Ventoy
DeveloperHailong Sun (aka longpanda)
Release5 April 2020
Stable release1.1.17[1] Edit this on Wikidata (24 July 2026; 2 months ago (24 July 2026)) [±]
Operating systemCross-platform (Windows, Linux)
LicenseGPLv3+ License (partial)
Websitewww.ventoy.net/en/ Edit this on Wikidata
Repository

Ventoy is a partially open-source[2][3] utility used for creating bootable USB media storage devices or in a physical drive with files such as .iso, .wim, .img, .vhd(x), and .efi. Once Ventoy is installed on a USB drive, new installation files can be added without reformatting.[4][5][6] Ventoy presents the user with a boot menu to select one of the installation files held on the USB drive.

Features

Ventoy can be installed on a USB flash drive, local disk, solid-state drive (SSD, NVMe), or SD card and directly boots 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, as it can unzip during installation. 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 later, 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.[7] Ventoy isn't recommended on the openSUSE wiki due to reports of boot issues.[8]

Binary blob controversy

Ventoy claims[9] to be an open source software and is hosted in a GitHub open-source repository.[10] However, concerns have been raised regarding the fact that the source code tree contains a large number of pre-compiled blobs (binary executable files) of unknown origin, which makes it difficult or impossible to audit the content of the software and verify that no malicious payloads (e.g. backdoors) are being delivered.[11][12] Parallels have been drawn to recent vulnerabilities discovered in XZ Utils software.[12] As of 7 May 2025, the author of the project has responded to the concerns over the blobs.[13] Critics, however, point out that the response was limited to merely listing all the blobs along with build instructions, which other open source community members found convoluted and difficult to reproduce.[12]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Release 1.1.17". 24 July 2026. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
  2. ^ "Ventoy". www.ventoy.net. Retrieved 2026-01-31.
  3. ^ longpanda (2026-01-31), ventoy/Ventoy, retrieved 2026-01-31
  4. ^ Langner, Christopher. "Tutorial – Ventoy". Linux Magazine. Linux New Media USA. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Bootable USB Creator Ventoy Gets A Native GUI For Linux". 14 September 2021.
  6. ^ "You may now use Ventoy without deleting data on USB Sticks". 11 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  7. ^ "List Of Tested ISOs". Archived from the original on 2021-04-01. Retrieved 2021-03-09.
  8. ^ "Create installation USB stick".
  9. ^ "Ventoy A New Bootable USB Solution". Ventoy.net. Retrieved 2025-10-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ "Ventoy". GitHub.com. Retrieved 2025-10-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ "Are you an IT professional? Stop using Ventoy (now)". Iguru.rg. 2025-08-21. Retrieved 2025-10-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ a b c "Ventoy - 718 Shades of Open Source". NixSanctuary.com. 2025-01-30. Retrieved 2025-10-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ "About the BLOBs in Ventoy #3224". GitHub.com. 2025-05-07. Retrieved 2025-10-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)