Create Windows ValidationOS on Linux | #HowTo #Windows #ValidationOS #Linux #Bootable #Live #USB

create-winvos-on-linux.md

Date	My distro	Doc status
03.02.2026	Alpine Linux (musl-based)	DRAFT/UNTESTED

Create Windows ValidationOS on Linux

1. Downloading and Mounting

1. Download an ISO of Windows 11 or Windows Server 2025 (win-installer) from the official Microsoft Windows website.
2. Download an ISO of Windows ValidationOS (winvos) from the official Microsoft Windows website.

3.  # mount --mkdir ~/Downloads/win-installer.iso /mnt/iso/win-installer
    # mount --mkdir ~/Downloads/winvos.iso /mnt/iso/winvos

2. Creating The Media

2.1. CSM/BIOS (Legacy Boot, recommended)

1. Make sure Legacy Boot (CSM/BIOS) mode is enabled in your firmware (BIOS/UEFI) settings.

2.  $ mkwinpeimg --windows-dir=/mnt/iso/win-installer --arch=amd64 --wim=/mnt/iso/winvos/ValidationOS.wim ./winvos.img
    # dd bs=4M if=./winvos.img of=/dev/sdX

2.2. UEFI/ISO (alternative)

1.  $ mkwinpeimg --windows-dir=/mnt/iso/win-installer --arch=amd64 --wim=/mnt/iso/winvos/ValidationOS.wim --iso ./winpe.iso
    # mount --mkdir ./winpe.iso /mnt/iso/winpe

2. The following steps are based on https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Windows_PE:

   On a USB key, create a GPT partition table with a single partition of type EFI System, and format the partition to FAT32.

3.  $ mkdir ./winpe-uefi
    $ cp -r /mnt/iso/winpe/* ./winpe-uefi/.
    $ cp -r /mnt/iso/win-installer/efi ./winpe-uefi/.
    # mount --mkdir /dev/sdX1 /mnt/usb/winpe
    # cp -r ./winpe-uefi/* /mnt/usb/winpe/.
    # # Don't forget to unmount!

3. Ejecting The Media

# umount /mnt/iso/*
# umount /mnt/usb/*
# eject /dev/sdX
$ sync

4. Booting

Physically eject the usb-drive, insert it into the target PC and boot from it.