This may sound like sacrilege, but it’s not: Ubuntu Linux can be useful even if you’re a hardcore Windows user.
That’s because there’s no way to boot a full Windows system from a USB stick to troubleshoot your PC—well, not without an Enterprise version of Windows and Windows To Go—but anyone can make a free Ubuntu USB drive, CD, or DVD. A Ubuntu live drive can be used as a digital Swiss army knife to troubleshoot all sorts of problems with any PC, whether you need to recover files from a failing computer, diagnose hardware problems, perform a deep virus scan from outside Windows, or even reset a forgotten Windows password.
We’ll be getting our hands dirty with some Linux terminal commands here, but don’t worry—the Linux terminal won’t bite. You can even copy-paste most of these commands directly into the terminal.