What OS Officially Runs the Ventoy Installer?

The Ventoy installation tool officially supports Microsoft Windows and Linux as host operating systems for writing the bootable environment to target USB or disk storage. While the resulting Ventoy drive can subsequently boot hundreds of operating systems (including Windows, Linux distributions, ChromeOS, and Unix variants), creating and maintaining the drive must be performed using the official installation packages provided specifically for Windows or Linux environments.

Microsoft Windows

Ventoy provides dedicated Windows binaries that allow users to install, update, or configure Ventoy via graphical interface or command prompt:

• Supported Versions: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11, and modern Windows Server editions.
• Supported Architectures: The standard installer (Ventoy2Disk.exe) is a 32-bit x86 executable compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit AMD/Intel hardware. Native builds are also provided for x86_64, ARM, and ARM64 systems (Ventoy2Disk_X64.exe, Ventoy2Disk_ARM.exe, and Ventoy2Disk_ARM64.exe).
• Interface Modes: Users can run the native GUI or execute headless installation and updates via the Windows CLI (VTOYCLI).

Linux Distributions

Ventoy offers full native support for virtually all major Linux distributions (such as Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, Linux Mint, CentOS, RHEL, and SUSE):

• Supported Architectures: Packages include binaries compiled for x86_64, i386, aarch64 (ARM64), and mips64el architectures.
• Interface Modes: Linux users can run the native shell script (Ventoy2Disk.sh) directly with root privileges, run the native desktop GUI (VentoyGUI with automated GTK or Qt support), or manage the installation through a local browser session via Ventoy's WebUI tool (VentoyWeb.sh).

Operating Systems Without Native Installers

• macOS: Apple macOS is not officially supported by a native installer binary. Mac users must either run the Linux installer from a virtual machine, create the drive from a Windows or Linux system, or boot a standalone temporary environment.
• BSD and ChromeOS: These operating systems cannot run the host installer directly, although ISO and image files from these systems can be booted from a completed Ventoy drive.

For systems where security policies, driver locks, or antivirus software interfere with the Windows installer, the developers distribute an official Ventoy LiveCD. The LiveCD boots a lightweight Linux environment to handle low-level disk partitioning and installation independently of the primary host OS.