rufus/README.md

Rufus: The Reliable USB Formatting Utility
==========================================

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![Rufus logo](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pbatard/rufus/master/res/icons/rufus-128.png)

Features
--------

* Format USB, flash card and virtual drives to FAT/FAT32/NTFS/UDF/exFAT/ReFS/ext2/ext3
* Create DOS bootable USB drives, using [FreeDOS](http://www.freedos.org) or MS-DOS (Windows 8.1 or earlier)
* Create BIOS or UEFI bootable drives, including [UEFI bootable NTFS](https://github.com/pbatard/uefi-ntfs)
* Create bootable drives from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, etc.)
* Create bootable drives from bootable disk images, including compressed ones
* Create [Windows To Go](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_To_Go) drives
* Create persistent Linux partitions
* Download official Microsoft Windows 8 or Windows 10 retail ISOs
* Compute MD5, SHA-1 and SHA-256 checksums of the selected image
* Twice as fast as Microsoft's USB/DVD tool or UNetbootin, on ISO -> USB creation <sup>(1)</sup>
* Perform bad blocks checks, including detection of "fake" flash drives
* Modern and familiar UI, with [38 languages natively supported](https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ#What_languages_are_natively_supported_by_Rufus)
* Small footprint. No installation required.
* Portable
* 100% [Free Software](https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw) ([GPL v3](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0))

Compilation
-----------

Use either Visual Studio 2019 (version 16.0 or later with SDK 10.0.18362 installed) or MinGW and
then invoke the `.sln` or `configure`/`make` respectively.

#### Visual Studio
Note that, since Rufus is an OSI compliant Open Source project, you are entitled to
download and use the *freely available* [Visual Studio Community Edition](https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/community/)
to build, run or develop for Rufus. As per the Visual Studio Community Edition license
this applies regardless of whether you are an individual or a corporate user.

Additional information
----------------------

Rufus provides extensive information about what it is doing, either through its
easily accessible log, or through the [Windows debug facility](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/debugview).

* [__Official Website__](https://rufus.ie)
* [FAQ](https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ)

Enhancements/Bugs
-----------------

Please use the [GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/issues)
for reporting problems or suggesting new features.


<sup>(1)</sup> Tests carried out with a 16 GB USB 3.0 ADATA pen drive on a Core 2 duo/4 GB RAM platform running Windows 7 x64.
ISO: `en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_618240.iso`

| Name of tool | Version | Time |
| ------------ | ------- | ---- |
| [Windows USB/DVD Download Tool](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool) | v1.0.30 | 8 mins 10s |
| [UNetbootin](https://unetbootin.github.io) | v1.1.1.1 | 6 mins 20s |
| **Rufus** | v1.1.0 | **3 mins 25s** |