How to Create a Linux Live USB (and Install Linux)

That's the map. The rest of this guide walks each step, points out the ones that can bite you, and gives the commands for the main Linux families where they differ. This is a new guide from Windows Now, which now covers Linux and macOS alongside Windows.

What you need first

• A USB flash drive of 8 GB or larger that you can wipe completely. A USB 3.0 drive is worth using — it's much faster to write and to run live from.
• A working computer to write the drive on (Windows, macOS or another Linux machine).
• A stable internet connection to download the ISO (roughly 2.5–6 GB depending on the distro).
• If you plan to keep your existing operating system, a current backup of anything you care about before you touch partitions.

Step 1 — Download and verify the ISO

1. Go to the official website of your chosen distribution — for example ubuntu.com, fedoraproject.org, linuxmint.com or debian.org — and download the desktop ISO for 64-bit x86 (amd64/x86_64), which is what almost every PC and Intel Mac uses. Download only from the project's own site or its listed mirrors.
2. Verify the download so a corrupted or tampered file can't waste an install. Compare the ISO's SHA-256 hash against the checksum published on the download page. On Linux or macOS:

   sha256sum ubuntu-26.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso   # Linux
   shasum -a 256 ubuntu-26.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso  # macOS

   On Windows PowerShell:

   Get-FileHash .\ubuntu-26.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso -Algorithm SHA256

   The printed value must match the one on the site exactly. Projects such as Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian also publish GPG-signed checksum files if you want to verify the signature as well.

Step 2 — Write the ISO to the USB stick

Pick the tool that matches the computer you're writing from. You only need one.

Rufus (Windows only)

1. Download Rufus from rufus.ie and run it (it's a small, free, open-source tool; no installation needed).
2. Insert the USB stick. Under Device, select it — confirm the size looks right so you don't target the wrong disk.
3. Next to Boot selection, click SELECT and choose your ISO.
4. Leave the other options at their defaults (Rufus sets an appropriate partition scheme and GPT / UEFI target automatically for modern PCs), then click START.
5. If Rufus detects an ISOHybrid image, keep the default Write in ISO Image mode and click OK. Confirm the "all data will be destroyed" warning to proceed. Canonical's own Create a bootable USB stick on Windows tutorial gives the same two prompts, and notes the Ubuntu ISO is an ISOHybrid image that works as both a DVD and a USB image.
6. Wait until the status bar shows READY, then click CLOSE.

balenaEtcher (Windows, macOS, Linux)

1. Download balenaEtcher from etcher.balena.io and open it.
2. Click Flash from file and select your ISO.
3. Click Select target and choose the USB drive (Etcher hides internal disks by default to protect you).
4. Click Flash!, approve the admin prompt, and wait for the write-and-validate to finish.

GNOME Disks (already on many Linux desktops)

1. Open Disks (the gnome-disk-utility package), select the USB drive from the left list — again, confirm the size.
2. Click the ⋮ menu (top-right) and choose Restore Disk Image….
3. Select your .iso file and click Start Restoring…, then confirm.

lsblk                                   # find the USB, e.g. sdb
sudo dd if=path/to/linux.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync

Step 3 — Boot the computer from the USB

1. Leave the USB stick plugged in and restart the target computer (this can be the same machine you wrote the drive on, or a different one).
2. As it powers on, tap the one-time boot-menu key repeatedly. It varies by maker — common keys are F12, F10, F9, Esc or, on many Macs, hold Option (⌥). If you don't know it, watch the first screen or check the maker's support page. Ubuntu's Install Ubuntu desktop tutorial names the same candidates — F12 first, with F2, Escape and F10 as hardware-dependent alternatives.
3. In the boot menu, choose the entry for your USB drive. Prefer the one prefixed UEFI if both a UEFI and a legacy entry appear.
4. If there's no boot-menu key, enter BIOS/UEFI setup (often F2 or Del), move the USB drive to the top of the boot order, save and exit. On Windows, you can instead go to Settings → System → Recovery → Advanced startup → Use a device.

Step 4 — Try the live session

When the distro's menu appears, choose Try (Ubuntu asks "Try or Install"; Fedora boots straight into a live desktop with an Install to Hard Drive icon). The live session runs entirely from the USB and RAM — nothing is written to your internal disk yet. Use it to:

• Confirm Wi-Fi, sound, trackpad, screen resolution and battery are detected.
• Get a feel for the desktop before committing.
• Rescue files from an otherwise unbootable machine.

Nothing you do here persists after a reboot (unless you deliberately set up a persistent drive), so it's completely safe to explore. When you're ready, double-click the Install icon on the desktop.

Step 5 — Run the installer

Installers differ in looks — Ubuntu uses its Flutter-based installer, Fedora uses Anaconda, Mint uses Ubiquity — but the flow is the same. Ubuntu's official desktop install tutorial presents the same two headline disk choices, Erase disk and Install alongside another OS with a slider for how much space each gets, and flags BitLocker-encrypted Windows drives as something to deal with before continuing:

1. Pick language, keyboard layout and time zone.
2. Connect to Wi-Fi and, if offered, allow updates and third-party media codecs/drivers during install.
3. Choose how to use the disk. This is the decision that matters:
   • Install alongside (dual boot) — keeps your existing OS and shrinks it to make room; you pick which one to boot each time. Ideal for keeping Windows.
   • Erase disk and install — wipes the entire drive and gives Linux all of it. Simplest, but destroys everything currently on that disk.
   • Manual / Something else — you create partitions yourself (see below).
4. Create your username and password, optionally enable disk encryption, then let it copy files. When it finishes, remove the USB stick and reboot.

Partitioning basics (if you choose Manual)

On a modern UEFI system a typical manual layout is:

When dual-booting, do not reformat the existing EFI System Partition — mount it at /boot/efi so both systems share it. If you're unsure, the guided Install alongside option handles all of this for you.

After the first boot: updating

Once installed, update the system straight away. The command depends on the distro family:

sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade     # Debian, Ubuntu, Mint
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh                    # Fedora, RHEL family
sudo pacman -Syu                              # Arch, Manjaro

After that you're running Linux from your disk, and the USB stick is free to reuse or to keep as a rescue tool.