WinToFlash Turns Flash Drives Into Windows Installers

Need a quick and easy way to install Windows on a PC sans optical drive? WinToFlash turns Windows installation CDs/DVDs into bootable USB drives.

That should come as good news indeed if you've been looking for a way to shoehorn Windows 7 onto a netbook. As you may recall, a few months back we told you how to install Windows 7 from an external hard drive -- but that required a fair bit of hoop-jumping and an external hard drive.

A lot more folks have flash drives, and WinToFlash makes the entire process admirably simple. It works not only with Windows 7, but also with XP and Vista.

All you need is your Windows install disc and a flash drive large enough to accommodate it. (A 4GB drive should more than cover any version of the OS.) After WinToFlash does its thing, just pop your flash drive into your netbook or other PC and boot from it. The Windows installer will run just as though you'd booted a CD or DVD.

Awesome! Wish I'd had this a couple months ago -- but I'm just as happy to have it now. WinToFlash is free. [via Download Squad]