Frequently Asked Questions

Rufus is a free, open-source utility designed for Microsoft Windows that formats and writes bootable USB flash drives, pen drives, and memory keys from operating system image files.

You can download verified binaries directly on our Rufus Downloads page, where all download links connect directly to the link https://rufus.ie/downloads/. All downloads are sourced from official GitHub releases.

The current latest publicly listed release is Rufus 4.15, published on June 30, 2026. It features RISC-V 64 support for UEFI:NTFS, silent installation guards, and ezxml parser security improvements.

Yes. The portable build (denoted with a "p" in the filename, such as rufus-4.15p.exe) stores configuration parameters and state in a local rufus.ini file rather than writing keys to the Windows registry.

Rufus x86 is the 32-bit compilation of the application designed to run on 32-bit versions of Windows running on older Intel and AMD processors.

Rufus ARM64 is a native 64-bit ARM binary engineered for Windows devices powered by ARM processors, such as Microsoft Surface Pro with Qualcomm Snapdragon chips. It executes natively without binary translation.

Yes. Creating bootable USB installation and rescue drives is the fundamental purpose of Rufus, supporting Windows 11/10/8, Linux distributions, FreeDOS, and live diagnostic environments.

Yes. Rufus natively parses ISO images, extracts individual files onto formatted file systems, and embeds the appropriate boot sectors (UEFI or BIOS). It can also write raw DD images.

No. Rufus is supplied as a standalone executable file. You simply double-click the file to execute it directly without running through any setup or installation steps.

You can find older Rufus releases (such as version 3.22 for Windows 7 support) in our Older Versions Archive.

You must back up all critical files present on the USB flash drive you select in Rufus. The formatting and writing procedure completely wipes all existing files and partitions on the chosen USB device.

No. This website is an independent informational and download resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Pete Batard or the Rufus project team. For official project information, documentation, and source code, users should consult the official Rufus website at https://rufus.ie and the GitHub project at github.com/pbatard/rufus.