Rufus stands for Reliable USB Formatting Utility with Source. It is a tiny and lightweight utility for Windows PC, which helps you easily format, as well as create USB drives, such as USB keys, memory sticks, and USB pen-drives, which are bootable. It has advanced and standard options, to suit all skill levels.
Create bootable media with Rufus
This tool has a user-friendly interface that looks like the built-in format panel of Windows. We can choose a partition scheme, devices, cluster size, target system type, new volume label, and file system types – like NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and UDF.
Using this tool you can create an extendable label, quick format mode, and icon files. There are a few basic formatting options available. The tool also lets us select the algorithms (from type 1 to type 4). A bootable disk is created using the ISO image. Rufus records all the activities and saves them as a log file.
This multifaceted tool is useful when:
- USB installation media need to be created from bootable ISOs (Linux, Windows, and UEFI)
- A person wants to work on a computer in which an OS is not installed
- For the purpose of flashing a BIOS or any other DOS, the firmware is required
- A person wishes to run a low-level utility.
New features in Rufus:
- 32-bit support range for UEFI: NTFS boot
- Addition of Advanced mode stand-alone UEFI: NTFS with boot installation
- Disable support for hidden GRUB version ISOs
- Repair and correct Windows UEFI installation-related issues while using GPT/NTFS.
- Generating a repair of 32-bit installation flash drives in UEFI Windows 10.
Rufus for Windows free download
Rufus is arguably the finest solution for creating and formatting a bootable USB drive. Download your copy of Rufus from the official website here.
PS: You can now also download Windows ISO using Rufus.