# WoeUSB/WoeUSB

A Microsoft Windows® USB installation media preparer for GNU+Linux

Repository: https://github.com/WoeUSB/WoeUSB
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/woeusb-woeusb
Homepage: https://woeusb.github.io/WoeUSB/
Language: Shell
License Family: other
Topics: windows, bootable-usb, winusb, linux, command-line-tool, command-line-app, woeusb, gnu-linux
Last push: 2025-09-12T07:03:57+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 41/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 41, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2698, "days_push": 355, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2617, forks 150 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:04.673045+00:00)

## What it is
WoeUSB is a command-line tool for GNU/Linux that creates bootable Windows USB installation media from ISO images or physical installation discs. It supports Windows Vista and later, Legacy PC/UEFI booting, and both FAT32 and NTFS filesystems.

## Use cases
- create a bootable windows 10 usb installer from linux
- write a windows iso to a usb drive on ubuntu
- make a windows 11 installation stick from a linux machine
- prepare windows pe bootable usb media
- create uefi-bootable windows usb with ntfs support
- burn windows install media to usb from the command line

## When to choose
- you are on GNU/Linux and need to create Windows installation USB media
- you need UEFI or Legacy BIOS boot support for Windows installers
- your Windows ISO contains install.wim files larger than 4GiB that need FAT32 splitting
- you prefer a scriptable command-line workflow over GUI tools

## When to avoid
- you need to create Linux bootable USBs (use tools like dd, Ventoy, or balenaEtcher instead)
- you are on Windows or macOS and want a native tool (use Rufus or similar)
- you need a graphical interface (consider WoeUSB-ng or GUI frontends)
- you need to write non-Windows ISO images

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: cli, file-system, developer-tools
- domain: operating-systems, developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: bootable-usb, windows-installation, usb-installer, shell-script, uefi, ntfs, command-line, linux

## Member repositories
- WoeUSB/WoeUSB (main) score 41

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:04.673045+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:20:23.771593+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/WoeUSB/WoeUSB (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:04.673045+00:00, sha da2a025511bd)
  - homepage: https://woeusb.github.io/WoeUSB/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:03:14.747957+00:00, sha d81f9e7bd7bc)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.