Windows 10: Boot Surface Laptop to USB - no Volume button

I have a new Surface Laptop and want to boot to a USB thumb. Unlike the Surface Pro, the laptop does not have a Volume button. It does use F5/F6, but neither work for booting. I know that I can select a custom startup from within Win 10 Pro, but want to go from power off to USB boot. Thanks.

:)

 

Windows update cannot restart, w10

I have a Surface pro 3 and sometimes it fails to restart on fast ring builds. I have recovered from these failures either buy running through the surface pro bios setup (press the power button and volume button at the same time until it reboots). I do
not know why that works but it usually fixes my problem.

The second option when all else fails is to go to the Surface support site and download a copy of Windows 10. You will need your surface serial number to register. Download on a working computer and place the Win 10 on a USB stick.

Go back to your Surface Pro, run setup and add "boot from USB" before "Boot from HDD".

Boot your Surface Pro with the USB stick and run "Startup Repair". You may have to try this more than once. If that doesn't work, run the the option to repair the OS and keep your existing files.

 

Boot into Windows Defender Offline

You need to set your BIOS to boot from USB, doing so is different from device to device. For Surface, you may follow these steps:

Step 1:
Shut down your Surface.

Step 2:
Once Surface has turned off, press and hold the volume-up button.

Step 3:
With the volume-up button held down, press and release the power button.

Step 4:
Continue holding the volume-up button until the Surface logo no longer appears on the screen.
You should now see the Surface UEFI. Do one of the following:

• Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3: Go to Step 5 below.
  
• Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2: Skip to Step 9 below.

Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3:

Step 5:
Select Configure Alternate System Boot Order.

Step 6:
Do one of the following:

• Surface Pro 3: Select USB > SSD
• Surface 3: Select Network > USB >
  SSD.

Step 7:
Select Exit Setup.

Step 8:
Select Yes to save the configuration and restart Surface.
Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2 (optional for Surface Pro 3)

Step 9:
Select Secure Boot Control.

Step 10:
Select Disable. This will allow Surface to search for an alternate device to boot from aside from your SSD.

Note
This may affect the look of your Surface splash screen.

Step 11:
Select Exit Setup.

Step 12:
Select Yes to save the configuration and restart Surface.

 

Hello Jimmy, *Smile

This doesn't list the "Surface Laptop", but you might give it a try to see.

*Arrow Boot Microsoft Surface from a USB device

Otherwise, you should be able to use OPTION ONE below to boot from the USB from advanced startup.

*Arrow Boot from USB Drive on Windows 10 PC Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

 

Thanks, Brink, but those options also failed. I know that I can do it from the advanced startup options, but want to boot from a shutdown. There can be times when you can't get into Windows to get to the advanced startup options.

 

I'm not familiar with the UEFI firmware settings for the "Surface laptop" to give better specific details, but your should be able to change the boot priority in its UEFI to have "USB device" listed first and your Windows drive second.

This way when you boot with a USB connect, you should have an option to boot from it if doesn't automatically.

 

FWIW, you can get toe system to boot to a USB device from startup, if you open the on-screen keyboard at power up, click Shift to highlight it, and restart. That actually just takes you to the Windows System menu where you can choose to boot to USB on the next startup. I don't know whether this would work if you can't access Windows normally in the first place.

 

It would depend on how bad Windows is corrupted.

 

Sure. If you can to the System menu by any means, you're good to go. Otherwise, it would be tough to impossible to get to the drive for a more technical repair.