On a little project and decided to go the Ubuntu route. Old laptop with Windows on - not a problem I thought!

I'd originally thought I'd dual boot the machine so I could switch between OS's so I proceeded with the install from USB, and just followed the instructions.
Upon completion the laptop would just boot to Windows. Spent a while googling Windows Boot Manager problems and playing with various things, before giving up and deciding to just install Ubuntu on it's own.

There were a couple of advanced options to do with partition management - don't use these on a machine that has already been partitioned - it complains endlessly and does nothing. I certainly wasn't going to waste any more time on it, so went for the bog standard. 
Installation complete and reboot. NOTHING - I now have a machine with no OS that will boot.
Last hope as I'd noticed it complain about the BIOS in small white text at the top when first starting, so in I go and change the settings from UEFI to Legacy.

Booted from USB an repeated the installation (I selected minimal install - something I will come onto in the next article). Boom! - I now have a working Ubuntu Desktop installation.