[1] It was written in C and x86 assembly, and for all BIOS versions, was released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

[9] Starting from MemTest86 2.3, the program can output a list of bad RAM regions in the format expected by the BadRAM patch for the Linux kernel.

[10] After MemTest86 remained at version 3.0 (2002 release) for two years, Samuel Demeulemeester created the Memtest86+ fork to add support for newer CPUs and chipsets.

From version 1.60, the program can output a list of bad RAM regions in the format expected by the BadRAM patch for the Linux kernel[13] (similar to MemTest86 2.3).

In April 2020, the final BIOS-based version, 5.31 beta, was released with a short changelog claiming "many fixes".

[10][13] MemTest86(+) is designed to run as a stand-alone, self-contained program from a bootable USB flash drive, CD-ROM, floppy disk, or from a suitable boot manager without an operating system present.

[24] This is because the program must directly control the hardware being tested and leave as much of the RAM space as possible for examination.