Create bootable USB drives the easy way (2024)

Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pendrives, memory sticks, etc.

It can be especially useful for cases where:

• you need to create USB installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.)
• you need to work on a system that doesn't have an OS installed
• you need to flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS
• you want to run a low-level utility

Despite its small size, Rufus provides everything you need!

A non exhaustive list of Rufus supported ISOs is also provided at the bottom of this page. (1)

Download

Latest releases:

Other versions (GitHub)
Other versions (FossHub)

System Requirements:

Windows 8 or later. Once downloaded, the application is ready to use.

Supported Languages:

I will take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the translators who made it possible for Rufus, as well as this webpage, to be translated in various languages. If you find that you can use Rufus in your own language, you should really thank them!

Usage

Download the executable and run it – no installation is necessary.

The executable is digitally signed and the signature should state:

• "Akeo Consulting" (v1.3.0 or later)
• "Pete Batard - Open Source Developer" (v1.2.0 or earlier)

Notes on DOS support:

If you create a DOS bootable drive and use a non-US keyboard, Rufus will attempt to select a keyboard layout according to the locale of your system.

Notes on ISO Support:

All versions of Rufus since v1.1.0 allow the creation of a bootable USB from an ISO image (.iso).

Creating an ISO image from a physical disc or from a set of files is very easy to do however, through the use of a CD burning application, such as the freely available InfraRecorder or CDBurnerXP.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

A Rufus FAQ is available HERE.

To provide feedback, report a bug or request an enhancement, please use the GitHub issue tracker. Or you can send an e-mail.

License

GNU General Public License (GPL) version 3 or later.
You are free to distribute, modify or even sell the software, insofar as you respect the GPLv3 license.

Rufus is produced in a 100% transparent manner, from its public source, using a MinGW32 environment.

Changelog

• Version 4.5 (2024.05.22)
  • Add new advanced option to perform runtime UEFI media validation of suitable images (Windows, most Linux)
  • Move the Use Rufus MBR advanced option to a cheat mode (Alt-A)
  • Fix truncation of VHDX images, as well as a benign error message when writing VHD/VHDX
  • Fix support for Linux persistence in some configurations (Mint, Ubuntu 24.04)
  • Fix multiple potential vulnerabilities (with thanks to Mansour Gashasbi)
  • Update internal GRUB to version 2.12
  • Update UEFI:NTFS to latest (now always uses the ntfs-3g driver, rather than the buggy AMI NTFS one)
  • Increase buffer size when copying ISO files, in an attempt to minimize the AMI NTFS UEFI driver bug
  • Improve partition creation handling
  • Don't display the WUE dialog when a conflicting unattend.xml already exists
• Other versions

Source Code

• Rufus 4.5 (6.1 MB)
• Alternatively, you can clone the git repository using:

  $ git clone https://github.com/pbatard/rufus

• For more information, see the GitHub project.

If you are a developer, you are very much encouraged to tinker with Rufus and submit patches.

Donations

Since I'm getting asked about this on regular basis, there is no donation button on this page.

The main reason is that I feel that the donation system doesn't actually help software development and worse, can be guilt-inducing for users who choose not to donate.

Instead, I think that "mécénat"; or developer patronage, from companies which benefit most from a healthy FLOSS ecosystem, is what we should be aiming for. This is because, unless they are backed by a company, developers who want to provide quality Open Source software cannot realistically sustain full time development, no matter how generous their software users are.

Also, unless you are blocking them (hint, hint), you'll notice that there are ads on this page, which I consider sufficient revenue enough.

Finally the fact that I have the freedom to develop Free Software in my spare time should indicate that I'm well-off enough, and therefore that you should direct your generosity towards people who need it a lot more than I do. If you really insist, you can always make a donation to the Free Software Foundation, as they are the main reason software like Rufus is possible.

At any rate, I'll take this opportunity to say thank you for your continuing support and enthusiasm about this little program: it is much appreciated!

But please continue to feel free to use Rufus without any guilt about not contributing for it financially – you should never have to!

(1) Non exhaustive list of ISOs Rufus is known to work with