Easy2Boot

Easy2Boot turns one USB drive into a shelf of bootable discs. Prepare the drive once, then copy ISO files, disk images, virtual hard disks and WIM files into its folders, and a menu listing every one of them appears the next time a computer boots from the stick. Delete a file and it leaves the menu. There is no rewriting the drive for each new tool with a plain bootable USB writer, no one-image-per-stick, and no utility to run every time a collection changes, because the menu is built from whatever is on the drive at boot.

Where it differs from the other multiboot tools is in how many ways it can boot the same files. Three menu systems ship on one drive, a legacy menu for old machines that boot the traditional way, a grub2-based menu called agFM for UEFI machines including those with Secure Boot switched on, and a build of Ventoy for anyone who prefers that menu.

A payload that one menu refuses can be tried from another without changing the drive. Easy2Boot is the technician’s answer to the multiboot problem, and it carries a technician’s learning curve, with partition images, filename suffixes and update scripts that reward reading the documentation and punish skipping it.

Copy, boot, done, and what the folders mean

The Easy2Boot drive carries a set of folders, one per menu category, and a payload dropped into a folder appears under that heading. Installers go in one place, rescue tools in another, live systems in a third, and the menu groups them accordingly. ISO files boot directly in most cases, and the drive also boots IMG and IMA floppy images, VHD virtual disks and WIM files, with DOS programs and old installers handled by the legacy menu.

A file that boots fine with the default settings can simply stay as it is. One that needs a particular boot method is told so by renaming it with a special suffix, which is how the tool knows to treat a stubborn image differently. Files have to be stored contiguously on the drive, and a script makes them so after copying.

Those two habits, the suffixes and the contiguity script, are the first things newcomers learn.

Three menu systems on one drive

The Easy2Boot legacy menu, built on grub4dos, handles machines that boot the old way and covers the widest range of ancient payloads, from DOS tools to old installers. The agFM menu is the one that matters on modern hardware. It boots in UEFI mode, including on systems with Secure Boot enabled, by loading through a signed shim and then relaxing Secure Boot so that unsigned payloads can follow, which is a trick no rival pulls off from a standard drive. For live ISOs it offers several boot methods, and switching between them is how a reluctant distribution gets going.

The third menu is a build of Ventoy, reachable from the agFM menu with a keypress, for anyone who wants that project’s approach. A drive can even be converted into a plain Ventoy drive later. Having all three means that when a payload fails, the next step is to try another menu rather than to search forums, and that saves hours on the odd image.

Partition images for the awkward cases

Some payloads refuse every direct method Easy2Boot offers, usually because they expect to be the only thing on the drive. For those, the MPI Tool Kit converts an ISO, a folder or an existing USB stick into a partition image file. Drop that file on the drive, select it from the menu, and the tool swaps the partition image in so the computer sees exactly the layout the payload wanted. Switch back afterwards and the collection returns.

It is the mechanism behind the claim of true Secure Boot for hundreds of payloads, and it is also the most confusing part of the whole system until the first one works.

Updating, DPMS and the variants

An Easy2Boot update script refreshes the menu systems to the current release without touching the payloads already on the drive, so a stick built long ago stays current with a double-click. A variant called DPMS bundles additional mass-storage drivers for installing older systems onto hardware whose controllers those installers never knew, and the MPI Tool Kit installs separately on the computer rather than on the drive, much as a graphical multiboot builder keeps its tooling on the host.

Drives can be flash sticks, external SSDs or USB hard disks, and an external SSD makes the whole experience far faster than a stick, since every payload reads from the drive at boot.

The learning curve, honestly

Easy2Boot is not a one-button utility. The documentation is long because the subject is, and a first drive involves choosing partition layouts, deciding whether to add the agFM partition, learning the folder meanings, renaming the odd file and running the contiguity script. Secure Boot behaviour varies by firmware, and some machines refuse the shim outright. People who expect the simplicity of a single-menu tool will find the options bewildering for a day.

The reward is a drive that boots almost anything on almost any machine, with a way around each failure. For a middle path with a graphical builder and fewer concepts, SARDU assembles a multiboot drive with less to understand and less reach.

Conclusion

Easy2Boot suits technicians, repair shops and anyone who maintains a collection of installers and rescue tools and wants them all on one drive that boots on old and new hardware alike. The three menus, the Secure Boot path and the partition images reach payloads other multiboot tools give up on, and the update script keeps an old drive current.

It is the wrong tool for someone who wants to drop a file and never read a manual. Build the drive with the agFM partition, learn the suffixes and the contiguity script, keep the documentation open for the first week, and it becomes the one stick that boots everything.