# OS downloaders and bootable USB tools privacy ratings

Tools that download operating system installers and write bootable USB drives.

| Name | Grade | Jurisdiction | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [CrystalFetch](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/crystalfetch/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | A macOS app from the makers of UTM that builds Windows 11 installer ISO images from Microsoft's update files, using UUP dump APIs and converter scripts. |
| [Impression](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/impression/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | A GNOME app for writing disk images to USB drives, which can also download popular Linux distribution images directly. |
| [Mist](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/mist/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | A macOS utility that lists and downloads macOS installers and Apple silicon firmware files from Apple's servers, and can build app bundles, disk images, bootable ISOs and installer packages. |
| [Quickemu](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/quickemu/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | Command-line tools that download Windows, macOS and Linux images (quickget) and create and run QEMU virtual machines with preset configurations (quickemu). |
| [WoeUSB](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/woeusb/) | B (80/100) | Unknown | A Linux command-line tool that creates bootable Windows installation USB drives from an ISO file or DVD, with legacy BIOS and UEFI support. |
| [Fedora Media Writer](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/fedora-media-writer/) | C (65/100) | Unknown | The Fedora Project's tool for downloading Fedora images and writing them, or other ISO files, to USB drives, with a restore option to reformat the drive afterwards. |
| [Raspberry Pi Imager](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/raspberry-pi-imager/) | C (65/100) | United Kingdom (Five Eyes) | Raspberry Pi's official tool for downloading operating system images and writing them to SD cards and USB drives, with options to preconfigure hostname, Wi-Fi, users and SSH. |
| [UUP dump](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/uup-dump/) | C (65/100) | Unknown | A website and set of scripts that fetch Windows update files (UUP) from Microsoft's servers and convert them into Windows installation ISO images. |
| [balenaEtcher](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/balenaetcher/) | D (40/100) | United Kingdom (Five Eyes) | A cross-platform app from balena that writes OS images to SD cards and USB drives and validates the written data. |
| [Rufus](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/rufus/) | F (30/100) | Unknown | A Windows utility that formats USB drives and writes bootable USB media from ISO and disk images, and can download Windows ISOs. |
| [Ventoy](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/ventoy/) | F (30/100) | Unknown | A tool that prepares a USB drive so ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD and EFI files copied onto it can be booted from a menu, without reformatting the drive for each image. |
| [Media Creation Tool](https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/media-creation-tool/) | F (10/100) | United States (Five Eyes) | Microsoft's Windows tool that downloads Windows 11 and creates a bootable USB drive or ISO file for installing or reinstalling Windows. |

## Criteria

- **Open source** (weight 3): Is all the source code needed to run the product public?
- **No trackers or telemetry** (weight 3): Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
- **No ads or data sales** (weight 2): Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
- **Independent audit** (weight 2): Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?

Source: https://privacyratings.com/os-installers/