Zorin live USB boots to Linux Mint Desktop??

I downloaded Zorin core from the Zorin website, and installed it on a flash drive with the pendrive Linux installer. All seemed to go well until I booted it up. I selected 'try Zorin without installing' and it booted to a Linux Mint desktop, complete with a shortcut that said 'install Linux Mint'. As I explored the OS further I found I couldn't install any software applications or change anything, as everytime I tried I was hit with a password prompt. I was logged in to the OS automatically, so there was nothing asking me to input a username or password. I tried leaving the field blank, but I just got the old 'incorrect password' message. I tried numerous personal passwords, but to no avail. Something funky is definitely going on. I don't even have Mint installed on my machine.. Any suggestions??

P.S. I did have Mint on this flash drive at one time, but it's been formatted many times since then. Just an afterthought.

This is normally due to not completely formatting the USB drive! If you do the format in Windows make sure you choose the long format option, and if you are doing it from linux the only way I have done it is with

Code:

dd bs=1000 count=4000000 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<drive>

where "<drive>" drive is replaced with the drive letters, I'm told this can in some rare cases render a drive useless, I just haven't had it happen yet!

Alternatively, in GNU/Linux, use MultiSystem - it formats a flash drive to FAT32 and installs GRUB on the Flash Drive's Bootloader:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8933&hilit=+MultiSystem#p43425

Tutorial here:

https://vimeo.com/104187694

What I like about MultiSystem is (compared to others) is that if the iso is not compatible it will tell you instalntly - not like Unetbootin!

I'm using Win 7, so I can't format under Linux. I tried using regular format instead of quick format for my flash drive, but it is still booting to the Mint desktop. This really has me stumped....

Use this to wipe your HD/USB/Partition which ever !!!!
CCLEANER >> Can't make it any easier for ya !!!!!
Link : https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/standard
Note :
When using Universal USB Installer.......
Make sure you check [ ] the box to format the USB drive before proceeding.

Used CCleaner to wipe my flash drive (securely-1 pass), which then formatted it after. Installed the Zorin .iso with the format box checked. Still booted to Mint. Decided to burn the .iso to DVD and give it a shot. Booted to Mint. Ugh....

OK, I wonder if a link on the Zorin website is corrupted? Instead, could you please download from here (the ones with the letter 'a' after them are for persons living in countries that are not allowed to have copyrighted codecs for watching DVDs etc):

http://sourceforge.net/projects/zorin-os/files/9/

Can you try another flash drive, Flash drives use a form of solid state storage that has a limited number of writes, If you have reached that you can still read the data, you just can't write anything else to the drive. One would think this would have caused an error of some kind, but hey, worth a shot!