How to boot Asus laptop by USB?

I'm new to Windows 8 and so far it's been a headache compared to previous versions. It came with my new laptop which does not have a DVD drive. I have 8gb of RAM and it's slow. It's loaded with bloatware I want gone.

I created the bootable USB drive but can't figure out how to get the laptop to boot via USB. Its not even an option in the BIOS menu... unless I am missing something. The only option in "Boot" is to disable or enable Windows Boot Manager. I did a quick re installation but obviously it just put the bloatware right back on.

How to create UEFI Boot Mode compatible Windows 8.1 64-bit USB flash drive. -> link

How to download and clean install Windows 8.1 if you have an OEM computer with UEFI firmware (BIOS) embedded Windows 8/8.1 product key. -> link

2. Clean install Windows 8.1 from USB/DVD.

- You do not need to change the boot order of drives in your computer's UEFI firmware (BIOS).
- You do not need to disable Secure Boot in your computer's UEFI firmware (BIOS).

- Connect your Windows 8.1 USB flash drive or insert your Windows 8.1 DVD.
- Restart the computer.
- Press the correct key to enter the boot menu (see this link for help).
- Select your USB/DVD from the boot menu.

Click to expand...

For my ASUS laptop pressing the Esc key during boot up will bring up the quick boot menu. That menu will let you boot from another device like a bootable thumb drive. On the next boot after that, if you don't do anything, it will go back to what was set as default originally.

Thanks genet and alphanumeric! I got rid of Rufus and downloaded the file exactly as in the link genet posted. I hit Esc once and instant boot menu. Finally!

Your problem was that Rufus created a MBR stick but for your machine you need an UEFI stick. The stick will not show up in the temporary boot menu if it is MBR. Those are the little annoyances with Windows 8.1 - but they will continue with Windows 10. So we better get used to them.