Ventoy
Hacker ApprovedBootable USB tool in Computers
Lets you put many bootable ISO files on one USB drive and boot whichever you pick, while keeping the drive usable for storage. Critics say it alters kernel boot flags and its binaries are not reproducible.
Lets you put many bootable ISO files on one USB drive and boot whichever you pick, while keeping the drive usable for storage. Critics say it alters kernel boot flags and its binaries are not reproducible.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 6
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 4 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Many ISO files on one drive
“you can continue to use the same USB drive for storage, in addition to have the ability to boot from any number of .iso files”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “Ventoy” “Using ventoy and having multiple rescue/install images on one flash drive is super nice.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB” “throwing Ventoy on a USB stick with a bunch of linux isos copied over to it”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it” Easy way to try distros
“using something like Ventoy to make it easy to try out different desktop environments”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “It's hard to justify Tahoe icons” “throwing Ventoy on a USB stick with a bunch of linux isos copied over to it”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hijacks kernel boot process
“It literally adds an rdinit to the kernel boot line that hijacks the boot process and messes with it in a shell script.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “OpenSUSE Kalpa” “It should not be hijacking the boot process, there's absolutely no good reason for it.”
Comment from 19 Mar 2026 in “OpenSUSE Kalpa” “It silently messes with the kernel boot flags which breaks the boot process”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “OpenSUSE Kalpa” Security trust concerns
“there were some pretty deep shenanigans in ventoy not too long ago”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “OpenSUSE Kalpa” “You really shouldn't trust ventoy.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “OpenSUSE Kalpa”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rufus | 30 | 11 | 73% | 10 | — | Approved |
| VentoyThis page | 12 | 6 | 67% | 6 | 4 yrs3 owners | Approved |
What people said
18 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“you can continue to use the same USB drive for storage, in addition to have the ability to boot from any number of .iso files”
“somewhat easier in my view”
“It should not be hijacking the boot process, there's absolutely no good reason for it.”
“I find it hugely useful, have been using it for about 10 years now on dozens of machines and hundreds of distros”
“It literally adds an rdinit to the kernel boot line that hijacks the boot process and messes with it in a shell script.”
“It adds nothing at all to the installed OS.”
“there were some pretty deep shenanigans in ventoy not too long ago”
“It's likely a bug in ventoy.”
“You really shouldn't trust ventoy.”
“It silently messes with the kernel boot flags which breaks the boot process”
“I've had trouble installing proxmox with ventoy”
“Every linux distro can be installed with Ventoy except for SuSe ones”
“Recommend making a live drive with Ventoy.”
“using something like Ventoy to make it easy to try out different desktop environments”
“throwing Ventoy on a USB stick with a bunch of linux isos copied over to it”
“lack of a documented build process and irreproducible binaries”
“Using ventoy and having multiple rescue/install images on one flash drive is super nice.”
“If I boot it with Ventoy, I cannot access them.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.