Well, I downloaded the system/program, whatever it's called but I just simply cannot figure out how to boot it. It took approximately three/four hours to complete. I followed the step by step through a Linux wikilearning site. but I eventually ended up lost. I took a screen shot to show what I have as through Cyberlink ISO Viewer. Basically it lists this....
.disk
.boot
.Casper
.dists
.EFI
.ISOLinux
.pool
.preceed

All of these are AFTER a file.

All Im getting are each files size and type.
Any which way I attempt to open anything, nothing that I have to view works. I used a USB to download Rosa.

I don't really understand...I assume you're using Windows? You can't load Linux from inside Windows. Linux is its own operating system, that runs independently of Windows. In order to run it, you have to burn the iso file to a cd/dvd/usb, then shut down your computer, and boot the cd/dvd/usb instead of Windows.

Yes, Im using windows 8. so the usb I downloaded it to....I have to shut my computer down completely, then restart it after I plug in the usb? Im confused here. I just don't understand this very well obviously.

Yes, you need to shut down the computer, plug in the USB, then turn it on and hit whatever key your system uses to select the boot device (I think it's usually F12?) and choose your USB drive. You need to boot Linux instead of Windows, rather than inside Windows.

Wow, damn, ok. And then the screen would be Rosa and Linux. It simply boots as such? Anything else I'd have to do to access anything?

Hi:

I use Unetbootin to make all of my Linux .iso's bootable on a usb memory stick.
http://unetbootin.github.io/

Once the program places all of the files for Mint on the usb stick and makes it bootable you only have one more thing to do.

Go into your BIOS and make the first boot choice 'usb' Save the changes and upon rebooting it should boot right into Mint on your usb memory stick.

It's probably a live distro, so it should give you some kind of boot menu and then continue on into the desktop. Depending on how you made your USB drive, the session might have persistence, but it probably won't. This means that anything you edit, change, write, etc. will be lost as soon as you reboot. If you want a real OS that you can make changes on and save files, you'll need to actually install Mint to your hard drive, rather than just trying it out temporarily on the USB drive.

Ztcoracat wins...

Just for clarification. Just copying the ISO file to the USB will not work. In windows you need to use an install program like http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/.

Once the above is accomplished you will have a live USB version. It will run entirely from RAM but it is possible to save settings by what is known as persistence. Your windows 8 will not be changed but you will need to know how to boot from USB or change the boot order for your computer.

To complicate things you can also install VirtualBox and run linux within Windows as another program too. I assume your computer is new enough..

Thanks-

Best to turn off fast boot and anything related to hibernation which is always on with windows8, unless you already have it off. windows 8 is almost surely isntalled in UEFI mode so you need to install Mint UEFI also or one of the systems won't boot.