Rufus vs Ventoy: Why I Started Using Ventoy for Bootable USBs
If you use Windows or Linux, you may have created a bootable USB at some point. For example, if you want to install Windows 11 or Linux Mint , you can download the ISO file and use a tool like Rufus to create a bootable USB. Rufus works very well. But recently, while using Linux Mint, I discovered another tool called Ventoy . At first, I wondered: If Rufus already creates bootable USBs, why would I need Ventoy? After understanding how Ventoy works, I realized that the two tools solve slightly different problems. Let's look at it in a beginner-friendly way. What is Rufus? Rufus is a popular tool for creating bootable USB drives. For example, suppose you download the Linux Mint ISO: linuxmint.iso You open Rufus, select your USB drive and the ISO file, and Rufus prepares the USB so that you can boot your computer from it. The process looks like this: Linux Mint ISO ↓ Rufus ↓ Bootable USB ↓ Install Linux Mint The same idea works for Windows 11 and many other operating systems. Rufus is especially useful when you simply want to create one bootable USB for one ISO. Then what is Ventoy? Ventoy takes a slightly different approach. Instead of writing one ISO directly to the USB, you install Ventoy on the USB drive first. After that, you can simply copy ISO files to the USB like normal files. For example: Ventoy USB │ ├── Windows11.iso ├── LinuxMint.iso ├── Ubuntu.iso ├── Fedora.iso └── Clonezilla.iso When you boot your computer from this USB, Ventoy shows you a menu. You can then choose which ISO you want to boot. Something like: That's the main idea behind Ventoy. The biggest difference This is probably the easiest way to understand the difference: Rufus: ISO → Rufus → Bootable USB You normally repeat the process when you want to replace the ISO. Ventoy: Install Ventoy once ↓ Copy ISO files ↓ Boot from USB ↓ Choose an ISO You don't have to recreate the USB every time you want to use a different ISO. A simple real-world example Imagine you have a 64 GB USB drive. With Rufus,