HackerReposA FIELD GUIDE TO OPEN SOURCE
ProSponsor the shelf♧ 0
← Back to top all-time
pbatard
rufus
C2018–2026
pbatard / rufus

rufus

The Reliable USB Formatting Utility

AI & Machine LearningSecurity & PrivacyMobile & DesktopLibraries & SDKs
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
23Distinct people
25Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
38.3KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

The Reliable USB Formatting Utility

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use was verified in the last source check.

What people are saying

No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year25 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2018-08-26 22:39:01 UTC to 2026-08-28 23:34:02 UTC.

02462018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 2 mentions; 1 submissions, 1 comments20182019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 0 mentions; 0 submissions, 0 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 7 mentions; 3 submissions, 4 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 1 submissions, 0 comments20222023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 6 mentions; 2 submissions, 4 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 3 mentions; 1 submissions, 2 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 1 mentions; 0 submissions, 1 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 4 mentions; 0 submissions, 4 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC211
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC000
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC734
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC110
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC624
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC312
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC101
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC404

What Hacker News says

25 sources
Joel_Mckay·Aug 28, 2026
The issue is the update license is different than full install licenses, and the red sticker oem licenses people scam are hardware specific. You usually must pay for windows twice (or more if you don't know) to be Pro license compliant for commercial use. Setting a machine up for multi-boot Linux/BSD is not always a simple process with every BIOS firmware, and configuring Windows to stop automatic encryption of NTFS volumes is nontrivial. Even with an offline install for games, if the OneDrive account is ever activated... files are upped to Microsoft cloud anyway. Running an offline win11 account with a recent "rclone gui" NFS mounter for cloud APIs is a better option: https://github.com/rclone/rclone winget install Rclone.Rclone Thankfully, disarming Win11 TPM/Drive-boobytrap/BS-encryption/Spam is easy with Rufus, O&O ShutUp10, and Copil
Read the rest
ot removal (note undocumented AI API areas suggested RAT/snitch-ware... the final straw with Microsoft BS around here...) https://github.com/pbatard/rufus https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://github.com/zoicware/RemoveWindowsAI Yes it still supports DRM Steam games, and Win11 x4 gen4 SSDs are now about 17% faster i/o on my rig. You know what I like about Apple OS, is you just flip around 8 options and it goes quiet. Best of luck, ymmv =3
In Get your Windows license refund
zubspace·Jun 15, 2026
Just last week I installed Windows 11 by downloading the ISO from Microsoft and creating a bootable USB stick with Rufus [1]. Rufus has options to make the Windows installer skip the Microsoft account login. Worked great! There are reasons to install Windows. For one, I had to install it for my wife, and making her switch to another OS she isn’t used to would be quite a hassle. I also use it at work, and I need to run Visual Studio. But I have the Pro version, and, AFAIK, there is a stark contrast between Pro and Home. Even though there is a push in Europe to make software Linux-compatible, there are still many, many companies and government institutions fully entrenched in the Microsoft world. Going Linux-only just for the sake of it sometimes does not make much sense business-wise. [1] https://github.com/pbatard/rufus
In Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything
Joel_Mckay·May 24, 2026
Copilot and MS365 have some API areas that no one outside MS actually knows what they do. Day 2 task was cleaning our Win11 Steam game install drive: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 https://github.com/zoicware/RemoveWindowsAI (when it works) Day 1 task installing Win11 Pro in offline-mode without TPM/Bitlocker speeds up the benchmarks a bit for a game system: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases Fun times, but most of the Win experience has always been removing garbage code/adware/shovel-ware. =3
In Childhood Computing
nwsm·Oct 2, 2025
My Windows 10 updates had been failing for the past 6 months. When shutting down my PC I'd get the notification to "update and shut down", but the update would routinely fail. I thought the outstanding updates were the reason I wasn't given an option to update in place to Windows 11, but that was actually because my i7 7700k isn't officially supported. I ended up needing to create a Windows 11 iso that doesn't enforce hardware requirements with Rufus [0]. I was building a new gaming rig in tandem, so I reformatted the lone remaining SSD on the machine and left the new windows install unactivated as I plan to give it to a neighbor or family friend who can be tasked with buying a copy of windows. But this means I was left without any free Windows 10 -> 11 upgrade and had to buy a new license for the new rig. I didn't try to do anything othe
Read the rest
r than browse the internet on the unsupported hardware, but things seem fine. So far Windows 11 on the new rig has been very smooth/stable and I can't think of any issues I've had after 2 weeks of gaming and other typical use. But the amount of internet-driven widgets that ultimately are a medium for ads is frustrating. [0] https://github.com/pbatard/rufus
In Windows 10 refuses to go gentle into that good night
LinuxBender·Mar 2, 2024
For some reason I can not view that page but I will add recent experiences. I burnt an image of Windows 11 from their ISO using Rufus [1a][1b] which is recommended by Microsoft and several Linux distributions for people moving from Windows to Linux. Rufus has check boxes to disable the requirement for a Microsoft Account upon installation from the ISO. [1a] - https://rufus.ie/en/ [1b] - https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ
In How to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft account
orionblastar·Dec 22, 2023
You can use Rufus: https://rufus.ie/en/ To modify the ISO to turn off hardware check and TPM support for Windows 11 to install it on an unsupported PC. https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ#user-content-Help_... Besides Linux and BSD Unix there is: https://reactos.org/ https://aros.sourceforge.io/ https://www.haiku-os.org/ and https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/ I know some third-world nations still use DOS and the BORLAND DOS compilers because people donate old computers to their nations. With the right OS, old computers are still usable. Please don't throw them away, e-cycle them so they get used by poor nations that cannot afford new PCs.
In Windows 10 end of life could prompt torrent of e-waste
Modified3019·Dec 18, 2023
Nvme to usb enclosures can work great, but can also be dodgy to work with. I personally find SATA enclosures more reliable overall, as they are less demanding There are a few issues at play: 1. Power supply issues: the power demands of your mix of enclosure and drive may not be satisfied by your USB port(s), which can vary wildly in capability, and over time. 2. The controller within the enclosure can overheat under load. This seems to happen across many enclosures I’ve tried. Larger enclosures may allow for attaching a tiny heatsink. 3. NVMe drives may not gracefully handle sudden disconnections. USB connections are inherently unreliable interfaces prone to physical disruption and loss of power, which will multiply against any normally hidden non-resiliance in the nvme drive. If your drive decides to stop showing up, first try loading up
Read the rest
the boot device selection screen in the UEFI, and then insert the drive. It may take several seconds to show up. If trying that a few times doesn’t work, the drive may be stuck in some kind of bad state. You may be able to recover from this with the unfortunately poorly known power cycle technique https://dfarq.homeip.net/fix-dead-ssd/ The technique summarized is: 1. Connect to power (not data) only. Alternatively letting the drive sit at bios setup screen also seems to work. Turn on the power and leave the power on for 30 minutes. 2. After 30 minutes, power down or pull the power cable. 3. Wait 30 seconds, then restore power. 4. Let the drive sit powered on for another 30 minutes. 5. Power down again, then wait 30 seconds. Always set up automatic backups if you actually have non-replaceable data on the drive. They can and will just suddenly die forever with loss of all data, just like thumb drives. You have been warned. All that said, there are generally less issues if you are simply putting ventoy on it to just install an OS from an iso. I have a dual raid1 sata enclosure that I use to boot a windows to go install created with Rufus (https://github.com/pbatard/rufus), which makes testing and benchmarking so much nicer to deal with. I’ve even stuck games on it, and other than relative filesystem slowness it works pretty great, once I added a heatsink to the enclosure controller.
In Ventoy

Showing the 15 most recent of 25 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A few shortcuts

/
Search the collection
?
Open this guide
Esc
Close dialogs and navigation

Your saved repositories and interests stay in this browser.