[invalidptr]

I never understood why it's so complicated. On Linux, you can make a liveusb as easily as `cat liveusb.iso > /dev/sdX`. I imagine there is a powershell equivalent. There is a risk of writing to the wrong drive, so some kind of utility is needed. But the actual write is trivial. Why not make a win32 executable with the iso embedded so users only need to download one thing and then run it to write the USB media?

[badsectoracula]

IIRC Rufus can actually download the necessary ISOs so it isn't THAT complicated.

On the other hand, if someone finds that part too complicated to follow perhaps they may not be able to install Linux - or Windows for that matter - by themselves and come across other issues down the line. Ultimately replacing your OS with another one does require some minimum level of technical knowledge that you either need to have or be fine with learning during the process.

[kaicox]

Yeah, the actual write is easy. The human part is the hard part.

Most people don’t want “tools” — they want a magic button with no guesswork, no fear of nuking the wrong drive, and no tutorial rabbit holes.

A win32 installer that bundles the ISO, sets up the USB, and gently walks you through the transition? That’s the move.

We don’t need smarter users. We need smoother defaults.

[throwaway2087]

Windows PowerShell does not have a direct, native equivalent to this specific operation. You have to use some combination of Clear-Disk,New-Partition,Format-Volume,Mount-DiskImage, and xcopy to do that