Rufus 1.2.0

Rufus 1.2.0 is a great program for copying .iso files (such as images of a CD or DVD) onto a USB drive, to allow you to install an operating system ,for example, without using an optical disc. See all PC Advior's How To features.

There is a growing desire for laptops to be smaller and light these days. What that means is that manufacturers are ditching components inside laptops that are redundant or rarely used. One of the first to go is the humble optical drive.

Let's be honest, no-one really uses optical drives anymore. So in order for consumers to get a thiner and lighter laptop, they are being forced to compromise and accept the absence of an optical drive.

This isn't a big problem as most things, if not all software, can be downloaded from the internet. However, if you are stuck with an .iso file and don't have an optical drive (or disc) to burn it to, you can use Rufus 1.2.0 to put it onto a bootable USB pendrive. See also Group test: what's the best ultraportable laptop?

Rufus will extract an .iso file and dump it directly onto a USB flash drive, as well as making the drive bootable. Then, you can insert the USB stick into a computer with no optical drive and boot directly from it as if it were a bootable CD or DVD. Installations from USB flash drives are quicker than from optical drives, so you could install Windows or Linux in a matter of minutes