Nothing happened.
He had one 128GB USB 3.0 drive, a borrowed library computer (with admin rights — thank you, sleepy librarian), and a half-broken smartphone for Googling. how to install windows on a usb drive
The Windows logo appeared. Then the spinning dots. Then — setup. Nothing happened
He tried again. Still nothing. Then he realized: on a library PC, Alt+T opened the Tools menu in the file explorer. He closed it, held down Shift + Ctrl , then pressed Alt + T — a rumored triple-key override from a forum post from 2017. held down Shift + Ctrl
He checked it, selected his flash drive, and let Rufus do its thing. 45 minutes later, it was done.
