I am using xfce atm. I might just have to fix my driver problems and do a netinstall

That’s a good idea. I can probably scrounge one up

i have broken the install a few times just deleting stuff. The live disk won’t find my wifi card so i can’t net install unless I buy an ethernet adapter.

I’ve never tried it but i don’t see why not. Let us know what ends up working for you. Your English reads well to me.

I read through your post a few times and it seems like you want the option to use your Persistent storage or just use the stick as a default install live boot medium.

If so, have you thought about using any of the live usbs with persistence and just make multiple users. One where persistence is used and encrypted and one that does not have access to the Persistent partition?

I usually use debian with x on old laptops but I’ve heard good things about gallium being pretty light

Can’t you export your library / media settings and only have to change file paths or mnt points?

I’m adding debian to the drive on a ten plus year old laptop as we speak. It’s taking forever because I have to do part of it manually but usually it takes less than an hour and is mostly idiot proof (my current project is on its 3rd week so I am just a special kind of idiot) but a small lightweight distro alongside the windows partition is an easy way to give old hardware new life without migrating data.

I used it on a relatives computer recently. On streaming sports sites it got about 90% of ads but did miss the transparent overlays that open a new page when clicked. UbO handles all of that just fine.