Tutorial: How to make a QubesOS installation drive on Windows

This video will show you step-by-step how to download, verify (signatures and hash values), and install a Qubes OS image on a USB drive in Windows. The instructions on the Qubes OS website are primarily for Linux. This guide will help if you want to jump straight from using Windows to using Qubes.

Instructions:

***** Required Downloads *****

https://www.qubes-os.org/downloads/

Download the iso file, the cryptographic hash values, the detached PGP signature and the qubes release
signing key.

Download gpg4win. Run the installer with default options

https://gpg4win.org/download.html

Download Rufus

https://rufus.ie/en/

***** Authenticate the Qubes Master Signing Key *****

First, to use gpg in powershell we need:

Open cmd.exe

SET PATH=%PATH%;C:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG/bin

gpg --fetch-keys https://keys.qubes-os.org/keys/qubes-master-signing-key.asc

gpg --fingerprint Qubes Master Signing Key

427F 11FD 0FAA 4B08 0123 F01C DDFA 1A3E 3687 9494

gpg --edit-key 0x427F11FD0FAA4B080123F01CDDFA1A3E36879494
fpr
trust
5
q

Sanity Check:

gpg -k "Qubes Master Signing Key"

should say [ultimate]

***** Authenticate release signing keys *****

gpg --keyserver-options no-self-sigs-only,no-import-clean --import ./qubes-release-4.2-signing-key.asc

gpg --check-signatures "Qubes OS Release 4.2 Signing Key"

Should say gpg: 2 good signatures

Sanity Check:

gpg -k "Qubes OS Release"

Should say: uid [ full ] Qubes OS Release X Signing Key

***** Verify the cryptographic hash values of Qubes ISOs *****

Verify the authenticity of the DIGESTS

gpg -v --verify Qubes-R4.2.2-x86_64.iso.DIGESTS

Get-FileHash Qubes-R4.2.2-x86_64.iso -Algorithm MD5
Get-FileHash Qubes-R4.2.2-x86_64.iso -Algorithm SHA1
Get-FileHash Qubes-R4.2.2-x86_64.iso -Algorithm SHA256
Get-FileHash Qubes-R4.2.2-x86_64.iso -Algorithm SHA512

Open Rufus and select the Qubes iso file. Make sure to select "DD mode".

Done :-)