There are times when you may need to test a bootable USB drive or an ISO file. Maybe you have just downloaded Windows ISO file from Microsoft and want to test it before burning it to a DVD; or maybe you have created a bootable USB drive and want to test if it works perfectly, or you have created a customized Windows ISO file by integrating service packs and drivers, and want to test the newly build ISO file without burning or installing a virtualization software.
While one can always install free virtualization software like VirtualBox to test an ISO file or test a bootable USB (see how to boot from USB in VirtualBox), installing and setting up a virtual machine is a time consuming job. More importantly, novice users might find it as a difficult job.
Users who would like to test bootable USB and bootable ISO file without installing virtualization software should try out QEMU Simple Boot. As the name suggest, QEMU Simple Boot software uses QEMU (QEMU is an open source virtual emulator).
The best thing about QEMU Simple Boot is its easy-to-use interface. All PC users, including novice users will find this software extremely easy-to-use. Basically, you just need to drag and drop an ISO file on to QEMNU Simple Boot and then click Start Qemu Test button to begin testing the ISO file.
In order to test a bootable USB or hard drive, you need to select the HDD option and then select the Hard Disk Drive or USB drive before clicking the Start Qemu Test button. In addition to USB, HDD and ISO, this free software supports CD/DVD as well.
Overall, it’s an excellent piece of software to test your bootable CD/DVD, USB/HDD and ISO files without having to install large virtualization software.
QEMU Simple Boot is a portable software and doesn’t require an installation. Simply extract the downloaded zip file to get the executable and then run the executable as administrator to begin using the software. It’s compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
Peter Newman says
NOTE: Please don’t use QEMU Simple Boot to test Windows OS images. It was designed for quickly testing boot loaders for USB flash drives or small image files with low resource requirements. It was not designed to be a full virtualization environment.
Unurbold says
kyooby. Lol this is a software tocheck if ur iso is bootle or not. it is not gonna install windows lol
kyooby says
Hi.Nice and easy program to use.I have one problem and piss me of. When I ad windows iso mage bootable to check,simply program start,windows xp start loading files system and after 1 minute show me F3 to quit because hard disk missing? any quick solution? cheers
sibirong says
Thanks for QEMU Simple Boot.