Rufus 3.16 Build 1833 Beta May 2026

Rufus uses GRUB to boot various Linux ISOs in Legacy mode. This beta updates the internal GRUB version to 2.04, adding support for newer distributions like Ubuntu 20.10 and Fedora 33 that dropped older GRUB configurations.

This is the practical star of the update. Microsoft recently updated Windows 7 to support SHA-2 signing exclusively (dropping SHA-1). Consequently, older Rufus-created Windows 7 USB drives were failing to boot or install updates.

Rufus 3.16 Beta now correctly handles the SHA-2 signed bootloader for Windows 7. If you are an IT administrator maintaining legacy Win7 machines, this beta is a legitimate must-have. Rufus 3.16 Build 1833 Beta

Rufus uses a custom UEFI NTFS driver to boot Windows from NTFS drives. Build 1833 updates this driver to version 1.4, which improves compatibility with motherboards that have buggy UEFI firmwares (looking at you, older Dell and HP systems).

This specific build introduced enhancements that were highly requested during the Windows 11 launch: Error: Access Denied: Run Rufus as Administrator

Even in beta, the user interface remains classic Rufus—minimalist but powerful.

Once you’ve created the bootable USB using the beta: Rufus uses GRUB to boot various Linux ISOs in Legacy mode

For Linux (e.g., Ubuntu 20.10):

This specific beta build was released primarily to address growing pains in Windows 10 20H2 (October 2020 Update) and introduce better handling for large-sector NVMe drives. Here is the breakdown: