Summary

  • Rufus 4.8 uses wimlib to speed up Windows ISO analysis, making Windows To Go drive creation faster.
  • This update also addresses size limitations, log improvements, Linux ISO exceptions, and more.
  • Rufus remains a go-to app for creating bootable USB drives, useful for installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware.

Over the years, Rufus has been an excellent tool for Windows users who want to make quick and easy bootable USB media. It then gained another feature: installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware. This allowed people to sneak past the TPM 2.0 CPU requirement, and even as Microsoft tries to close off the other loopholes that people are using to get Windows 11 on unsupported systems, the Rufus method has always worked.

Regardless of what you use Rufus for, you're going to want to grab the newer version. The developer claims that its newest update "greatly speeds up" analyzing Windows ISOs by switching over to wimlib.

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Rufus 4.8 helps pick up the pace with wimlib

As announced on GitHub, Rufus has been updated to version 4.8. The spotlight feature for this update is the switch to using wimlib, a third-party open-source Windows Imaging app. Because wimlib's sole purpose is to dig through Windows images, the developer claims that its addition "greatly speeds up" analysis of Windows ISOs. It also makes Windows To Go drive creation faster, but only if your drive can keep up.

Here are the full patch notes for Rufus 4.8:

  • Switch to wimlib for all WIM image processing:
    • Greatly speeds up image analysis when opening Windows ISOs
    • Can speed up Windows To Go drive creation (But won't do miracles if you have a crap drive)
    • Might help with Parallels limitations on Mac (But Rufus on Parallels is still unsupported)
    • Enables the splitting of >4GB files with Alt-E (But still WAY SLOWER than using UEFI:NTFS)
  • Switch to using Visual Studio binaries everywhere, due to MinGW DLL delay-loading limitations
  • Add more exceptions for Linux ISOs that restrict themselves to DD mode (Nobara, openSUSE, ...)
  • Improve reporting of UEFI bootloaders in the log, with info on the Secure Boot status
  • Fix an issue with size limitations when writing an uncompressed VHD back to the same drive
  • Fix a crash when opening the log with the 32-bit MinGW compiled version
  • Fix commandline parameters not being forwarded to original Windows setup.exe
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If this is the first time you've heard of Rufus, you're in for a treat. It's pretty much my go-to app whenever I want to create a bootable Windows USB. And yes, while it is fantastic at installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, it's also good for, you know, just installing Windows on stuff in general. Take a peek at our guide on how to use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive and install Windows for more information.