Rufus 4.7: What’s New in This Essential Tool for Creating Bootable USB Drives
If you’ve ever needed to create a bootable USB drive to install or repair an operating system, chances are you’ve used Rufus. It’s one of the most popular and reliable tools out there for formatting USB drives and creating bootable media quickly and efficiently. Whether you’re installing Windows, trying out a new Linux distribution, or working with rescue tools, Rufus is often the go-to choice.
Now, with the release of Rufus 4.7, the tool continues to improve, bringing important new features, fixes, and optimizations that make it even more powerful. Let’s take a closer look at what Rufus is, what it does, and what the newest version brings to the table.
What Is Rufus and What Does It Do?
At its core, Rufus is a small but extremely useful utility for creating bootable USB drives. It’s fast, lightweight, and free to use. Rufus stands out because it supports a wide variety of bootable ISOs, from Windows installers to various Linux distributions, and even special-purpose tools like partition managers or firmware updaters.
Rufus offers advanced features like creating bootable drives in UEFI or BIOS mode, support for persistent storage when creating live USBs, and options for customizing the partition scheme and file system. It’s known for its speed, often completing operations faster than other similar tools.
Beyond simply writing ISO files to USB drives, Rufus helps users handle tricky cases like working with outdated hardware, installing OSes that require legacy boot modes, or creating drives that bypass security checks such as Secure Boot. It’s a must-have tool for system administrators, IT professionals, and enthusiasts alike.
What’s New in Rufus 4.7
The new Rufus 4.7, released in April, 2025, brings several important updates and enhancements. One notable addition is the ability to detect and download updated DBX (UEFI forbidden signatures database) files directly from the official UEFI repository. This feature ensures that your bootable drives are more secure and up to date.
Another key improvement is the support for ztsd compression for disk images, which can lead to better handling of compressed files and faster write times. Rufus 4.7 also introduces a handy exclusion feature that allows users to ignore specific disks based on their GPT GUID, reducing the risk of accidentally overwriting critical drives.
The update addresses several bugs and security vulnerabilities as well. Notably, it fixes a side-loading vulnerability (CVE-2025-26624) involving cfgmgr32.dll, improves memory management to prevent UI memory leaks, and enhances detection for VHD images that may not fit the target drive. Additionally, Rufus 4.7 drops support for ARM 32-bit builds but continues full support for ARM 64-bit devices. FreeDOS and Grub4DOS components have also been updated to their latest versions.
To sum up
Rufus continues to be an essential tool for anyone who needs to create bootable USB drives quickly and reliably. With version 4.7, it not only improves in terms of performance and compatibility but also steps up in security and user control. Whether you’re installing Windows, testing out a Linux distribution, or creating recovery tools, Rufus makes the job easier.
If you’re planning to try out a new distro, like the recently released Debian 12.10, Rufus 4.7 is fully equipped to help you create a live USB and get started in minutes.
