[dba-Tech] How to set up my laptop to boot from USB?

[Arthur Fuller]

The laptop in question is a Dell Inspiron with 8GB of RAM, running WIndows
8.1. I want to set it up to boot from a 64GB thumb drive loaded with Linux
Ubuntu. (In the past I've had problems when trying to set up a dual boot,
and want to avoid that route.) Normally, I'd just set Ubuntu up as a
virtual machine in Oracle VirtualBox, but in this case I want every bit of
RAM available because I plan to run an in-memory database.

I also have a desktop box that is set up to dual-boot, but it only has 4GB
of RAM. On that box it was trivial; I just went into the BIOS and changed
the boot order. How do I do the equivalent on my laptop?

-- 
Arthur