Rufus 4.2

• Improve DD write speed (uncompressed images only)
• Improve checksum computation speed
• Improve network connectivity detection
• Only prompt for additional GRUB/Syslinux downloads when not writing in DD mode
• Fix potential "loss" of disk after writing Ubuntu 20.10 in DD mode
• Fix GRUB compatibility issue with Ubuntu 21.04
• Fix Rufus MBR not being selected by default for Windows ISOs
• Fix drag and drop being enabled during drive creation
• Add more "exceptions" for forced DD image writing

• Add a cheat mode (Alt-M) to accept disk images without a Boot Marker
• Add marquee operation progress to the taskbar icon
• Add zeroing/image writing progress to the log
• Switch to using 0x55 and 0xAA instead of 0x00 and 0xFF for low pass badblock check
• Switch to using fake/manufacturer units when computing the default label
• Fix overnumerous write retries on error when writing a disk image
• Work around Windows’ abysmal handling of removable drives that contain an ESP [#1637]
• Improve mounting/unmounting of volumes [#1640]
• Update UEFI:NTFS file system drivers to version 1.7
• Other internal fixes and improvements (VDS, error reporting, etc.)

• Add optional SHA-512 digest algorithm (Alt-H)
• Add a cheat mode (Alt-+/-) to increase/decrease application priority
• Enable direct provision of install.wim/install.esd for Windows To Go
• Move Windows To Go ESP to the beginning of the drive, on systems that allow it
• Enforce a minimum volume size of 256 MB for ext2/ext3 partitions [#1576]
• Speed up the scanning of ISOs with lots of Rock Ridge deep directory entries [#1575]
• Fix detection of GRUB version and update embedded GRUB for Ubuntu 20.10 support [#1573, #1616]
• Fix user interface labels for accessibility [#1467]
• Work around a Windows bug where the wrong drive letter may be returned

• Add Rock Ridge deep directory support [#1526]
• Add an option to write small ISOs to an ESP (GPT only)
• Add a cheat mode (Ctrl-SELECT) to extract content from an additional zip archive on top of the ISO
• Add a cheat mode (Alt-G) to disable Virtual Hard Disk listing
• Add a cheat mode (Alt-P) to toggle a GPT ESP to Basic Data (Windows 10 only)
• Fix improper x86 32-bit NTFS driver being used for UEFI:NTFS
• Improve UEFI:NTFS compatibility with older UEFI firmwares [#1213]
• Improve startup time by running the ISO download feature check in the background
• Remove Ubuntu’s splash screen for persistent UEFI drives
• Enable ASLR for the Rufus executable

• Improve support for Ubuntu 20.04 [#1499]
• Improve detection of FIXED drives with no mounted partitions
• Improve extfs formatting (courtesy of Marcos Mello) [#1516]
• Update UEFI:NTFS file system drivers to v1.5
• Fix progress not being updated when using the German localization
• Fix primary GPT being overwritten when adding the protective MBR message [#1507]
• Fix a regression with lousy security solutions that prevent the creation of an autorun.inf [#1496]
• Fix an assert during FreeDOS drive creation when the Windows system locale is set to UTF‑8 [#1468]
• Fix invalid label errors when using a non-Western locale [#1506]

• Add exFAT support when creating blank UEFI:NTFS drives [EXPERIMENTAL]
• Fix ext2/ext3 corruption for partitions larger than 4 GB
• Fix early boot files not being usable on compressed NTFS partitions
• Fix writing of compressed streams that don’t end on sector boundary
• Fix percent not being displayed on slow format
• Improve file preallocation and speed up ISO extraction (courtesy of Mattiwatti)
• Improve ext2/ext3 formatting speed
• Improve protective MBR message for GPT partitioned drives
• Improve reporting of Syslinux/GRUB download errors
• Improve reporting of partition types and of Windows’ version
• Report the usage of UDF symbolic links
• Update embedded Syslinux to 6.04-pre1

• Fix a regression where some ISOs (e.g. Debian) would produce a Syslinux error when booted in BIOS mode [#1375]
• Fix a potential 0xC0030057 error when trying to create a persistent partitions on a non-FIXED drive (Windows 10 1703 or earlier) [#1374]

• Finalize persistent partition support for Debian and Ubuntu:
  • Debian with persistence should work out of the box with any recent Debian Live ISO.
  • Ubuntu with persistence should also work IF using a post 2019.08.01 ISO (such as daily-live)
    Note that, because of bug #1489855, trying to use persistence with Ubuntu ISOs that were released before August 2019 will only result in rescue mode during boot — You have been warned!
  • Other distros may work with persistence as long as they use a Debian-like or Ubuntu-like method, and, in the case of Ubuntu-like, if they use casper with the #1489855 bugfix.
• Add cheat mode (Alt) to switch between percent completed/transfer rate/time remaining on some operations [EXPERIMENTAL]
• Report SuperSpeed+ devices in the log (Come on USB-IF, just add “Ludicrous Speed” already!)
• Fix UI checkboxes (Extended label, Fixes for old BIOSes) being cleared on START
• Fix Can't mount GUID volume regression when creating Windows To Go drives [#1351]
• Fix Volume label is invalid error with empty labels on Windows 7 [#1352]
• Fix stale progress bar during standalone ext2/ext3 formatting
• Fix an extraction failure with R‑Drive Image bootable ISOs
• Disable ISO mode for Pop_OS
• Other cosmetic and internal improvements

• Finalize persistent partition support for Debian and Ubuntu:
  • Debian with persistence should work out of the box with any recent Debian Live ISO.
  • Ubuntu with persistence should also work IF using a post 2019.08.01 ISO (such as daily-live)
    Note that, because of bug #1489855, trying to use persistence with Ubuntu ISOs that were released before August 2019 will only result in rescue mode during boot — You have been warned!
  • Other distros may work with persistence as long as they use a Debian-like or Ubuntu-like method, and, in the case of Ubuntu-like, if they use casper with the #1489855 bugfix.
• Add cheat mode (Alt) to switch between percent completed/transfer rate/time remaining on some operations [EXPERIMENTAL]
• Report SuperSpeed+ devices in the log (Come on USB-IF, just add “Ludicrous Speed” already!)
• Fix UI checkboxes (Extended label, Fixes for old BIOSes) being cleared on START
• Fix Can't mount GUID volume regression when creating Windows To Go drives [#1351]
• Fix Volume label is invalid error with empty labels on Windows 7 [#1352]
• Fix stale progress bar during standalone ext2/ext3 formatting
• Disable ISO mode for Pop_OS
• Other cosmetic and internal improvements

Changelog:

• Add support for persistent partitions [EXPERIMENTAL]
• (Note: The above won’t work with Ubuntu until Ubuntu bug #1489855 is properly fixed)
• Add a mode to use VDS when partitioning/formatting (Alt‑V) [EXPERIMENTAL]
• Add full extraction support for efi.img (Solus)
• Fix listing of potentially blocking processes
• Fix NTFS not being selectable when using Grub4DOS
• Fix download script not being launched when the user name contains a space
• Fix translated messages potentially being truncated (e.g. Thai)
• Fix progress bar report for screen readers (Accessibility issue)
• Fix a regression where Windows format prompts would not be suppressed
• Improve(?) Windows To Go support by following Microsoft’s recommended partition order
• Don’t enumerate Windows Sandbox VHDs
• Disable ISO mode when Manjaro ISOHybrids are being used
• Update embedded GRUB to version 2.04