this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2026
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Ventoy – Open-Source Alternative to Rufus for Creating Multi-Boot USB Drives (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 4 days ago by Digitalescapetools@sh.itjust.works to c/digitalescapetooks@sh.itjust.works
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Ventoy makes reinstalling operating systems or testing Linux distros much easier.

Install Ventoy once, then simply copy ISO files to your USB drive, no need to reformat it every time you add another image. It also supports multiple operating systems, Secure Boot, persistence, and many rescue tools.

GitHub: https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy

More details: https://digitalescapetools.com/tools/tool.html?id=ventoy

More privacy-friendly tools: https://digitalescapetools.com/

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[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Why do you need an alternative? Rufus is great.

[–] Meron35@lemmy.world 16 points 4 days ago
  1. Rufus is windows only
  2. Rufus still requires formatting the drive every time, and is limited to one OS per drive. An overly reductionist take is that it is basically a fancy wrapper to dd. Ventoy is way more brain-dead to use - format once, just drag and drop multiple isos, and the ventoy menu will let you choose which to iso to boot into.
[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

with a ventoy usb stick, all you have to do is copy bootable .iso over. that's it. you get a menu at boot to pick one.

it's extremely convenient.

[–] HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This is the main reason I use Ventoy.

I have a small external drive and I just dump multiple ISO files on it and then select whichever one I want at boot, I don't have to keep formatting and making new bootable drives.

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You can put them all on one USB instead of trying to remember which color thumb drive has which version of which distro... nice.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 days ago

the iso don't even all need to be on the same ventoy, either... since you can browse other disks and boot .iso off those, too.