Rufus

Free Windows utility that formats USB drives and creates bootable USB media from ISO images.

Our verdict

Rufus is for anyone who needs to make a bootable USB installer from an ISO on a Windows PC. Skip it if you are on macOS or Linux.

What it does well

Free under GPL v3 or later, with no installation needed
Makes bootable drives from ISOs, including Windows and Linux
Builds for x64, x86 and ARM64, plus a portable version

Where it falls short

Windows 8 or later required to run
Windows only; cannot create drives from macOS or Linux
Website shows ads and has no donation button

Rufus is a utility that formats and creates bootable USB flash drives. The site says it is useful for making USB installation media from bootable ISOs, working on a system with no OS installed, flashing BIOS or firmware from DOS and running low-level utilities. The current version is 4.15 (2026.06.30).

According to the GitHub README, it can also create Windows To Go drives, Windows 11 installation drives for PCs without TPM or Secure Boot, persistent Linux partitions and VHD, VHDX and FFU images, check for bad blocks and download official Windows retail ISOs.

Rufus is free. The author says there is no donation button and the site's ads are enough revenue. It is licensed GPL version 3 or later.

What users say

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Last updated 17 October 2026. Facts checked against the official site on 16 October 2026. How we make money