Title says most of it.
I have dual booted computers in the past, but this laptop does not have a read/write drive, and I don't know how to install Linux on a memory stick.

If I can get Linux onto the memory stick, I'll probably wipe the drive and go with Linux alone.
I downloaded Wine onto my computer to be Windows friendly.

Any advice would be welcome.

I also spent a couple of hours trying to log into it.
Email after Email giving me special codes, only to find that I was locked out for trying to log in too many times.

I got inspired, and went to Amazon.
A rep told me to describe my problem, no login password, and said to give the seller 2 days to get back to me.
That should get me a password to log in with.

https://ubuntu-mate.org/faq/usb-image/

Easily done. I've used USB sticks to wipe and install Ubuntu many times. The biggest issue you may encounter is accessing the BIOS and making USB boot enabled.

Thank you, sir, for the link.
After reading it, I think that will do nicely.

everything you are trying to do has been done before & you literally have all of the information at your fingertips.

if you need to be spoon fed ask yourself why you are trying to play on expert mode but never completed the tutorial.

I just wrote a special note about you.
Your post has little value.

This isn't GD. Get your shit out of here.

Here is another method for your consideration. I played around extensively with linux when Win XP went end of support 10 years ago. I used a portable external USB DVD writer, burned whatever linux OS that I wanted to a DVD and then installed from that same DVD. Often, the thing that look the longest time was trying to figure out how to boot the laptop / desktop from that USB DVD drive. I have bought used USB DVD writers at garage sales for as little as 50 cents, I bought a brand new one 15 years ago for $20, it's still working fine today

There's an app called Unetbootin that helps installing an iso image on a thumb drive.  You can pick an image off a drop down menu, or choose an already made .iso file to install on the thumb drive.

USD either Raspberry Imager or Balena etcher.

Download the .iso file for Ubuntu mate
Plug in USB thumb drive, at least 4 GB.
Open either program, select the iso,then select your thumb drive
Let the program do the work.
When finished, restart your comp. Go into the BIOS and select your USB thumb drive as first boot device.
Select F10 and restart.
Welcome to Ubuntu.

I burned a version of Mate 23.10 to a thumb drive and installed it to the new laptop.
Windows 10 did not go away, even though I chose "wipe disk and install Mate".

Now they are fighting, and every time my wife opens Google chrome, Edge tries to be the dominant browser, even though I specified that Google chrome was the dominant browser.

Windows is also hiding Synaptic Package Manager, which I downloaded from their website.

I can't find it.
It pisses me off!

I will try this tomorrow.
I'm worn out, and my wife just wants to watch Youtube videos.

I don't even know what to say on this. Windows, synaptic Package Manager?? Windows and Linux don't comingle programs like that.