Rufus is a utility program that allows you to create bootable devices easily. Pete Batard developed it, and it is currently available for free as open-source software. If you were ever looking for an easy, straightforward way to create a bootable USB drive, then Rufus might just be up your alley. This is a utility-based piece of software, which is primarily aimed at helping you format or create bootable USB flash drives. If you needed to reinstall an operating system, you would need a program like Rufus to make sure that the operating system installation files can be installed on a machine that doesn’t have one.
The Rufus software was officially released on December 11, 2011. It was started by Peter Batard, the developer who created the early version of Rufus from v1.2.0 and earlier. And was continued by Akeo Consulting from v1.3.0 up to now. Since its release, the Rufus Application has been used by more than 100 million people. And as of January 1, 2018 – statistics prove that the application was downloaded more than 3 million times per month. The massive volume speaks loudly about how useful and reliable the software is. It seems that users of this application do not only see it as downloadable software for testing and instead, something valuable and advantageous for their initiatives. This website is not managed by Pete Batard. The content of this website should be used only as a guide.
Chocolatey is software management automation for Windows that wraps installers, executables, zips, and scripts into compiled packages. Chocolatey integrates w/SCCM, Puppet, Chef, etc. Chocolatey is trusted by businesses to manage software deployments. Version 2.14 (2017.04.10) BUGFIX RELEASE Fix inability to create BIOS-bootable drives, in some circumstances, due to write sharing permissions #924 Source: README.md, updated 2017-04-10.
Rufus Software Information
First released on December 11th of the year 2011, it initially served as a more convenient replacement of the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool for Windows. However, after 8 years of stable updates and new releases, it is now considered to be one of the staples in creating a bootable DOS drive. When it was first released, it only offered MS-DOS support, but it was later localized and made to support quite a few Windows operating systems. Let’s go ahead and see exactly how you can obtain and use Rufus on your computer today!
System Requirements Needed To Run The Rufus USB Creator
The Rufus USB Creator is considered easy to both obtain and use. What makes the Rufus USB Creator such a good choice compared to similar applications you can find, is its speed. It brings down the total writing time to a whopping 3 minutes, which, for the sake of comparison, is double what UNetbootin would take, provided that you are running at least Windows 7 x64 Core 2 duo with 4 GB of RAM.
You are going to need at least Windows 7, or higher, to be able to run it. Whether it is 32-bit or 64-bit doesn’t make too much of a difference, as both are supported. If that isn’t enough to convince you, you may want to consider an ever-expanding list of ISOs Rufus USB Maker works with and it includes Damn Small Linux, Raspbian, ReactOS and even Gentoo and FreeDOS!
You can practically use Rufus anywhere if you opt-out for the portable version, and seeing as the executable file is tiny, you can easily carry it with you on a USB drive, for convenience. With how much space some programs can take up these days, you quickly learn to appreciate the ones that are easy to transfer and store.
Downloading Your Copy of Rufus
Because Rufus is updated fairly frequently, you won’t have any trouble finding the most up-to-date version there is at any given time. When it comes to your Rufus download, you can opt-out for the portable version if you would like, or get the executable file instead. The installation file itself is 1.08 MB large, so the download process is going to be virtually instantaneous, regardless of what your internet connection is like. If you are interested, the source code which was used to create Rufus can be downloaded and modified to your exact liking, or if you prefer, you can clone the git repository – both of these options are freely available on their official website. We also mirror Rufus on this website. You can download the latest version of Rufus here.
The developer of Rufus doesn’t accept any donations for their work. Considering this is a completely free piece of software brought to you by a single developer, it is very impressive to know that the community has come together, in order to offer localization to multiple languages. If English doesn’t happen to be your first language, you might be relieved to know that Rufus is also offered in French, Italian, Russian, Deutsch, Turkish and a few more languages to boot!
Installing Rufus On Your Computer
Exactly as advertised, this very small executable file will provide you with everything you need to quickly and efficiently create a bootable USB drive. With such a tiny download, unmatched writing speed and plenty of options for you to play around with, the Rufus USB Creator delivers it all in a very convenient and stylish package!
Installing the Rufus USB Creator on your computer is likely going to be the easiest thing you’ve ever done, even if you’re not familiar with computers. It is literally an executable file you will need to run from whichever directory was downloaded to. That’s it! Installation complete! You will now be able to use Rufus as you please.
Creating Your Very First Rufus Bootable USB
This is where the fun finally begins! You are about to create your first Rufus bootable USB. The good news is that it is going to be both fast and easy. The user interface is very clean and intuitive. As with most of the programs of this kind, you will start by selecting the device you would like to make bootable. Always make sure you only have that one device plugged in at the time. Whichever operating system you want to write onto the USB drive will get it formatted and any data that may have been on it will be erased. You certainly do not want to mix up your USB drives and wipe the wrong one by mistake.
This will be followed up by the Boot selection dropdown menu. Make your selection. There is a ‘Select’ button, to the immediate right. You will use this to locate and select the IMG file you would like to add to the flash drive. Moving onto formatting options, the quick format checkbox will be ticked by default, making sure that the USB drive is formatted right before the writing begins.
When using Rufus, this is a mandatory step and you won’t have the option to turn it off. After you have made your selection and tweaked all of the settings to your liking, the ‘Ready’ bar will turn green, to notify you you have taken all the necessary steps and you may proceed. From there on out, you will be able to click on the ‘Start’ button and begin the writing process. Once the process is complete, you can safely remove the USB drive from the computer. Don’t remove the USB drive without having completed the process.
Speed Comparison Between Rufus And Other Applications
Rufus 2.2 Download Free
We obtained this information from the official website of Rufus. To understand the power of Rufus, we compare the processing time it takes to burn the ISO in the portable media drive. By using a Microsoft Windows 7 x64 Core 2 duo with 4 GB platform, we transferred the following ISO files to the 16 GB USB Flash Drive 3.0 ADATA S102.
Rufus 2.14 Download
In all these scenarios, we can see that the Rufus Software Application is consistent in being the fastest to perform the task. And although the time differences do not look that far from each other, it could mean a lot for most consumers because each second corresponds to the time saved in doing the task. This comparison was made when it was just Rufus v1.1.1, which is an early edition of the software. And with the succeeding upgrades and latest versions, you can only expect better performances.