Rufus 2.0 Build 623 Beta / Rufus 1.4.12.535 + Portable

Rufus is a small-sized app that enables users to format USB flash disks and create bootable drives rapidly. It provides standard and advanced options alike, to suit the preferences of all skill levels.

The tool is wrapped in a user-friendly interface that resembles the Format panel found in Windows built-in features. You can select a device, partition scheme and target system type, file system type (FAT32, NTFS, UDF, exFAT), cluster size, and new volume label.

Basic formatting options enable you to check the device for bad blocks, and select the algorithm type (from 1 to 4 passes). Plus, you can set the quick format mode, create an extended label and icon files, as well as create a bootable disk using an ISO image.
You can easily create bootable USB sticks for any Windows (or other OS) using the original ISO image!

Advanced tweaks can make Rufus list fixed (non-flash) or unpartitioned USB flash disks, add fixes for old BIOS (e.g. extra partition), and you may use Rufus MBR with a selected BIOS ID.

The program records all activity to a separate panel, and it can be saved to a LOG file. It carries out a format task rapidly and error-free, using low system resources. We have not come across any issues during our tests, since the utility did not cause Windows to hang or crash. To sum it up, Rufus is a straightforward solution to formatting and creating bootable USB drive, providing users with a series of useful features. There is also a portable edition available.

What’s New in This Release?
* Additional info: Major UI improvements (improved font, new info field, no separate progress dialog, etc.)
* Add support for Windows To Go (when Rufus is running on Windows 8 or later)
* Add support for Grub4DOS and GRUB 2 based images (e.g. FreeNAS)
* Add portable application support, through a ‘rufus.ini’ file
* Add native decompression support for DD images (.Z, .gz, .lzma, .bz2 and .xz)
* Add seamless UEFI boot of NTFS partitions, for Windows ISOs with large files (>4GB)
* Add support for Windows multipart install.swm
* Add support for non Microsoft VHD drivers
* Add Norwegian translation, courtesy of JED
* Fix a crash on image selection when no device is present
* Fix broken VHD support for non-English version of Windows
* Fix write error for DD images that are not a multiple of the sector size
* Fix broken Unicode support
* Update Syslinux to 6.0.3
* Other improvements and fixes