Rufus

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.

Faq’s

What is the Rufus USB tool?

The main feature of it is to create an ISO on a USB. An ISO is used to contain a copy identical to what is normally contained on a physical disk. Thereby, Rufus can compile all the various files on a DVD or on a computer to place them into one ISO file.

It will reformat your device when it installs the ISO. Remember to save all your information somewhere else so that you don’t lose all that is on it. It provides support for creating MBR files for UEFI and BIOS for different computers.

Also, for some UEFI devices, it has GPT. For example, you can use Rufus to store an ISO for Windows 7 so that you can use it to re-install it on your computer in the future. Another option would be an older game that you only have on DVD that you would like to save for the future.

Other options for use might before creating an ISO that could be burned onto a disk or sent over the internet. The prime benefit is that it can be used for other systems even though Rufus only works on Windows.