Update: Rufus, which we recommend for easily creating live USB drives on Windows, now supports persistent storage in its latest versions. Just download the appropriate ISO file and follow the instructions below. In the past, we had luck with Fedora as well. It should also work with Ubuntu-based Linux distributions. We’ve tested it with the latest versions of Ubuntu-Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Ubuntu 19.04-and it works.
Persistence doesn’t work with every Linux distribution. You can even update most installed applications, so you can be sure your persistent USB drive has the latest version of the web browser you prefer. However, you can install most applications. You can’t modify system files, like the kernel. You don’t need persistence if you’re just using a USB drive to install Ubuntu and then running it from your hard drive afterward. You won’t have to set up your system up from scratch each time you boot. This is an ideal feature if you want to keep a live Linux system on a USB drive and use on different PCs. Whenever you boot the USB drive on any computer, your files, settings, and installed programs will be there. Any changes you make to the system-for example, saving a file to your desktop, changing the settings in an application, or installing a program-will be stored in the overlay file. When you create a USB drive with persistence, you’ll allocate up to 4 GB of the USB drive for a persistent overlay file.
