Double-click on the downloaded balenaEtcher file to launch the app. This file should be in your computer’s “Downloads” folder.
is wrong or maybe outdated: the downloaded balenaEtcher file -- on Windows, anyways -- sets up/installs the writer.
It's true that it also starts the app at the end of installation. But to normally start the app, need to start it from Start menu (or where ever it created the start launcher/link).
Silly me followed the instructions to the letter, and then wondered why it would take about 1.5 minutes just to "start" balenaEtcher everytime...
I haven't used etcher in a very long time, so I took a look as well. I believe (at least, from my rough memory) there used to be a portable Windows version that didn't need installation. Perhaps I'm either remembering wrong, or it indeed got deprecated and now you need to do an install.
As a note, should you have any problems, a strong majority of users here on the forums recommend you NOT use Balena Etcher under any circumstances, despite the instructions on the official Zorin site. Problems are common. There are a wide variety of other recommendations, but the most popular that I'm certain have Windows versions are Ventoy and Rufus. The former has the advantage in my opinion for allowing you to have multiple ISOs on one USB, and letting you freely update the ISOs without using Ventoy again. Rufus makes one ISO per USB, and you have to use it again to change the ISO. Still, if you don't have problems, there's not much reason to go looking for another tool.
I do see that they may have added this section recently as I don't recall seeing it before (but that being said, I don't look too much at it, so maybe it was always there, but I feel like it wasn't):
For me, balena did not work, failing at loading the .iso with the error: Error(0,h.requestMetadata)
. So, on windows, I used the other recommended on the zorin page; USBImager (cross-platform) and Rufus; both worked.
