What is Ventoy used for?

Ventoy is an open-source tool that makes a USB drive bootable for many ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD and EFI files, which you simply copy onto the drive. It is a good fit for multi-boot installer USB for IT technicians, trying Linux distributions without reflashing, and rescue and recovery media.

Is Ventoy open source?

Yes. Ventoy is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at ventoy/Ventoy and is written mainly in C.

Yes. Ventoy is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What are some alternatives to Ventoy?

Similar open-source tools in the Developer Tools category include Rufus, balenaEtcher and Windows Terminal. SaaS products in the same category include DBC Utility, Araxis Merge and Fork.

Is Ventoy actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Ventoy was on 30 September 2026, and the latest release is v1.1.17, published on 24 July 2026. The project has 80k stars on GitHub.

Ventoy: open-source developer tools

About Ventoy

Ventoy is an open-source tool for creating bootable USB drives. Instead of reformatting the drive for every operating system, you install Ventoy once and then copy image files such as ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x) and EFI onto it. It is written in C and released under the GPL-3.0 license.

When you boot from the drive, Ventoy shows a menu listing the images you copied, so one stick can hold many installers or live systems. You can also browse and boot image files stored on a local disk. It supports x86 legacy BIOS, 32-bit and 64-bit x86 UEFI, ARM64 UEFI and MIPS64EL UEFI, along with both MBR and GPT partition styles, and its topics mention Secure Boot, persistence and unattended installs.

The README says most operating system types work, including Windows, WinPE, Linux, Unix, ChromeOS, VMware and Xen, with more than 1,300 ISO files tested. It suits IT technicians, system administrators and hobbyists who install or repair many different machines and want one multi-boot USB drive.

Key features

Boot ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD and EFI files
Copy images to the drive without reformatting
Boot menu for many images on one drive
Legacy BIOS and UEFI support
MBR and GPT partition support
Windows, Linux, Unix and ChromeOS compatibility

Good fit for

→Multi-boot installer USB for IT technicians
→Trying Linux distributions without reflashing
→Rescue and recovery media

Built with: C
Tags: bootable-usb; multiboot; iso; uefi; usb; system-administration; linux; windows

Ventoy: questions and answers

What is Ventoy used for?: Ventoy is an open-source tool that makes a USB drive bootable for many ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD and EFI files, which you simply copy onto the drive. It is a good fit for multi-boot installer USB for IT technicians, trying Linux distributions without reflashing, and rescue and recovery media.
Is Ventoy open source?: Yes. Ventoy is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at ventoy/Ventoy and is written mainly in C.
Is Ventoy free?: Yes. Ventoy is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What are some alternatives to Ventoy?: Similar open-source tools in the Developer Tools category include Rufus, balenaEtcher and Windows Terminal. SaaS products in the same category include DBC Utility, Araxis Merge and Fork.
Is Ventoy actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Ventoy was on 30 September 2026, and the latest release is v1.1.17, published on 24 July 2026. The project has 80k stars on GitHub.