The latest version of Rufus, one of the most popular utilities for creating bootable USB drives, is now available. Rufus 4.15, released on June 30, 2026, focuses on improving Windows installation reliability, expanding hardware compatibility, enhancing security, and fixing several issues introduced in previous releases.
What’s New in Rufus 4.15 – June 30, 2026
Added RISC-V 64 Support to UEFI
Rufus now includes RISC-V 64 support in its UEFI bootloader.
Although RISC-V desktop hardware remains relatively uncommon, this addition prepares Rufus for future systems using the rapidly growing open-source processor architecture. Bootable USB drives created with Rufus can now work correctly on compatible RISC-V UEFI firmware.
Improved Silent Windows Installation Protection
The Silent Windows Installation feature, introduced in Rufus 4.14, has received additional safeguards.
Rufus now performs better validation before allowing silent installation mode, reducing the chance of incompatible settings that could previously result in installation failures.
This makes unattended Windows deployments more reliable for administrators and advanced users.
Better Write Retry Cancellation
Writing a bootable USB can occasionally encounter temporary write errors.
Version 4.15 improves the application’s ability to cancel operations while write retries are in progress, allowing users to stop failed or stalled operations much more cleanly without waiting for every retry attempt to complete.
Improved Progress Reporting During Compressed Image Extraction
When extracting compressed operating system images, Rufus now reports progress more accurately.
The improved progress indicator provides users with a clearer estimate of remaining extraction time, especially when working with large compressed images.
Security Improvements
Fixed XML Parser Vulnerabilities
Rufus 4.15 addresses two security issues in the embedded ezxml parser:
- unrestricted XML entity expansion
- integer overflow
These vulnerabilities were reported by Eric Sadowski and have now been fully resolved.
While these issues were unlikely to affect typical users because Rufus processes user-supplied images, fixing them further strengthens the application’s overall security.
Silent Windows Installation Failing at 75%
One of the most significant fixes in this release addresses a regression introduced in Rufus 4.14.
Many users reported that Silent Windows Installation would consistently stop at approximately 75% completion without successfully finishing setup.
This issue has now been resolved.
Fixed Snapdragon X ARM64 Boot Crash
Rufus 4.15 fixes a boot crash affecting systems based on Qualcomm Snapdragon X ARM64 processors when using UEFI.
This restores compatibility with Microsoft’s latest Windows on ARM devices.
Fixed Default Windows User Experience (WUE) Option
The first Windows User Experience (WUE) option was incorrectly enabled by default under certain circumstances.
Version 4.15 corrects this behavior so that installation customization options are applied exactly as selected by the user.
Fixed Infinite Loop with Multi-WIM Windows ISOs
Some Windows installation images contain multiple WIM files.
Earlier versions of Rufus could enter an infinite processing loop when handling these images.
This issue has been completely fixed in version 4.15.
Fixed UEFI Media Validation Option
The Enable runtime UEFI media validation checkbox could sometimes remain disabled even when it should have been available.
Rufus now enables this option correctly whenever supported.
Additional Windows User Experience Improvements
Version 4.15 also includes several refinements to the Windows User Experience (WUE) customization system, including:
- improved OneDrive removal
- better username validation
- additional internal reliability improvements
These changes further improve automated Windows installation workflows.
Summary
Although Rufus 4.15 does not introduce many headline features, it delivers an important collection of stability, compatibility, and security improvements.
Key highlights
- Added RISC-V 64 support to UEFI.
- Improved Silent Windows Installation safeguards.
- Fixed silent installations failing at 75%.
- Fixed boot crashes on Snapdragon X ARM64 systems.
- Improved cancellation during write retries.
- More accurate extraction progress reporting.
- Fixed XML parser security vulnerabilities.
- Fixed infinite loop when processing multi-WIM Windows ISOs.
- Corrected Windows User Experience option behavior.
- Improved UEFI media validation handling.
- Enhanced OneDrive removal and username validation.
Users currently running Rufus 4.14 are strongly encouraged to upgrade, as version 4.15 resolves several critical regressions while improving reliability across modern Windows installation scenarios.
Official Rufus changelog: Rufus Changelog
