Rufus

Rufus at a glance

Rufus is a widely used, free Windows utility for creating bootable USB drives from ISO images — a staple for installing operating systems. Rufus ships regular releases; it's a small, portable tool rather than a resident service.

For admins Rufus runs with elevated rights (it writes raw to devices) and is used occasionally, so the update driver is compatibility and features rather than exposure. Keep a current copy for support of new ISO formats, boot modes (UEFI/Secure Boot) and Windows installation options, and always source it from the official site — fake "Rufus" downloads are a known malware lure. The real safety points are picking the correct target device (it will overwrite it) and verifying the ISO's integrity/checksum before writing. Because it's portable, watch for stale copies accumulating on technician USB sticks.