Installing Windows 11 on Raspberry Pi (An Illustrated Guide)

Windows 11 was officially released at the end of 2021 for traditional PCs, and you can already get it running on a Raspberry Pi. It’s not as straightforward as installing a Linux distribution that’s made for the Raspberry Pi, but the procedure isn’t that complicated. I will explain everything in this article.

The easiest way to install Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi is directly on Raspberry Pi OS. Install Pi-Apps to get a program that will flash Windows 11 onto a USB or SSD drive. It’s also possible to use the same tool on a PC from a Windows or Linux system.

There are some prerequisites required in order to make this work, so we’ll start there. Then I’ll give you the step-by-step guide to get Windows 11 running on your Raspberry Pi. In a few minutes (with a good Internet connection), you can have Windows up and running on your Raspberry Pi!

If you’re new to Raspberry Pi or Linux, I’ve got something that can help you right away!
Download my free Linux commands cheat sheet – it’s a quick reference guide with all the essential commands you’ll need to get things done on your Raspberry Pi. Click here to get it for free!

Prerequisites to Install Windows 11 on Raspberry Pi

Windows 11 is not a traditional operating system you’d normally run on a Raspberry Pi, so there are a few things you’ll have to get right in order to start the procedure below.

Hardware Prerequisites

Windows 11 (and Windows 10) “works” on a Raspberry Pi, but don’t expect perfect performance. It’ll be slow, regardless of which hardware you use. Knowing this, it would be better to use the best hardware you can in order to ensure the best results while doing this experiment.

Here are my recommendations to get the best results:

• A Raspberry Pi 5 or Pi 4 with 8 GB of RAM: These are the best models available right now. A Pi 4 with 4 GB or a Pi 400 will do the job, but I wouldn’t expect decent performance on an older model.
  
  You can find a great kit here if you don’t have one yet.
  
• A USB drive, ideally an SSD: to install Windows on. Using an SSD will slightly improve the performance, so it is best if you can get one.
  
  SSD is cheap, and you can get one with a USB cable directly on Amazon (here is my favorite, and here is a cheaper but solid option that you can put in a USB adapter like this one).
  
• Optional: a decent SD card. Only if you follow the first method, installing Windows from Raspberry Pi OS.
  
  You can read my benchmark of the best SD cards here, or get the winner on Amazon if you don’t have anything good enough.

Note: There are a few compatibility issues that still have not been resolved.
– The Pi 5 with 16GB RAM won’t boot with this method.
– Wi-Fi doesn’t work (unless you use a USB adapter).

Software Prerequisites

The only thing you need is to have an up-to-date firmware that allow the boot from a USB device, and even take is as the default option.

Basically, if you already booted from a USB drive or if your Raspberry Pi device is new (2021 and further), it should be fine. There’s nothing extra you need to do.

If not, you need to update the firmware to the latest version, and set the USB boot by default in the Raspberry Pi Software Configuration Tool.

I explain everything in the community, there is an entire project where I explain how to boot from a USB disk, but in a nutshell, here are the commands you need:
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo rpi-eeprom-update
sudo raspi-config

Once done (or if you know your device is already ready for this), you can move to the next step.
In any case, you can still come back to this if you see that your Raspberry Pi is not using the USB drive to boot.

Note: If you want to see the steps for installing Windows on your Pi, I have a video on this topic just for community members. Join here to watch, and get access to 30+ other lessons for Raspberry Pi along with many other benefits!

Install Windows 11 from Raspberry Pi OS

The easiest way to install Windows 11 on Raspberry Pi, is to do it directly from Raspberry Pi OS. Unlike other methods, you don’t need to go on weird sites to find the correct image to download, the process is straightforward, and the tool will do everything for you.

Note: This method still probably works if you want to install Windows 10 instead, but be aware that it might not have been updated in awhile.

Here are the required steps to install Windows 11 directly from Raspberry Pi OS:

• Install Pi-Apps on Raspberry Pi OS.
• Use Pi-Apps to install WoR Flasher.
• Use WoR Flasher to create the USB drive with Windows 11.

We’ll now see how to do this step-by-step. And if you want to watch this tutorial in video, here is the corresponding video on my channel:

https://youtu.be/nf9J6C2uB4g

Install Raspberry Pi OS on Raspberry Pi

Before going further, you need to have Raspberry Pi OS running on your Raspberry Pi. I recommend using an SD card for Raspberry Pi, and a USB drive (key, SSD, or NVMe) for Windows.

If you start from scratch, you can follow this tutorial to get Raspberry Pi OS on your SD card and do the initial configuration. You’ll need an internet connection and an up-to-date system.

I’m testing this on a Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB) and Raspberry Pi OS Trixie, but the system version and Raspberry Pi model shouldn’t matter that much. If you already have an SD card ready with Buster on it, go with it.

By the way, if you’re new to the world of Raspberry Pis, I created a 30-day challenge to help you go from beginner to expert. With it, you can finally complete many fun and useful projects (retro gaming, home automation, servers, etc.). You can find all the details here.

Install Pi-Apps on Raspberry Pi

Next, you need to install Pi-Apps. Pi-Apps is a tool to install many custom applications easily on your Raspberry Pi that you can’t normally find in the default repository. Pi-Apps is not the only way to do this, but it will make the next steps way easier for you.

You can find the installation details on their GitHub page here, but basically, you can install it in one command:

• Open a terminal.
• Copy and paste this line:
  wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash

Tip: Command lines can be a pain to memorize. I put the essential Linux commands on a printable cheat sheet so you don't have to keep googling them. You can grab the PDF here if you want to save some time.

That’s it, Pi-Apps is now available in the main menu, you can move to the next step.

Use Pi-Apps to Install WoR Flasher

Now that Pi-Apps is installed, we can use it to install WoR Flasher on Raspberry Pi OS. WoR stands for “Windows on Raspberry Pi” and is a tool to install Windows 11 on a USB disk in a few clicks.

Here is how to install it:

• Launch Pi-Apps. You’ll find it in your main menu, under Preferences.
• Navigate to “All Apps” or “Tools” and find “Windows Flasher” near the end.
  
• Select it, and click “Install” to continue.
  

Pi-Apps will do everything for you. You will have to wait a few minutes, and then it’ll be installed on your Raspberry Pi.

Use WoR Flasher to Install Windows 11

Once WoR Flasher installed, start it from the main menu > Accessories.

Let’s learn how to use it:

• I got a download error using the latest Windows 11 image, so let’s choose an older version.
  Select “More options” and the Raspberry Pi model you have.
  
• Select “Choose an exact Windows version to download” next.
  
• Choose which version of Windows you’d like to install.
  Pi 5 users can choose 26100.4349 (2025-06) as of this update.
  Pi 4 users should probably choose 22631.2861 (2023-12) as of this update.
  
• Next, select the language to use.
• The storage device where you want to flash Windows 11.
  At this stage, make sure to have your USB drive plugged in, and nothing else to avoid any issues (it wouldn’t be a good idea to flash Windows 11 on your backup disk!).
• An installation overview will show up, you have nothing to change here, the tool will use the best settings for your device automatically.
  
• Just click “Flash” to start the installation.

Note: if you experience any issue with the disk formatting. I recommend installing GParted, deleting all the partitions on the USB drive and even creating a new partition table. This way, the tool will start from scratch, and it should improve the chances of success (I got a few issues with this too).

Then, the long part of the process will start. The tool will download all the required files, it may take a while depending on the Raspberry Pi model, your connection speed, and the USB disk you use. Just make sure your Pi stays powered on the whole time and does not go into sleep mode.

Once everything is done, you’ll get a success pop-up. I did see a critical error message on the terminal, but the process still completed and worked for me.

Note: If you’re using an alternate method to flash Windows from a PC, you can download the images manually from the WoR project’s ESD Image Downloader page.

First Boot

Shut down your Raspberry Pi, remove the SD card containing Raspberry Pi OS, and only keep the USB drive with Windows 11 connected. Start your Pi and wait a few seconds.

The device should boot from USB and display something like this:

This will take a long time, especially if you are not following my guidelines to use the best Raspberry Pi model with an SSD drive.

Once everything is ready, it will reboot (maybe several times) until it shows the traditional Windows 11 welcome wizard. You just need to follow it to get your system ready.

Final Thoughts & Going Further

Everything seems to work correctly, I haven’t spent much time on it, but I didn’t notice any major issues. The only thing is that everything is too slow for me. I prefer running a Linux distribution optimized for this device (even if it means that some apps are not available) than using Windows and have everything going slower than on Linux.

But I understand that some of you may need Windows to work on specific apps with only a Raspberry Pi available. So, even if I wouldn’t recommend it in my favorite systems for the Raspberry Pi, it’s good to see it running correctly. The network is working, I got my files synchronized with my PC thanks to OneDrive (even if I don’t want that but anyway), and you can use Microsoft Store to install any apps like on any traditional computer.

By the way, there’s now a new way to run Windows on Raspberry Pi by using a virtual machine. Check out our guide here: The New Way to Run Windows on Raspberry Pi (Botspot VM).

In short, installing Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi is a fun project to experiment. It may help some of you access apps that are not available on Linux, and you can install it even if the Raspberry Pi is the only computer you have. But don’t expect too much from it, for most of us it will only stay an experiment, not the system we’ll use every day on the Raspberry Pi.

If Windows is not required for you, you can find other options that look like Windows but work way better, for example take a look at Twister OS or some of these desktop environments. You might find that you can really replace Windows with Linux after all.

Not getting the same result?

Even when you follow every step, small differences in OS version, hardware or config can change the outcome. Instead of wasting time guessing, get help from people who have already fixed the same kind of issue.

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