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Ventoy The Ultimate Tool for Bootable USBs

May 13, 2025

When it comes to creating bootable USB drives, traditional tools like Rufus, UNetbootin, or balenaEtcher have long been the go-to solutions. But there’s a powerful alternative that’s redefining convenience and flexibility: Ventoy.

What is Ventoy?

Ventoy is an open-source tool that allows you to create a bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files. Unlike other tools, Ventoy doesn’t require you to reformat your USB drive or rewrite the ISO each time you want to boot a different OS. Instead, you simply copy the ISO files to the USB drive, and Ventoy takes care of the rest.

Key Features

  • Multi-boot support: Just copy multiple ISO files and choose which one to boot at startup.
  • No extraction required: ISO files don’t need to be extracted or converted.
  • Persistence support: Keep data across reboots with persistence for supported distros.
  • Legacy BIOS and UEFI support: Boot on both older and newer systems.
  • Auto-detection: Ventoy automatically detects ISO files on your USB drive.
  • Open source: Actively maintained and free to use under the GPLv3 license.

Why Use Ventoy?

1. Ease of Use

With Ventoy, creating a multi-boot USB is as easy as dragging and dropping ISO files into a folder. There’s no need to format the USB drive again or use complicated tools each time.

2. Supports a Wide Range of OS Images

From Windows and Linux to specialized tools like Clonezilla or GParted, Ventoy supports over 1200 tested ISOs.

3. Fast and Efficient

Because Ventoy boots ISO files directly, there’s no time wasted on extraction or preparation.

4. Cross-platform

Although primarily used on Windows and Linux, Ventoy also supports macOS through command-line tools and third-party GUI wrappers.

Getting Started with Ventoy

  1. Download Ventoy from the official site.
  2. Extract and run the Ventoy2Disk tool.
  3. Select your USB drive and click Install. This will format your drive (only needed once).
  4. Copy your ISO files to the USB drive.
  5. Boot from the USB and select the ISO to run.

Advanced Features

  • VentoyPlugson: A web-based configuration tool for customizing themes, auto-install scripts, persistence, and more.
  • Secure Boot support: Ventoy can be configured to work with Secure Boot environments.
  • Menu customization: Tailor the boot menu with custom themes and boot parameters.