If you want to try Linux for the first time, then there is nothing better than installing Linux on a USB drive and using it without having to install it on the hard drive and without affecting your operating system installed on the hard drive. For this, you can download the Linux distribution ISO image file and create a bootable USB drive with it using a tool like AutoBootDisk.
AutoBootDisk is small Windows application that can create bootable Linux USB drives. It provides you two modes – custom or automatic. The only difference between these two modes is that in the custom mode you have to download the Linux ISO yourself and select it, while in the automatic mode you can select a Linux distribution from the drop-down list and it will download it from the internet automatically.
Then there is the step where you have to select a destination drive. Unlike some other similar tools, it can displays a list of all kinds of drives including your hard drive because of which you should be extra careful when using AutoBootDisk as a small mistake will wipe your hard drive data. This is why you should carefully pick a drive letter in this step – preferably the one belonging to a USB drive or external hard drive.
Finally, it will warn you that it will erase everything on the selected destination drive if you proceed. It also asks you to backup any data on the selected drive before it is erased forever. As you click on the OK button, it will format the selected partition and copy the Linux ISO files on it followed by installing a Linux bootloader.
AutoBootDisk is a little different from other similar tools as it can auto-update the Linux distro list without you having to download a new version of the tool. This is great application for quickly creating bootable USB Linux drives for testing all kinds of new Linux distributions.
You can download AutoBootDisk from https://www.simpodex.com/autobootdisk.html