Raspberry Pi Imager writes Raspberry Pi OS and other supported operating-system images to storage for a Raspberry Pi. Use the publisher’s software page, then confirm the destination device before writing: imaging overwrites the selected storage.
Current release and official sources
The official GitHub release lists 2.0.11.1, published 17 August 2026. Its notes include a fix for the Next button on the Raspberry Pi Connect customisation step and Windows hotfix version reporting.
The Raspberry Pi software page offers Windows, macOS and Linux x86_64 downloads. On Raspberry Pi OS, the publisher also documents installation with sudo apt install rpi-imager. The main utility’s source is licensed under Apache 2.0; see its licence file for component notices.
Prepare the card and avoid erasing the wrong device
Follow Raspberry Pi’s Imager documentation: select the device, operating system and destination storage, then review the settings before writing. Where supported, customisation can set the hostname, user, Wi-Fi and remote-access options. Complete the verification stage after the image has been written.
Before confirming an erase, back up anything you need from that card. Compare the displayed capacity and device identity with the physical card you intend to use. Disconnect unrelated removable drives if that makes identification easier. Do not choose a destination just because it happens to be the first entry in a list.
If writing or verification fails, use our Raspberry Pi Imager error guide. Repeatedly retrying the same write is not a substitute for checking the reader, media and selected destination. Our Home Assistant installation guide helps distinguish an appliance image from a container deployment.
Installer checksum, signature and card verification are different
The SHA-256 values in this entry refer to the named Imager download files. They do not refer to an operating-system image or to the contents of a card after writing. A matching installer hash therefore does not replace Imager’s write-verification stage.
On 30 September 2026 (UTC), we downloaded the Windows file imager-v2.0.11.1.exe from the official GitHub release and calculated its SHA-256. The 22,498,400-byte file matched the release asset’s published digest:
94ffded522f3e2a38bdb9505440229e1411b80992a616ba16b2d7e73bd794130On the same Windows 11 machine, Get-AuthenticodeSignature returned Valid, signature type Authenticode, and a signer subject naming Raspberry Pi Limited. This observation applies to that named Windows file. It is not a malware verdict or a signature check of every platform package.
For your copy, use our local SHA-256 checker or Get-FileHash. Obtain the expected value from the same named official release asset. See our Windows signature guide for the separate signature check.
Telemetry and the limits of our check
The project’s README describes anonymous usage metrics enabled by default and the option to turn collection off in App Options. Review that setting when preparing your installation.
We checked the official sources and the Windows installer’s bytes. We did not execute the installer, write an SD card, test a Raspberry Pi boot or scan the program for malware. The macOS hash shown in the file table comes from the official release metadata; we did not independently download that file.
