Looking for the best bootable USB creator software for Windows or Linux? Compare free tools for creating bootable USB drives from ISO files, installing operating systems, running Live Linux environments, and building USB-based recovery and diagnostic toolkits.
Some tools write a single ISO image to a flash drive, making them ideal for installing Windows or Linux. Others support multiboot USB drives that can store and boot multiple ISO files from one device.
New to bootable USB drives? See our full guide to what a bootable USB is and how to create one before choosing a tool.
Featured Bootable USB Creator Tools
Explore bootable USB creation software for different needs, including single-ISO writers and multiboot USB tools such as YUMI, Universal USB Installer (UUI), and Ventoy. Compare supported operating systems, boot methods, persistence features, and USB management capabilities to find a suitable tool for your PC.
Whether you’re preparing a Windows installer, creating a Linux bootable USB, testing a Live Linux distribution, or assembling a portable system repair toolkit, these guides explain the available tools and how to use them.
YUMI (Your Universal Multiboot Installer) is a popular tool for building a multiboot USB drive: one bootable flash drive that can hold and boot multiple operating systems, Windows installers, Linux distributions, antivirus rescue disks, cybersecurity, pentesting, and recovery utilities, all selectable from a single boot menu.
Create a bootable USB drive from ISO files with Universal USB Installer (UUI), free bootable USB creation software for Windows and Linux. UUI lets you create bootable USB drives for Linux Live distributions, Windows installation media, system repair and recovery tools, antivirus utilities, cybersecurity tools, disk cloning, forensics, and more. It prepares the USB drive and configures the required boot files so your computer can start directly from the USB device.
It also supports modern UEFI and legacy BIOS systems and can create persistent Linux Live USB drives where persistence is supported. UUI Py extends Universal USB Installer with native Windows and Linux support and additional tools for VM testing, and managing your bootable USB drives.
Win32 Disk Imager is a free, open-source Windows utility for writing raw disk images to USB drives and SD cards, and reading devices back into image files. It is commonly used for IMG files and Raspberry Pi SD card backups. Although its file picker can display ISO files, writing an ISO directly works only when the image is suitable for raw imaging; many Linux and Windows installer ISOs should instead be written with a tool designed for that installer. Always check the image's official instructions before flashing.
Quick summary: Select a compatible raw image file, choose the correct target drive, and click Write. The tool copies the image data to the device; whether the result boots depends on the source image and the computer's boot compatibility. For a full backup of a device, use the Read function.
Use Balena Etcher to easily burn ISO files to USB or Clone your USB drives. Ever wondered how to burn an ISO file to create a bootable USB drive? Or perhaps you're looking for a simple tool to clone a USB drive? Etcher, a freely available software utility, makes both of these tasks as straightforward as possible for users of all skill levels.
Ventoy is a free, open source tool that lets you turn a USB drive into a multiboot device. You don't need to extract or prepare each ISO file-just copy them to your USB stick, and you're good to go. When you power up your computer, Ventoy shows you a menu where you pick which OS or tool to boot.
Here's how it works: Ventoy installs its bootloader onto your USB drive. After that, you just drag and drop your ISO, IMG, WIM, VHD, or EFI files onto the drive. Plug it into a computer, boot from USB, and choose what you want to run. It's fast, easy, and you don't have to reformat your drive every time you want to switch things up.
Rufus - easily boot DOS from USB: Creating a bootable USB flash drive to boot DOS from USB can be complicated. However, a tool called Rufus (Reliable USB Format Utility), created by Pete Batard, can make this task relatively simple. This utility can also be used to create a Bootable USB of a given distro from an ISO or image file.
LiveUSB Install is a third party tool used to create Live Linux bootable USB drives. It enables you to transfer a Live Linux distribution of your choice onto a USB flash drive for testing, troubleshooting, or installing Linux systems without modifying your hard drive. You can write an existing ISO, use a CD/DVD as the source, or download a Linux ISO file directly from the internet.
XBOOT is a Windows based multiboot ISO USB creator that lets you combine multiple Linux distributions, rescue tools, and diagnostic utilities onto a single bootable USB flash drive or multiboot ISO file. Similar to YUMI, it uses a simple drag-and-drop interface and supports both Grub and Syslinux bootloaders.
Quick summary: XBOOT is no longer actively maintained, but it remains a functional option for creating legacy BIOS multiboot USB drives. If you need UEFI support or active development, see the alternatives such as YUMI Multiboot USB Creator or our fan favorite UUI PY Bootable USB Tool.
SARDU (Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility) is a powerful multiboot USB and DVD creation tool for Windows and Linux systems. Designed for IT professionals, system administrators, and tech enthusiasts, it supports multiple Live Linux ISOs, Windows setup installers (Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP), antivirus boot utilities, and recovery tools, all from a single USB flash drive.
Linux Live USB Creator, also known as LiLi USB Creator, is a powerful tool for creating bootable USB flash drives loaded with various Linux distributions. With it, users can easily install different Linux versions to a USB, resulting in a bootable Live USB with optional persistence. LiLi enables users to create a Linux bootable USB flash drive from an ISO image, CD, or IMG file. The utility can even download the ISO or IMG file for you.
UNetbootin: Create a Linux Bootable USB Quickly and Easily. Short for Universal Netboot Installer, UNetbootin is a lightweight, open source utility used to create bootable Linux USB flash drives from ISO files without requiring a CD or DVD. It remains a simple option for testing or installing many Linux distributions, particularly on legacy BIOS or older UEFI systems.
Easily Create a Fedora Live USB: This walkthrough tutorial explains how to install and boot Fedora Linux from a USB flash drive from within Windows, Linux, or macOS by using Fedora Media Writer, YUMI Multiboot USB Creator, or the Linux dd command. Fedora is a free and open source Linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat and developed by a global community. It is known for integrating cutting edge technologies while remaining stable, secure, and well suited for developers, system administrators, and Linux enthusiasts who want to run or install Fedora from a bootable USB drive.
