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RufusMac (Intel Mac fork)

The Rufus-style bootable USB creator for macOS — Liquid Glass on 26+, material UI on 14/15.

Create bootable Windows, Linux, and other USB installers from your Mac. Single-ISO writing, Ventoy-style multiboot, Linux persistence, automatic checksum verification, and a built-in Windows 11 TPM / Secure Boot / online-account bypass — wrapped in Apple's native Liquid Glass design (with a fallback UI on older macOS).

Upstream Platform Arch Swift UI License Made with Claude Code Reworked with Cursor GitHub release (latest by date)

A single-window, native app — mode switcher, live USB detection, drag-and-drop ISO, and a one-tap START. Grab the Intel .dmg from this fork’s Releases.

Why? Rufus is the gold standard for making bootable USBs — but it's Windows-only. On macOS you're stuck juggling balenaEtcher (Linux only), WinDiskWriter (Windows only), and Ventoy (Terminal-heavy). And almost every Mac tool struggles with Windows 11 installers. RufusMac brings it all together in one beautiful, native app.

🤖 Upstream RufusMac was designed and built with the help of Claude Code.
⌨️ This Intel Mac fork (x86_64 packaging, macOS 14/15 fallback UI, docs & releases) was reworked with Cursor.

Fork of h4rithd/RufusMac — same app, RufusMac.

Goal: keep RufusMac working on Intel (x86_64) Macs, support macOS 14 / 15 (Liquid Glass on 26+), and ship a ready-to-run .dmg on Releases. Upstream targets Apple Silicon and macOS 26 (Tahoe); most remaining Intel Macs stayed on Sequoia / Sonoma.


Download

Platform Get it from
Intel Mac This fork’s Releases (.dmg)
Apple Silicon Upstream RufusMac

Scope & maintenance

This is a best-effort Intel Mac packaging / compatibility fork. Support is not guaranteed. Tracking upstream and porting newer RufusMac versions is not guaranteed — releases may lag or stop when the macOS / Swift toolchain for Intel changes, when upstream diverges too far, or when time runs out. Prefer upstream RufusMac if you are on Apple Silicon.

What this fork changes

  • Builds and packages x86_64 only (no Apple Silicon slice in the DMG)
  • Deployment floor macOS 14 — Liquid Glass on 26+, material UI fallback on 14/15
  • Docs, footer credit, and release naming adapted for this fork (reworked with Cursor)

✨ Features

Everything you expect (Rufus parity)

  • 🔌 Smart device detection — external/removable USB drives only; your internal disk is never listed.
  • 💿 Write any image — ISO / IMG / DMG, Windows or Linux, auto-detected.
  • 🧩 Partition scheme — MBR or GPT.
  • 🖥️ Target system — UEFI or BIOS/UEFI.
  • 🗂️ File systems — FAT32 / exFAT / NTFS.
  • 🏷️ Volume label, quick format, and advanced options.
  • 🔁 Auto-defaults — RufusMac picks sensible settings from the ISO you choose.

Things people actually want (and most Mac tools lack)

  • 🪟 Windows 11 bypass, built in — skip the TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, RAM/CPU checks and the online-account requirement, automatically.
  • 🧱 Large install.wim handling — auto-splits install.wim > 4 GB into .swm so Windows boots from FAT32 (no NTFS gymnastics).
  • 🗃️ Ventoy-style Multiboot (experimental) — set up the drive once, then drag many ISOs onto it and boot any one from a menu.
  • 💾 Linux persistence — keep your changes between live-USB sessions.
  • Automatic checksum verification — verify the image before writing and the drive after (SHA-256).
  • 📚 Built-in ISO catalog — jump straight to official downloads for Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Mint, Arch, Kali, Tails, Windows, and more.
  • ♻️ Reclaim drive — one click to turn a bootable USB back into a normal, usable disk.
  • 🖱️ Drag-and-drop ISO selection.
  • 🛡️ Safety first — every destructive action shows a full command preview and requires explicit confirmation. A dry-run "Preview only" mode runs nothing.
  • 🧰 rmctl CLI — list drives, preview command pipelines, browse the catalog, and verify checksums from the terminal.
  • 🎨 Native UI — Liquid Glass on macOS 26 (Tahoe); material fallback on macOS 14/15. Adaptive light/dark, Intel (x86_64) only in this fork’s DMG.

🆚 How it compares

RufusMac Rufus balenaEtcher Ventoy WinDiskWriter
Runs on macOS ⚠️ CLI
Native Liquid Glass UI ✅ (26+)
UI fallback (macOS 14/15) this fork
Windows ISO → USB ⚠️
Linux ISO → USB
Windows 11 TPM/Secure Boot bypass ⚠️
Multiboot (many ISOs) ⚗️ exp.
Linux persistence
Checksum verification
Command preview / dry-run
Built-in ISO catalog ⚠️
CLI companion
Open source ✅ GPLv3

📦 Install

  1. Download RufusMac-<version>-mac-intel-X64.dmg from this fork’s Releases.
  2. Open it and drag RufusMac to Applications.
  3. First launch: right-click → Open (the app is unsigned open-source software, so Gatekeeper asks once).

Verify your download: shasum -a 256 RufusMac-*-mac-intel-X64.dmg and compare with the published .sha256.

Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later on an Intel (x86_64) Mac. Liquid Glass appears on macOS 26+; 14/15 use a material fallback. This fork does not ship an Apple Silicon slice — use upstream for Silicon.

🚀 Usage

  1. Plug in a USB drive and pick it under Device.
  2. Choose a mode: Single ISO, Multiboot, DD Image, or Reclaim.
  3. Drag in an ISO (or click Browse catalog to download one).
  4. Tweak options if you like — RufusMac pre-fills sensible defaults.
  5. Press START, review the plan + warnings, then Preview only (safe dry-run) or Erase & Write.

rmctl — the CLI companion

rmctl list                  # show external/removable drives (read-only)
rmctl preview windows X.iso # dry-run the exact command pipeline (nothing runs)
rmctl catalog               # browse the bundled ISO catalog
rmctl verify file.iso <sha256>

🛠️ Build from source

Building needs a toolchain with the macOS 26 SDK (Liquid Glass symbols). The produced app runs on macOS 14+.

git clone https://github.com/webgkv/RufusMac.git
cd RufusMac
swift build -c release --arch x86_64   # Intel-only; Command Line Tools / Xcode with macOS 26 SDK
scripts/make_dmg.sh                    # → dist/RufusMac-<version>-mac-intel-X64.dmg
scripts/fetch_thirdparty.sh            # (optional) bundle wimlib/ventoy/e2fsprogs for Windows + Multiboot

Run the tests (requires Xcode for the Swift Testing framework):

swift test --arch x86_64

🔒 Safety

RufusMac is built to never touch your internal disk:

  • Only external, physical, removable disks are ever listed (verified against diskutil).
  • Every write shows the exact commands and a red, explicit confirmation.
  • A dry-run mode prints the plan without executing anything.
  • All privileged work runs through a single macOS administrator prompt.

Writing to a USB erases everything on it — double-check the device you select.

🧠 How it works

A clean two-layer design: a pure-Swift engine (RufusMacKit) handles disk enumeration, image inspection, and command planning; the SwiftUI app renders Liquid Glass on macOS 26+ and a material fallback on 14/15. Destructive work is assembled into one auditable shell pipeline using diskutil / hdiutil / dd plus bundled wimlib-imagex / mke2fs / Ventoy. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.

🗺️ Roadmap

  • ✅ Liquid Glass UI, live device detection, dd/Linux writer, Windows writer + Win11 bypass, reclaim, ISO catalog, checksum verify, dry-run preview, rmctl CLI, portable .dmg.
  • This fork: Intel (x86_64) packaging, macOS 14/15 UI fallback, fork docs & Intel releases (reworked with Cursor).
  • ⚗️ Experimental: Ventoy-style multiboot, Linux persistence (need real-hardware validation).
  • 🔜 In-app downloader with live progress, real-time write progress bar, presets & recents, signing + notarization, localization.

Status: functional preview (v0.1). Linux and Reclaim use only built-in macOS tools; Windows/Multiboot need the bundled third-party tools (scripts/fetch_thirdparty.sh). Real bootable-media testing on target hardware is recommended before relying on it.

🙌 Credits & acknowledgements

  • Rufus by Pete Batard — the inspiration and the gold standard.
  • Ventoy — the multiboot engine concept.
  • wimlib — WIM splitting.
  • Upstream RufusMac built with the help of Claude Code.
  • Intel Mac fork (packaging, 14/15 fallback, docs, releases) reworked with Cursor.

Upstream

📄 License

GPLv3 © Harith Dilshan — consistent with the Rufus/Ventoy open-source lineage. This fork remains GPLv3.


Developed by Harith Dilshan · h4rithd.com
Intel fork by webgkv · reworked with Cursor

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Native macOS app for creating bootable Windows and Linux USB installers with ISO writing, Windows 11 bypass options, and multiboot support.

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