Here’s a tip for newbies who would want to boot from a CD/DVD.

• Make sure that the CD is bootable.

  Yup. Pretty much common sense. You can’t expect to boot from a CD that doesn’t just let you do that. The Windows 95 (as far as I can remember) isn’t bootable. Windows 98 and up are.

  To make a bootable CD, you can burn any of these ISO files directly on a blank CD.

• Make sure that your BIOS is configured to boot from a CD.

  The next thing to make sure is that your computer is set to boot from the CD over the hard drive or else, the boot sequence will always use the OS in your hard drive.

  To set your CD/DVD as a higher boot priority, press Del (or whatever key your BIOS requires to enter the BIOS setup). In Boot Device Priority options, rearrange the boot sequences. A good sequence may be 1st – Floppy, 2nd – CD/DVD, 3rd – Hard Disk… Save the settings and quit BIOS setup.

• Press the Enter key

  When your system recognizes a bootable CD, it may ask you to press Enter to boot from the CD. Otherwise, it may just eventually bypass the CD boot sequence.

  Or, some BIOSes may allow a key to access boot options during the boot sequence so you can select your boot device.