Repolode
Submit
pbatard

pbatard/rufus

A Windows utility for formatting USB drives and creating bootable USB media from ISO and disk images.

Open-source alternative to:EtcherUNetbootin

View on GitHubWebsite
Stars
38,260
Forks
3,201
Open issues
10
Last commit
2 days ago

What is it?

Rufus is a small Windows utility that formats USB flash drives and other removable media and turns them into bootable drives. It can write bootable ISO and disk images for Windows, Linux and other operating systems, and it supports both BIOS and UEFI boot modes.

Beyond basic formatting across FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, UDF, ReFS and ext2/ext3, Rufus can create FreeDOS or MS-DOS boot drives, Windows To Go drives, and persistent Linux partitions. It can also build Windows 11 installation media for PCs without TPM or Secure Boot, and can create VHD, VHDX and FFU images from an existing drive.

The program requires no installation, is distributed as a portable executable, and is licensed under GPL v3. It also computes MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256 and SHA-512 checksums of images and checks drives for bad blocks, including fake flash drives.

Key features

  • 01Formats USB and flash card drives to FAT32, NTFS, exFAT, UDF, ReFS and ext2/ext3
  • 02Creates BIOS or UEFI bootable drives from ISO and disk images
  • 03Creates FreeDOS or MS-DOS bootable USB drives
  • 04Builds Windows 11 installation media for PCs without TPM or Secure Boot
  • 05Creates Windows To Go and persistent Linux drives
  • 06Computes MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256 and SHA-512 checksums of images

Use cases

  • Installing Windows or Linux on a PC from a USB drive
  • Making a bootable DOS USB drive for BIOS utilities or firmware updates
  • Running Windows from a portable USB drive with Windows To Go
  • Verifying image checksums and testing whether a flash drive is genuine

Quick start

  1. 1

    Download Rufus from the official website rufus.ie

  2. 2

    To build from source, use Visual Studio 2026 and open the .sln file, or use MinGW with configure and make

Things to know

  • Windows only; it is a Windows utility.
  • Licensed under GPL v3, a copyleft license.

In collections

Windows apps and utilities

Topics

#usb#bootable-drive#iso#uefi#windows#disk-imaging#bios#boot#bootable-drives#freedos

FAQ

What is rufus?
A Windows utility for formatting USB drives and creating bootable USB media from ISO and disk images. Rufus is a small Windows utility that formats USB flash drives and other removable media and turns them into bootable drives. It can write bootable ISO and disk images for Windows, Linux and other operating systems, and it supports both BIOS and UEFI boot modes.
Is rufus free to use? What license does it have?
rufus is open source under the GPL-3.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is rufus still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to rufus was on Nov 5, 2026.
What can I use rufus for?
Installing Windows or Linux on a PC from a USB drive Making a bootable DOS USB drive for BIOS utilities or firmware updates Running Windows from a portable USB drive with Windows To Go Verifying image checksums and testing whether a flash drive is genuine
How do I install rufus?
Download Rufus from the official website rufus.ie To build from source, use Visual Studio 2026 and open the .sln file, or use MinGW with configure and make
Where can I get rufus?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus

Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.

Related projects

ventoy / Ventoy

Open-source tool that turns a USB drive into a multiboot stick: copy ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x) and EFI files and pick them from a boot menu.

Developer Tools#bootable-usb#multiboot#iso
80.6K+145 this week5KCGPL-3.0Well maintainedUpdated 16 days ago