- Joined
- Mar 18, 2015
As the title states, I found a tool for system builders to make a universal install USB. Windows and Linux! I kind of love it 
Ventoy allows you to take any usb stick and load it with as many ISO files as it can hold and boot to any one of them. For Windows this means just an installer, but Linux has the option for persistence (saving changes to the Live environment) through a plugin.
The website has excellent documentation and walkthroughs for basic usage on either Windows or Linux. Theming is supported if you are put off by the plain UI/UX. Any Grub2 theme will work, as well as making your own. Ventoy has a fair list of configurable plugins listed in the documentation, including a WebUI to edit the json in charge of the plugins.
My current USB has: PopOS, WIn10, Win11, Hiren's Boot Disc, Clonezilla, and a few other goodies. While I havent tested persistence yet, I fully intend to have a few linux distros set up to my liking. I also havent tested FreeBSD, but I have used this device install Win10 on my main rig (just to test and make sure there arent any gotchas), as well as booting between several live distro's. No more running to rufus or etcher to switch between distros. The only box Ventoy doesn't tik is the ability to run Windows as a live environment, but there are enough miracles on my little 64gb stick for now.
It might be a bit presumptuous to say, but I think this might just be the swiss army knife that system builders and OS installers have been looking for. So far I am having a ball with it. LMK if you think of anything cool to do with this tool that I have missed.
Ventoy allows you to take any usb stick and load it with as many ISO files as it can hold and boot to any one of them. For Windows this means just an installer, but Linux has the option for persistence (saving changes to the Live environment) through a plugin. The website has excellent documentation and walkthroughs for basic usage on either Windows or Linux. Theming is supported if you are put off by the plain UI/UX. Any Grub2 theme will work, as well as making your own. Ventoy has a fair list of configurable plugins listed in the documentation, including a WebUI to edit the json in charge of the plugins.
My current USB has: PopOS, WIn10, Win11, Hiren's Boot Disc, Clonezilla, and a few other goodies. While I havent tested persistence yet, I fully intend to have a few linux distros set up to my liking. I also havent tested FreeBSD, but I have used this device install Win10 on my main rig (just to test and make sure there arent any gotchas), as well as booting between several live distro's. No more running to rufus or etcher to switch between distros. The only box Ventoy doesn't tik is the ability to run Windows as a live environment, but there are enough miracles on my little 64gb stick for now.
It might be a bit presumptuous to say, but I think this might just be the swiss army knife that system builders and OS installers have been looking for. So far I am having a ball with it. LMK if you think of anything cool to do with this tool that I have missed.
