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. non exhaustive list of Rufus supported ISOs is also provided at the bottom of this page.
Last updated 2020.04.22:
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. non exhaustive list of Rufus supported ISOs is also provided at the bottom of this page.
Last updated 2020.04.22: