It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can either let UNetbootin download one of the many distributions supported out-of-the-box for you, or supply your own Linux .iso file if you've already downloaded one or your preferred distribution isn't on the list.

UNetbootin can create a bootable Live USB drive, or it can make a "frugal install" on your local hard disk if you don't have a USB drive. It loads distributions either by downloading a ISO (CD image) files for you, or by using an ISO file you've already downloaded.

UNetbootin can also be used to load various system utilities, including:

  • Parted Magic, a partition manager that can resize, repair, backup, and restore partitions.
  • SystemRescueCD, a system repair, backup and recovery tool.
  • Super Grub Disk, a boot utility that can restore and repair overwritten and misconfigured GRUB installs or directly boot various operating systems
  • Dr.Web Antivirus, F-Secure Rescue CD, and Kaspersky Rescue Disk, which remove malware from Windows installs.
  • Backtrack, a utility used for network analysis and penetration testing.
  • Ophcrack, a utility which can recover Windows passwords.
  • NTPasswd, a utility which can reset Windows passwords and edit the registry.
  • Gujin, a graphical bootloader that can also be used to boot various operating systems and media.
  • Smart Boot Manager (SBM), which can boot off CD-ROM and floppy drives on computers with a faulty BIOS.
  • FreeDOS, which can run BIOS flash and other legacy DOS utilities.

The current version has built-in support for automatically downloading and loading the following distributions, though installing other distributions is also supported:

  • Ubuntu (and official derivatives)
    • 12.04 LTS
    • 12.10
    • 13.04
    • Daily CD Images
  • Debian
    • Stable/Wheezy
    • Testing/Jessie
    • Unstable/Sid
  • Linux Mint
    • 13
    • 14
    • 15
  • openSUSE
    • 10.2
    • 10.3
    • 11.0
    • 11.1
    • Factory
  • Arch Linux
    • 2010.05
  • Damn Small Linux
    • 4.4
  • SliTaz
    • Stable
    • Cooking
  • Puppy Linux
    • 4.00
  • gNewSense
    • deltah-2.1
  • FreeBSD
    • 6.3
    • 7.0
    • 7.2
    • 8.0
  • NetBSD
    • 4.0
  • Fedora
    • 17
    • 18
    • Rawhide
  • PCLinuxOS
    • 2010
  • Sabayon Linux
    • 5.1
    • 5.2
  • Gentoo
    • 2007.0
    • 2008.0
  • MEPIS
    • SimplyMEPIS 8
    • AntiX 8
  • Zenwalk
    • 5.2
  • Slax
    • 6
  • Dreamlinux
    • 3.2
  • Elive
    • Development
  • CentOS
    • 4
    • 5
    • 6
  • Mandriva
    • 2007.1
    • 2008.0
    • 2008.1
  • LinuxConsole
    • 1.0.2009
  • Frugalware Linux
    • Stable
    • Testing
    • Current
  • xPUD
    • 0.9.2