There’s a special key in every BIOS (when the computer first boots) that makes you able to boot from another device that is not its hard disk.

Apple / Mac users: You will simply need to power-on the computer with the USB stick inserted while the alt(⌥) key is pressed.

You can either enter in the bios to configure the boot order or to hit the key that selects the device to boot “only this time”, the second option is suggested.

In short, you simply need to turn ON your computer, then immediately press multiple times the F’ key that a message should tell you something like “boot menu” until a menu appears, then just select the device which you want to boot from (the one that contains Elive in your USB or DVD).

This special F’ key is normally F12 in Acer computers and ESC in the Asus ones, you can try all the F’ keys or better search which F is in a list like here, other common F’s are F10, F2, F1 and F8

Important: Sometimes in laptops you need to press the Fn key in order to press the F’s keys, for example: Fn+F1, Fn+F2, etc…

List of function keys used commonly by manufacturer:

• Acer – F2 or delete
• Asus – F2, F9 or delete
• Compaq – F10
• Dell – F2
• Emachines – tab or delete
• HP – Escape, F1 or F10
• Lenovo – F1 or F2
• Lenovo Thinkpad – F12
• NEC – F2
• Packard Bell – F1 or F2
• Samsung – F2 or F10
• Sharp – F2
• Sony – F1, F2 or F3
• Toshiba – Escape, F1, F2 or F12

If your computer uses those newer BIOS that ships with Windows 8 (or more recent) with the “feature” to restriction to use on it other operating systems, you need to enter in your BIOS setup and basically:

• disable “secure boot“
• disable “UEFI mode“
• enable “legacy boot“
• enable “CSM“

If you need more info about the UEFI and “Secure Boot” of the bios make a look to our other FAQ article

Other interesting articles about this topic:

• How to boot from USB in a very old computer that cannot boot from USB
• Small howto about how to access to the bios / boot from bios
• How to enter in the bios