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Rufus

Rufus is a free Windows utility for formatting drives and creating bootable USB flash drives.

Place
#28 of 38
Score
5.8
Rufus's website

What Rufus is

Rufus is a free Windows utility for formatting drives and creating bootable USB flash drives. It can make boot media from Windows, Linux and other bootable ISO images, as well as disk images, and format USB drives, flash cards and virtual drives using formats including FAT32, NTFS, exFAT and ext3. For Windows 11 installation media, it offers options for PCs without TPM or Secure Boot and can set out-of-box setup choices such as a local account and privacy settings. Additional capabilities include Windows To Go drives, persistent Linux partitions, bad-block checks, image checksums and downloading official Microsoft Windows ISOs. Rufus is portable and requires no installation, and its interface supports 38 languages. It is free software under GPL v3, with published source available for users who want to compile it. The project describes security measures including digitally signed executables and verified GitHub commits. Rufus runs on Windows; its FAQ says Windows XP, Vista and 7 are no longer supported, and there are no plans for Linux or macOS ports.

Good

  • Free software released under GPL v3.
  • Creates boot drives from Windows and Linux images.
  • Offers Windows 11 setup options.
  • Portable and requires no installation.
  • Interface supports 38 languages.

Watch out

  • Windows XP, Vista and 7 are no longer supported.
  • No Linux or macOS port is planned.
  • No multiboot support is listed.

Who it suits

Rufus suits Windows users who need to format drives or create installation and other bootable media. It also has options for Windows 11 setup and persistent Linux partitions.

Verdict

Rufus provides a broad set of drive-formatting and boot-media options at no cost for Windows users. Its main limitation is platform support: it is not available as a Linux or macOS app.

Plans and prices

From Rufus's own pricing page, checked 30 Sep 2026.

All about pricing
PlanPriceWhat it gives you
Free SoftwareFree100% free software · GPL v3

The facts

Each one read from Rufus's own pages, with the date it was checked.

What it does

Boot media
It creates bootable drives from Windows, Linux, and other bootable ISO images, as well as disk images.checked 30 Sep 2026
Drive formats
It can format USB drives, flash cards, and virtual drives to FAT, FAT32, NTFS, UDF, exFAT, ReFS, ext2, or ext3.checked 30 Sep 2026
Languages
The interface natively supports 38 languages.checked 30 Sep 2026
License
Rufus is free software released under GPL v3, and the project says users may compile it from its published source.checked 30 Sep 2026
Other features
It supports Windows To Go drives, persistent Linux partitions, bad-block checks, image checksums, and downloading official Microsoft Windows ISOs.checked 30 Sep 2026
Portable
The project describes Rufus as portable, small, and requiring no installation.checked 30 Sep 2026
Purpose
Rufus formats drives and creates bootable USB flash drives.checked 30 Sep 2026
Security
The project describes measures including digitally signed executables, verified GitHub commits, hardware-based two-factor authentication, and static analysis.checked 30 Sep 2026
Support
The project directs users to its GitHub issue tracker to report problems or suggest features.checked 30 Sep 2026

Where it runs

Other platforms
The FAQ says there are no plans to port Rufus to Linux or macOS, and says an Android app using the Rufus name is unofficial.checked 30 Sep 2026
Windows installation
It can create Windows 11 installation drives with options for PCs without TPM or Secure Boot, and can set OOBE options such as a local account and privacy settings.checked 30 Sep 2026
Windows support limit
The FAQ says Windows XP, Vista, and 7 are no longer supported; versions 2.18 and 3.22 are the last listed for XP and Windows 7, respectively.checked 30 Sep 2026

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