through her writing, she aims to educate people about the dangers and threats lurking in the digital world  .