Ventoy/README.md

Ventoy

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files.
With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the image files to the USB drive and boot it. You can copy many image files at a time and ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them.
x86 Legacy BIOS, IA32 UEFI, x86_64 UEFI and ARM64 UEFI are supported in the same way.
Both MBR and GPT partition style are supported in the same way.
Most type of OS supported(Windows/WinPE/Linux/Unix/Vmware/Xen...)
580+ ISO files are tested. 90%+ distros in distrowatch.com supported.

Features

• 100% open source
• Simple to use
• Fast (limited only by the speed of copying iso file)
• Can be installed in USB/Local Disk/SSD/NVMe/SD Card
• Directly boot from ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files, no extraction needed
• No need to be continuous in disk for ISO/IMG files
• MBR and GPT partition style supported (1.0.15+)
• x86 Legacy BIOS, IA32 UEFI, x86_64 UEFI, ARM64 UEFI supported
• UEFI Secure Boot supported (1.0.07+)
• Persistence supported (1.0.11+)
• Windows/Linux auto installation supported (1.0.09+)
• FAT32/exFAT/NTFS/UDF/XFS/Ext2(3)(4) supported for main partition
• ISO files larger than 4GB supported
• Native boot menu style for Legacy & UEFI
• Most type of OS supported, 580+ iso files tested
• Linux vDisk boot supported
• Not only boot but also complete installation process
• Menu dynamically switchable between List/TreeView mode
• "Ventoy Compatible" concept
• Plugin Framework
• Injection files to runtime enviroment
• Boot configuration file dynamically replacement
• Highly customizable theme and menu
• USB drive write-protected support
• USB normal use unaffected
• Data nondestructive during version upgrade
• No need to update Ventoy when a new distro is released

Installation Instructions

See https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_start.html for detail

Compile Instructions

Please refer to BuildVentoyFromSource.txt

Document

Title	Link
Install & Update	https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_start.html
Customize Theme	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_theme.html
Global Control	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_control.html
Auto Installation	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_autoinstall.html
Injection Plugin	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_injection.html
Persistence Support	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_persistence.html
Boot WIM file	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_wimboot.html
Menu Class	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_menuclass.html
Menu Alias	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_menualias.html
Menu Extension	https://www.ventoy.net/en/plugin_grubmenu.html
Memdisk Mode	https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_memdisk.html
TreeView Mode	https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_treeview.html
Disk Layout MBR	https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_disk_layout.html
Disk Layout GPT	https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_disk_layout_gpt.html

FAQ

See https://www.ventoy.net/en/faq.html for detail

Forum

https://forums.ventoy.net