create a Linux Live USB on Windows

Download and Install

Pay a visit to Official Etcher Website and click on the big, friendly green button to download it. balenaEtcher is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, and a portable version is available for Windows. Note that the site auto-detects the version it deems best for your OS, but you can change it by clicking on the down arrow on the right of the button.

Select Source

balenaEtcher is probably the most straightforward app of its kind. It presents the procedure of flashing a bootable ISO as a series of logical steps.

The first step is selecting your source. Click the “Flash from file” button and select the ISO file that you downloaded earlier. There is also a “Flash from URL” option, though it’s not recommend to use that.

Select Target

balenaEtcher guesses the intended target flash drive and presents its choice as the second step. If it doesn’t guess correctly, click on “Change” under the device. Then, select the correct one from the list that appears.

Flash the ISO

This not-so-complicated procedure concludes with a click on “Flash,” presented as the third step in the process.

When the actual writing-on-the-flash-drive begins, the program will state “Flashing…” and also present a completion percentage and bar as well as an ETA. You can stop the process by clicking Cancel, but remember that this will leave you with a half-flashed drive that you’ll then have to re-format to use.

When the process completes, balenaEtcher will present some stats about it. Unfortunately, for us, they were semi-hidden behind an ad. You can close the application and proceed to use the flash drive to install the OS you chose on your computer. Or you can click “Flash Another” to repeat the process and create a second flash drive.