No installation, no changes to the PC, no trace left behind. Running a live OS is a five-minute skill, but the first time always raises the same questions — which key, which menu entry, which edition, and what to do in the first minute on the live desktop. All of them are answered here.
🎥 Full video — the AnkhTech boot and desktop tour inside the complete test
The safest way to try a live OS is to remember what it is: a guest. AnkhTech boots from the stick, borrows the PC's screen, keyboard and drives, does its work, and leaves. This page walks the whole visit — booting in, the first minute, working, and leaving cleanly — so the trial feels routine instead of risky.
Boot Menu — Choosing the USB (Example)
UEFI: USB Flash Drive ← choose this one
Windows Boot Manager
UEFI: Internal Hard Drive
Ethernet cable plugged in — internet ready right after bootAutomatic
Wi-Fi — start it from the Wi-Fi icon on the desktopOne click
Menu wording differs by motherboard brand, but the USB entry is always the one to pick (example view).
1
What You Need Before You Start
The AnkhTech ISO written to a USB stick — if you have not made the stick yet, the USB-creation guide in this series covers Rufus and Ventoy step by step
The PC you want to work on, with its charger connected — never do repair work on a dying battery
An external drive or a network location ready, if the job involves copying data off
Nothing needs to be installed, uninstalled or changed on the PC itself. The only setting you might touch is the boot order, and even that is usually a one-time menu, not a permanent change.
2
Boot From the Stick — The One-Time Boot Menu
Plug the USB stick in while the PC is off
Power on and tap the boot-menu key for your brand — commonly F12, F8, F9 or Esc; the exact key is shown briefly on the first screen or printed in the manual
Choose the USB entry from the menu (on UEFI systems it appears as "UEFI: USB Flash Drive" or the stick's brand name)
If an edition menu appears, pick Full for the complete toolkit, or Mini/Tiny on an old or low-RAM machine
If the PC boots straight into its normal Windows instead, the stick was not chosen — restart and try again; on some machines you must enable USB boot or adjust Secure Boot in the BIOS setup first.
3
First Minute on the Live Desktop
The AnkhTech desktop is designed to feel like the Windows you already know: taskbar, Start menu with the programs grouped by category, and familiar tools such as File Explorer and Disk Management. Two desktop shortcuts deserve attention in the first minute:
Wi-Fi icon — if you are not on a cable, start the wireless connection from here and join your network
Keyboard layout icon — switch the typing language if the keys produce the wrong characters
With an Ethernet cable connected, the internet is simply already working when the desktop appears — no setup step at all.
4
Work, Then Leave Without a Trace
Do your job — scan, copy, repair, test — and remember the live-session rule: anything you want to keep must be copied to a real drive (the internal drive's data folders, an external disk, or a network share). Files left on the live desktop or in its Documents folder are gone at restart.
When you finish, shut down or restart normally and remove the stick. The PC returns to its own Windows exactly as it was, plus whatever repairs you deliberately made. If you changed the boot order permanently in BIOS during setup, set it back to the internal drive first.
5
When the Stick Will Not Boot — Quick Checks
Wrong entry chosen: some menus list the stick twice (UEFI and legacy) — try the other one
Secure Boot blocking: community PE builds are not always signed the way factory Windows is; if the BIOS refuses the stick, that is the usual reason — technicians disable Secure Boot temporarily on the bench, and re-enable it after
Bad write: rewrite the stick with the other method (Rufus instead of Ventoy or the reverse) — a surprising number of "broken ISO" reports are just bad USB writes or a failing stick
Very old machine: confirm it is a 64-bit CPU system — AnkhTech's published requirement — and choose the Mini edition
🎥 Watch the Complete Video Guide
Watch the boot happen live — editions, desktop and first tools in the full AnkhTech test.
Booting it changes nothing by itself. The live system runs from the stick and memory. Only the tools you deliberately run — a partition change, a registry edit, a file deletion — change the PC, and those changes are exactly the repairs you chose to make.
My PC does not show a USB option in the boot menu. What now?
Try a different USB port (a rear port on desktops), confirm the stick boots on another PC to rule out a bad write, and check the BIOS setup for a disabled USB-boot option. On some laptops the boot-menu key must be pressed from a full shutdown, not from a restart.
Can I run AnkhTech from the same stick I use for Windows installation files?
Yes — that is what multiboot tools like Ventoy are for. One stick can carry the AnkhTech ISO next to Windows installer ISOs, and you pick which one to boot. The creation guide in this series covers that layout.
This guide is based on the Technical Anshu review of AnkhTech Live OS • Stuck on any step? Ask in the video comments — you will get a reply there 🙏