Okay, good. I know that is a tedious and boring step, but it is worth taking the time to do it.
I think that your flash drive is ready to use, no need to do the Etcher process again. When you opened it in Windows and see those two doc files (inside the efi folder)... that is how it looks in Windows to me too. The Etcher process does a "validating" process at the end of the 3rd step, and you may have noticed this if you were watching it. It is kind of like it's own built in "verify." As long as Etcher didn't report errors, I think everything is ready to boot up on the flash drive now. But you don't boot the computer by clicking or double-clicking on those doc files... it is a more involved process than that.
Booting your Lenovo laptop may have it's own little trick. I mentioned the "Novo" button some posts back. If you are ready to try to boot on the Linux flash drive, then we will go into details now about how to boot it... and hopefully your Lenovo behaves as mine does, but mine is a different model. OK, here goes:
1. Power down the computer completely. Plug the Linux flash drive into one of the USB ports.
2. Locate the "Novo" button on the right side edge of the laptop, close to you (not close to the screen). It should be beside a small hole to plug in speakers. This is a very small button. Use a fingernail (or ball point pen, or something... but be careful not to damage it) and press and hold this button in until you see the Lenovo logo appear, then release the button.
3. You should now see a screen with several options. Please tell us all the things you see here in case we miss something. If there is an option to disable Fast Boot, then arrow down to highlight that option first and press Enter to make it work. I don't have that, but I've head that it may be there. You then need to come back to the option screen, and you want to select Boot Menu.... arrow to it so it is highlighted and hit Enter. (If necessary to reboot after disabling Fast Boot, you will have to use the Novo button again to get back to this step.)
4. If all is good so far, you are now at a screen that may say Boot Manager at the top. There should be at least 2 selections, and there may be more. Look for the one that says something like, "EFI USB Device". It may also have (USB Brand Name) in parentheses beside it. Arrow to that selection to highlight it, and hit Enter.
5. OK, you have to be careful next. The screen will go black or mostly black... do not hit any keys. You may see some small (VERY SMALL) text at the top, but it may be too small to read. I say to be careful because if you just leave it alone, it will start Ubuntu in "live mode" after about 10 seconds. But that small text will let you change from "Try Ubuntu" to "Install Ubuntu".... and we don't want to do that yet. If this goes properly, you will soon be at a brand new desktop... the Ubuntu GNOME desktop. And you will see a column of icons on the left edge of the screen (these are actually in their own space with a slight highlight behind them). To the right, on the proper desktop, you will see just one icon to Install Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Again, do not double-click on this as it is a bit too soon for you to install... there are some other things we want you to consider about doing a full installation.
6. Caution... you may need a strong magnifying glass handy at this point. Many of these newer Linux distros will open up in "live mode" with the maximum screen resolution possible, but that makes everything too small to read! I am going through these steps on my Lenovo right now, and it has done this to me before... but this version of Ubuntu has thankfully started up on a desktop that I am able to read and use (except for the tiny text I mentioned in #5 above). So if you can see everything clearly, then go on to Step 7. But if things are too small... then do this first (use the magnifying glass to help you):
a. Hit your Windows key on the laptop keypad... this will open a search box at the top center of the screen. Type the word "displays" (without quotes) and hit Enter.
b. It will show the resolution, for example, 3200 x 1800 (16:9) on mine, and below that it will show 3 buttons to change the Scale. If your screen is tiny, it is probably set for 100%.
c. Click on the 200% button, and then click the Apply button that appears in the upper right corner of this window. From 100% to 200% is a pretty noticeable improvement. And you can also click the 300% button (and Apply) to go for the maximum Scale if you like it better. Once you have a setting that is acceptable, then continue on to Step 7.
7. So, if at the desktop, you can begin to play and test out this new system. You will see the Firefox icon near the top left corner, but you will need to get into your home wireless network first (unless you have connected a wired ethernet cable). To connect to your wireless network, click on the small down-arrow in the upper right corner... there are several things about this screen you need, but first click the small right-arrow next to "Wi-Fi Not Connected" and follow along to choose your network and enter your password. On this windows you'll also see battery life, which user is logged on (Live session user right now), slider controls at the top for volume and screen brightness, and 3 round buttons on the bottom of this window. The left round button will access the complete settings menu for Ubuntu... when you need to change things, this is probably the place. I'm not sure about the middle round button. The right round button is used to Shut Down or Restart the computer.... so you need to know this!
8. OK, I'm almost done. But let me also tell you how to access all your programs on Ubuntu. If you click on "Activities" in the top left corner of the screen, it opens a Search Menu... so you can type in the app you want to start... if you start typing Libre you will see all the LibreOffice apps appear that you can click and select. Click on "Activities" again to return to the desktop. In the lower left corner of the screen, you'll see a grid pattern of 9 dots... clicking that will show you all the programs that are installed by default. There are 3 screens of these apps, and you can click on the small round circles on the right edge of the screen to select each screen, or you can use the PageUP and PageDOWN keys on the keyboard to get around here. Clicking the 9-dots grid again will close the applications... but if it doesn't return you to the desktop, then just click on the desktop. The Windows key on your laptop keyboard also opens up the Search Menu, just like the "Activities" button... in fact, they seem to toggle each other as if they are the same key.
9. Look around some of the other icons on the left edge of the screen. Linux Lingo lesson: that area is called a "panel" and it is basically the same as the "taskbar" in Windows. In this version of Ubuntu, they call the panel a "dock" instead. In different Linux distros, you may find the panel on the bottom or the top of the screen, and you can even have more than one... so maybe top and bottom both. These things are adjustable to your liking. If you want the panel on the bottom, like in Windows, click the small down-arrow in the top right corner (like when setting up networking)... click on the left round button at the bottom to access the Settings.... click on "Dock" on the left side settings selections... and change the "Position on screen" to Bottom. (I see they don't let you use the top, oh well.)
10. When done testing for now, go back to that small down-arrow again, click the right round button on the bottom, and choose Power Off. Wait a bit for it (not long, maybe 10-20 seconds at the most), and it should tell you that you can now "Remove the installation media, then press Enter" but it may be hard to read again. You don't really have to remove it, you can just hit Enter and the computer will power off. But the important thing is that you do not remove the flash drive too early before this point, or else the flash drive could be corrupted and possibly make it unusable.
Whew, okay... try this when you're ready. I just did these steps myself, so I hope that they work for you in the same manner. But you will have to follow along carefully, and I hope that I didn't miss something myself. If it doesn't work, try to note exactly what step is failing, and write down any errors that you might see.
Cheers
