🚀 BootForge

🇬🇧 English | 🇫🇷 Français

BootForge is an advanced, all-in-one bootable USB creator and multi-boot management studio for Linux and Windows 10/11.

It bridges the best of both worlds:

• The raw flashing power, partition schemes, and Windows 11 hardware bypass capabilities of Rufus (including UEFI:NTFS support and dynamic .swm splitting).
• The dynamic multi-OS flexibility of Ventoy (drop multiple ISOs onto a single USB stick without reformatting).

Built with genuine native desktop technologies (GTK 4 / Libadwaita on Linux and PyQt6 on Windows), BootForge provides a smooth, accessible user experience tailored to beginners and system administrators alike.

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📸 Screenshots

Simple Mode (Beginner-friendly 3 steps)	Advanced Mode (Direct Flash & Rufus-grade tuning)

Dynamic Ventoy Multi-Boot Manager	USB Diagnostic & Repair Toolbox

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🎯 Two Tailored Operating Modes

A single toggle switch in the header bar adapts the interface to your workflow:

• Simple Mode (Default): Streamlined 3-step workflow designed for quick everyday use. Select your ISO, pick your drive, and flash. BootForge automatically picks the optimal partition scheme and filesystem with zero technical jargon.
• Advanced Mode: Full control for power users, technicians, and system administrators. Direct access to GPT/MBR partition tables, file system engines (NTFS + UEFI:NTFS, FAT32 with .swm splitting, exFAT, raw DD), Windows 11 autounattend.xml automation generator, $WinPEDriver$ driver injection, /ventoy/ventoy.json visual configuration, low-level disk tools (badblocks, QEMU/OVMF emulation), and a real-time live execution console.

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✨ Features

⚡ 1. Direct Flash Engine (Rufus Compatible)

• Windows 10 & Windows 11 Support:
  • Full support for official Microsoft ISO images.
  • Automatically handles the 4 GB FAT32 file size limit using Pete Batard's NTFS + UEFI:NTFS hybrid loader or dynamic .swm split with wimlib-imagex.
  • Windows 11 (24H2 / 25H2) Bypass Suite:
    • Bypass TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and 4 GB RAM requirements.
    • Create a local offline account (bypasses mandatory Microsoft Account login).
    • Disable automatic BitLocker drive encryption.
    • Disable telemetry and privacy diagnostic questionnaires.
    • Automatically inject $WinPEDriver$ driver folders directly into the installation media.
• Linux & BSD Distributions:
  • Supports hybrid ISO burning via standard filesystem extraction or raw disk image (dd) mode.
  • Optional ext4 persistence support (casper-rw for Ubuntu/Mint, persistence for Debian/Kali).
  • Smart partition scheme selection: GPT (modern UEFI) or MBR (legacy BIOS/CSM).

🔀 2. Dynamic Multi-Boot (Ventoy Compatible)

• Install, update, or reconfigure Ventoy directly from the app.
• Multi-OS on a Single Drive: Copy multiple ISOs (e.g. Windows 11 + Ubuntu 24.04 + Proxmox + Clonezilla) to the data partition.
• Add or delete operating systems on the fly without formatting or wiping the drive.
• Visual Configuration Editor for /ventoy/ventoy.json:
  • Set custom menu aliases for ISO files.
  • Configure default boot target and timeout countdown.
  • Toggle global Windows 11 bypasses (VTOY_WIN11_BYPASS_CHECK, VTOY_WIN11_BYPASS_NRO).
  • Attach .dat persistence files and auto-unattend response files.

🛠️ 3. USB Toolbox & Diagnostics

• Checksum Calculator: High-speed memory-stream hashing (SHA-256, SHA-1, MD5) with instant target hash verification.
• Sequential Read Benchmark: Measures real continuous read throughput in MB/s.
• Surface Verification (badblocks): Scan for bad sectors with explicit destructive confirmation dialogs.
• Factory Reset: Cleans leftover partition tables, wipes partition headers, and reformats cleanly to FAT32 or exFAT.
• Drive Backup & Restore: Backup entire physical USB drives to raw disk images (.img or compressed .img.gz) and restore them.
• Virtual Machine Boot Test: Directly test-boot your USB drive in an isolated QEMU environment (UEFI OVMF or Legacy BIOS).

🌐 4. Verified OS Catalog

• One-click downloads of official ISO images directly from upstream mirrors:
  • Desktop: Windows 11, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, Linux Mint 22, Debian 12, Fedora Workstation.
  • Security & Tech: Arch Linux, Kali Linux, Proxmox VE.
  • Rescue & Maintenance: SystemRescue, GParted Live, Clonezilla.

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📥 Download & Installation

Grab pre-built packages from the GitHub Releases page.

🐧 Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, Pop!_OS, Fedora, Arch...)

Option A: Native Debian/Ubuntu Package (.deb)

sudo apt install ./bootforge_1.0.0_all.deb

BootForge will appear in your desktop application launcher (GNOME, KDE, XFCE).

Option B: Standalone Portable Archive

tar -xzf BootForge-1.0.0-linux.tar.gz
cd BootForge-1.0.0-linux
./bootforge

🪟 Windows (Windows 10 / Windows 11 - 64-bit)

• Setup Installer: Download BootForge-1.0.0-win64-setup.exe and follow the wizard.
• Portable Zip: Extract BootForge-1.0.0-win64-portable.zip and run BootForge.exe.

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💻 Running from Source

Linux

# System dependencies
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
  python3 python3-gi python3-gi-cairo gir1.2-gtk-4.0 gir1.2-adw-1 \
  pkexec 7zip parted gdisk dosfstools ntfs-3g exfatprogs e2fsprogs util-linux udisks2

# Clone and run
git clone https://github.com/NiceMank/BootForge.git
cd BootForge
./bootforge

Windows

git clone https://github.com/NiceMank/BootForge.git
cd BootForge
python -m pip install -r requirements-win.txt
python bootforge

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🧪 Tests & Building

Running Unit Tests

python3 -m unittest discover -s engine/tests -v

Building Linux Packages

bash packaging/build_deb.sh

Building Windows Binaries

python packaging/build_windows.py
makensis -DVERSION=1.0.0 packaging/win_installer.nsi

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome!

• Open an Issue for bug reports or feature requests.
• Please review our Code of Conduct.

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📄 License & Credits

Distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (LICENSE).

• UEFI:NTFS loader credited to the Rufus project (Pete Batard, GPLv3).
• Multi-boot concepts and runtime based on Ventoy (longpanda, GPLv3).
• Visual integration strictly adheres to the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines and modern fluid desktop UX standards.