If you’ve ever dual-booted a computer, you’ve probably used a LiveUSB. A LiveUSB contains an entire operating system, which can be booted from the USB. While I’ve only used LiveUSBs to install Linux, they can be used with other types of operating systems (like Windows To Go and Macs).
During LiveUSB creation, the entire operating system is placed onto the USB, and then (among other things) a bootloader is created. A bootloader is a small program that tells the computer how to start working, and when we add that to the USB, we now have the tools to boot an entire operating system from a USB (whoa!).
A LiveUSB has two really cool features:
1. It contains everything needed to install the operating system onto your computer.
2. Because everything is on the USB already, you can run an operating system from a LiveUSB, acting as your own portable computer!
