Create your UserOS disc

UserOS is provided as an ISO file, which means you have to burn this file to a recordable CD or DVD first, or copy it to a suitable USB flash drive. For your UserOS disc to work, the CD/DVD or USB drive will need to be bootable, so which media you choose may depend on your system. Some older PCs may not be able to boot from the USB, while netbooks and some other laptops don't have a CD/DVD drive. See 'Changing the boot sequence' below for more details.

Burning a UserOS CD or DVD

To burn the UserOS ISO file to a recordable CD or DVD, you need to use a burning app like Nero. If you don't have one installed, we've provided the freeware burning tool, InfraRecorder, for you to use. To burn the UserOS ISO file to disc using InfrRecorder, follow these instructions (you’ll find other burning apps work much the same way):

1. First,download or SAVE the UserOS ISO file to a folder of your choice on your PC’s hard drive.
   
   
2. Install InfraRecorder(32-bit) or Infrarecorder (64-bit). Load in a blank CD or DVD into your CD/DVD burner, start up InfaRecorder and select “Write Image”.
   
   
3. Click the “Browse” button, locate the UserOS Ultra ISO file on your hard drive and click the “Open” button. You don't need to change any of the settings, just click OK when you’re ready to burn the disc.
   
   
4. InfraRecorder will begin burn the ISO image. Once it’s completed, you’ll have a 'live' CD ready to run.
   
   
5. Now simply restart your PC with this burned disc in your DVD/CD drive and UserOS should automatically start.

Creating a UserOS USB drive

To create a bootable USB flash drive with UserOS, all you need is our exclusive Linux USB Installer software and the UserOS ISO image from the cover disc, plus a 1GB USB flash drive. Larger is fine but you won’t be able to use any of the remaining capacity of the USB drive. Here's how to do it.

1. First, download or Save the UserOS ISO file to a folder of your choice on your PC’s hard drive.
   
   
2. Plug in the USB flash drive and make sure it’s empty. Formatting it as a FAT32 file system is ideal – just make sure you copy any important files from it first, because reformatting will delete all the data on the USB drive.
   
   
3. Install PC User Linux USB Installer
   Note: Windows Vista/7 users with User Account Controls switched on will need to right-click on the launch icon and select “Run as Administrator”.
   
   
4. Run PC User Linux USB Installer, then select the drive letter of your USB flash drive, then select the location of the UserOS ISO file and press the Install button. The software will then make your USB drive bootable and extract the contents of the ISO image onto the flash drive. When you get the Installation Completed message, wait until the USB flash drive indicator LED stops flashing before removing the drive.
   
   
5. Now just insert the USB drive, restart your PC and UserOS should automatically start.

Once you've inserted your new UserOS CD, DVD or USB drive and restarted your PC, it should boot up running UserOS. If not, see our guide to changing the boot sequence below. If so, UserOS will offer a menu, including an option to Try UserOS and an option to Install UserOS. We strongly recommend trying it first. Note that some of the server-based apps will not work properly unless UserOS Home Server is fully installed on the hard drive, but by running UserOS off a 'live' CD or USB drive, you can get a good idea of how the OS looks and works without making any changes to your PC.

Impressed by the trial and keen to install UserOS? Don't rush in just yet. Make sure you carefully read our pre-installation checklist and Darren Yates's UserOS feature in this month's magazine, or watch Darren's UserOS video guide. Remember, you’ll be installing a whole new operating system, and if things go wrong, your PC may be out of action for some time and you may lose important files!

Changing the boot sequence

To boot from from the CD/DVD drive or USB drive, you may need to change the settings in your PC's BIOS Setup (also called the CMOS Setup). You can access the BIOS Setup by pressing a key during the boot process: it's typically F1, F2, F10, Delete or Esc, but your system's Setup key should be diplayed on screen when it boots up, or your motherboard's or notebook’s manual should have instructions. BIOS Setups vary, but typically, you'll find the settings you want in a boot section or an advanced section. Then, just change the boot sequence so that you CD/DVD or USB drive boots before the hard drive. Note that you will need to navigate using keystrokes, which should be displayed on screen.