The Fedora Media Writer application is the quickest and easiest way to create a Fedora USB stick. If you want to install or try out Fedora Workstation, you can use Fedora Media Writer to copy the Live image onto a thumbdrive. Alternatively, Fedora Media Writer will also copy larger (non-“Live”) installation images onto a USB thumb drive. Fedora Media Writer is also able to download the images before writing them.

Install Fedora Media Writer

Fedora Media Writer is available for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows. To install it on Fedora, find it in the Software application.

Alternatively, use the following command to install it from a terminal:

sudo dnf install mediawriter

Links to the installers for Mac OS and Windows versions of the Fedora Media Writer are available from the Downloads page on getfedora.org

Creating a Fedora USB

After launching Fedora Media Writer, you will be greeted with a list of the Fedora editions available to download and copy to your USB drive. The two main options here are Fedora Workstation and Fedora Server. Alternatively, you can click the icon at the bottom of the list to display all the additional Spins and Labs that the Fedora community provides. These include the KDE Spin, the Cinnamon Spin, the XFCE spin, the Security lab, and the Fedora Design Suite.

Click on the Fedora edition, Spin or Lab you want to download and copy to your new USB. A description of the software will be presented to you:

Click the Create Live USB button in the top right to start the download of your new Fedora image. While the image is downloading, insert your USB drive into your computer, and choose that drive in the dropdown. Note that if you have previously downloaded a Fedora image with the Media Writer, it will not download it again; it will simply use the version you have already downloaded.

After the download is complete, double check you are writing to the correct USB drive, and click the red Write to Disk button.

Already have an ISO downloaded?

But what if you have previously an ISO through your web browser?. Media Writer also has an option to copy any ISO already on your filesystem to a USB. Simply choose the Custom Image option from the main screen of Fedora Media Writer, then pick the ISO from the file browser, and choose Write to Disk.