Summary
Ventoy is a free and open-source utility used for creating bootable usb media storage device with files such as .iso, .wim, .img, .vhd(x), and .efi files. Once Ventoy is installed onto a USB drive, there is no need to reformat the disk to update it with new installation files; it is enough to copy the .iso, .wim, .img, .vhd(x), or .efi file(s) to the USB drive and boot from them directly.[2][3][4] Ventoy will present the user with a boot menu to select one of these files.
 Ventoy 1.0.54 | |
| Developer(s) | Hailong Sun |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 5 April 2020 |
| Stable release | 1.0.97[1]  (24 January 2024) [±] |
| Repository |
|
| Operating system | Cross-platform (Windows, Linux) |
| License | GPLv3+ License |
| Website | www |
Features edit
Ventoy can be installed on a USB flash drive, local disk, SSD (NVMe), or SD card and it will directly boot from the selected .iso, .wim, .img, .vhd(x), or .efi file(s) added. Ventoy does not extract the image file(s) to the USB drive, but uses them directly. It is possible to place multiple ISO images on a single device and select the image to boot from the menu displayed just after Ventoy boots.
MBR and GPT partition styles, x86 Legacy BIOS and various UEFI boot methods (including persistence) are supported. ISO files larger than 4 GB can be used. Ventoy supports various operating system boot and installation ISO files including Windows 7 and above, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Fedora and more than a hundred other Linux distributions; various Unix releases, VMware, Citrix XenServer, etc. have also been tested.[5]
pre-installed Plugins edit
- Global Control Plugin
This plugin is used to make some global settings for Ventoy.
- Password Plugin
With this plugin we can set a password for Ventoy or for an ISO at boot time. This is a very simple password function.
- Driver Update Disk Plugin
This plugin offers a very simple way of integrating the DUD files.
- Boot Conf Replace Plugin
When we boot some Linux distributions, sometimes we need to add the boot options for specific hardware or another purpose. This can be done with the "Configuration Replace Plug-in".
- Auto Memdisk Plugin
With this plugin you can set the memdisk mode for some ISO/IMG files and Ventoy will always use the memdisk mode to boot them.
- Windows Vhdboot Plugin
Ventoy uses this plugin to boot VHD(x) files. It supports both Legacy BIOS and UEFI.
- Wimboot Plugin
Ventoy uses this plugin to boot WIM files (Legacy BIOS + UEFI).
- Persistence Plugin
This plug-in makes it possible to save all changes you make to the live system so that they are still available the next time you start the system.
- Auto Installation Plugin
Many Linux distributions offer unattended installation. You only need to specify a script for the installation to install an ISO automatically.
- Menu Extension Plugin
Since Ventoy is based on grub2, you can define your own grub2 menu in a cfg-file and load it.
- Menu Tip Plugin
With this plugin you can set a tip for the ISOs. This message is displayed when you select an ISO.
- Menu Alias Plugin
With this plugin you can define an alias for the ISO/WIM files. The alias is only used to display it in the boot menu.
- Menu Class Plugin
With this Ventoy plugin you can define a class for the ISO files and display an icon in the boot menu.
- Theme Plugin
Ventoy is based on grub2, so all grub2 themes can be used on Ventoy.
- Injection Plugin
With this plugin you can install some files (e.g. drivers/scripts ...). For Windows, this is the WinPE environment. For Linux this is the initramfs-environment.
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "Release 1.0.97". 24 January 2024. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
- ^ Langner, Christopher. "Tutorial - Ventoy". Linux Magazine. Linux New Media USA. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ "Bootable USB Creator Ventoy Gets A Native GUI For Linux".
- ^ "You may now use Ventoy without deleting data on USB Sticks". Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ "List Of Tested ISOs". Archived from the original on 2021-04-01. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
External links edit
- Official website
- Ventoy on GitHub
- Softpedia: Ventoy
- Linux Uprising Blog on Ventoy