Rufus 4.6 (beta) is a new version of one of the best image “burners” for creating operating system installation media. And especially Windows, which in our opinion is the best, both for creating standard media and those that enable it “skip” requests minimum hardware and other features required by Microsoft.

Microsoft updated its media creation assistant last week Media creation tool (MCT) to facilitate the installation of Windows 11 2024 Update (Windows 11 24H2). It’s one of the recommended methods for Windows installations, but it only works with systems that are officially licensed and meet all requirements, hardware and more.

And what happens to the rest of the teams? Microsoft, without changing the official hardware requirements, modified in the latest version of Windows some parameters (mainly for older CPUs) that complicate the use of those scripts, registry modifications or third-party applications such as Rufus that allowed to bypass the requirements.

Rufus 4.6, new features

The new version of Rufus is in beta, but now allows you to skip some of these requirements hate that Microsoft stores. And we’re not talking about the sensible ones like increasing RAM, which modern Windows is crying out for.

No, we are talking about issues that have become an obsession in Redmond, such as the use of Microsoft ID accounts and local restrictions, which is what the vast majority of users want. One of the new features of Rufus 4.6 makes it easy to use by any user and in Pro and Home editions, but there are other interesting changes:

• Set local account passwords to not expire by default
• A new setup.exe file that bypasses Windows 11 24H2 local update restrictions.
• Time zone to replicate regional options.
• Fixed bug when trying to write compressed VHD images (for use in virtual machines)
• Improved checking of revoked UEFI bootloaders to support Linux SBAT, Windows SVN and DBX cert.

Rufus 4.6 (Beta) is available on its website for Windows x64 platforms. A new version for ARM will be released later. Like all the previous ones completely free and open source.

Finally, say that this version it does not eliminate the requirement for a new CPU instruction set (PopCnt and SSE4.2) for older CPUs added by Microsoft. Rufus author Pete Batard says he won’t until Microsoft providesgoes around:

“I don’t plan to do that. If the official bypasses that Microsoft allows don’t work, that’s Microsoft’s problem, not mine. Rufus works within Microsoft, with the bypasses that Microsoft has included in the installer, so as it has been since the release of Windows 11, I hope that the bypasses that Microsoft allows do not leave the machine inoperable, and I also hope that Microsoft filters the bypasses , which does, such as PopCount/SSE4.2».