rufus Create bootable USB drives the easy way
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:
Despite its small size, Rufus provides everything you need!
Oh, and Rufus is fast. For instance it's about twice as fast as UNetbootin, Universal USB Installer or Windows 7 USB download tool, on the creation of a Windows 7 USB installation drive from an ISO. It is also marginally faster on the creation of Linux bootable USB from ISOs. (1)
A non exhaustive list of Rufus supported ISOs is also provided at the bottom of this page. (2)
Download
Last updated 2022.03.11:
Supported Languages:
System Requirements:
Windows 7 or later, 32 or 64 bit doesn't matter. Once downloaded, the application is ready to use.
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:
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. In that case, FreeDOS, which is the default selection, is recommended over MS-DOS, as it supports more keyboard layouts.
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
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) Speed comparison between Rufus and other applications
The following tests were carried out on a Windows 7 x64 Core 2 duo/4 GB RAM platform, with an USB 3.0 controller and a 16 GB USB 3.0 ADATA S102 flash drive.
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!
Oh, and Rufus is fast. For instance it's about twice as fast as UNetbootin, Universal USB Installer or Windows 7 USB download tool, on the creation of a Windows 7 USB installation drive from an ISO. It is also marginally faster on the creation of Linux bootable USB from ISOs. (1)
A non exhaustive list of Rufus supported ISOs is also provided at the bottom of this page. (2)
Download
Last updated 2022.03.11:
- Rufus 3.18 (1.3 MB)
- Rufus 3.18 Portable (1.3 MB)
- Other versions (GitHub)
- Other versions (FossHub)
Supported Languages:
| Bahasa Indonesia | , | Bahasa Malaysia | , | Български | , | Čeština | , | Dansk | , | Deutsch | , | Ελληνικά | , |
| English | , | Español | , | Français | , | Hrvatski | , | Italiano | , | Latviešu | , | Lietuvių | , | Magyar | , | Nederlands | , | Norsk | , |
| Polski | , | Português | , | Português do Brasil | , | Русский | , | Română | , | Slovensky | , | Slovenščina | , | Srpski | , |
| Suomi | , | Svenska | , | Tiếng Việt | , | Türkçe | , | Українська | , | 简体中文 | , | 正體中文 | , | 日本語 | , | 한국어 | , | ไทย | , |
| עברית | , | العربية | , | پارسی | . |
System Requirements:
Windows 7 or later, 32 or 64 bit doesn't matter. Once downloaded, the application is ready to use.
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. In that case, FreeDOS, which is the default selection, is recommended over MS-DOS, as it supports more keyboard layouts.
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 3.18(2022.03.11)
- Fix DLL sideloading vulnerabilities
- Fix ISO → ESP creation when running on Windows 11
- Fix an issue when detecting network connectivity when the DHCP service is disabled
- Update FreeDOS to version 1.3
- Add bypass of Windows 11 restrictions for in-place upgrades
- Add Miracle Linux 8 to the list of Red Hat exceptions
- Other internal fixes and improvements
- Other versions
- Rufus 3.18 (4.5 MB)
- Alternatively, you can clone the git repository using:$ git clone https://github.com/pbatard/rufus
- For more information, see the GitHub project.
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) Speed comparison between Rufus and other applications
The following tests were carried out on a Windows 7 x64 Core 2 duo/4 GB RAM platform, with an USB 3.0 controller and a 16 GB USB 3.0 ADATA S102 flash drive.
| • | Windows 7 x64 | : | en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_618240.iso |
| Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool v1.0.30 | 00:08:10 |
| Universal USB Installer v1.8.7.5 | 00:07:10 |
| UNetbootin v1.1.1.1 | 00:06:20 |
| RMPrepUSB v2.1.638 | 00:04:10 |
| WiNToBootic v1.2 | 00:03:35 |
| Rufus v1.1.1 | 00:03:25 |
| • | Ubuntu 11.10 x86 | : | ubuntu-11.10-desktop-i386.iso |
| UNetbootin v1.1.1.1 | 00:01:45 |
| RMPrepUSB v2.1.638 | 00:01:35 |
| Universal USB Installer v1.8.7.5 | 00:01:20 |
| Rufus v1.1.1 | 00:01:15 |