Surface Pro 4 won't boot to USB

After days of trying to help a friend reset forgotten passwords on two Surface Pro 4's, and trying and failing at many suggestions found on the web, here is what worked for me on both machines. My friend had purchased a copy of Windows 10 on USB but both devices refused to boot from the new USB stick with windows on it. Even after I went into the UEFI and set USB as the only bootable option, I also selected "None" in the Security setting (You will need to selected these settings for this to work). I also created a bootable USB stick using my Windows 10 desktop, but both surfaces failed to boot from that as well even after repeated attempts and UEFI settings. Ok here is what did work. After many in this thread mention successful boots after switching USB sticks I decided to try my own fix. I went to Staples and purchased a 32 GB Lexar S75 USB 3.0 Jumpdrive. It was on sale for $16.99 plus $1.51 tax (total $18.50). I then formatted the drive in my Windows 10 desktop (select fat32). I then copy all of the files from the new Windows 10 USB stick that would not boot on to the formatted Lexar 3.0 USB stick. I then put the Lexar USB stick into one of the Surface Pro 4's and pressed the start button.  Success.... it booted from the Lexar 3.0 USB stick and showed me the options for installing or repairing windows on the Surface Pro 4.  

** Remember before booting from the USB stick, you must go into the UEFI by holding down the shift key on your surface keyboard, left click on the power button on the bottom right of the lock screen, and select reset (the surface keyboard works best since  you will need the USB port for your USB Stick) when the surface restarts you will get a blue screen with several options. On the blue screen select "Troubleshoot", then Select "Advance options", then select "UEFI Firmware Settings", then hit "Restart". Once the machine restarts you will be on a screen saying "Surface UEFI".  Go to security, and in "Change configuration", select "None". Also turn off TMP. Then go down to "Boot configuration" and make sure only "USB Storage" is selected (black square check box).  Also on that screen, go to Advance options and make sure only "Enable from USB devices" is turned on. If this is done correctly you will get a red bar with a white lock on the top portion of your screen during the bootup procedure. Now hit exit and restart. Make sure the Lexar USB is inserted in the machine.

This is the process that worked for me, and I just wanted to share all of the steps that I followed. I think it may also work with just a bootable USB that you can create from any windows computer since my problem was the machine failing to boot from any USB stick during the bootup.  procedure. The problem may be isolated to the USB stick being used. I suggest using nothing less than a 3.0 USB stick when trying to boot from USB.

Good Luck.

I just had success with my Surface Pro 4 doing this with the bootable creator update USB I downloaded. The volume up or volume down buttons DID NOT WORK! 

Plug the USB stick into the computer. I put mine into the computer itself and not the dock.

Go to settings. Choose the one that says update and or security. Pick the restore or recovery option. (I think the wording is different on the Creator so I'm not 100% sure what mine said) From there you can choose how you want to proceed. Choose the boot from USB option. There should only be one USB to pick from. The rest of the steps are the same that is outlined in the MS directions with the exception of picking what system. I did not get that choice.

I was actually surprised at how quickly everything went and am currently downloading/reinstalling apps and programs.

Hey Gang - I wanted to post what worked for me since I spent hours looking for a solution. I have a USB stick that worked fine on newer SP4's but wouldn't work at all on the older SP4's. I had to update the UEFI to the current version available here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49498

After the update I was able to image the SP4 without any problems.

Was this done on Windows 10? I am unable to boot from PIXI and USB(Norton) Ghost?