Run HP USB Key Utility from Windows 7

The HP USB Key Utility can be used to write an SPP ISO to a bootable USB drive. If you run it on a Windows Desktop though it refuses to run because it requires a Windows Server OS.

To work around this extract the files instead of installing it, and run the hpusbkey.exe file from the extracted files. That will work.

Also worth keeping in mind is the fact that the latest version of this utility – version 2.0.0.0 – is 64 bit only. You only need to use this version if you want to write the latest (2015.04 as of this post) SPP to a USB. That’s because the ISO for this version is greater than 4GB and older versions of the utility don’t support it. If you are on 32 bit Windows 7, be sure to use an older version such as 1.8.0.0 or 1.7.0.0.

Hope this helps someone!