I have an image of a bootable OS installation disc, if i burn this image using alcahol onto a CD, will i still be able to boot from it on startup?, what directs your PC to the neccesary program when booting off CD?

im not sure what you are trying to say

sorry im a noob and i clicked ok before i typed my message :P had to edit

If you burn the ISO to the CD, and the ISO contained a bootable CD image, then yes, it should by rights boot.

but if you were doing this for something you have not legally purchased then you might not want to talk about it here.

In the bios of your computer you have an option for boot device, make sure CD comes before HDD, otherwise it will boot from HDD before CD and you will never be able to boot of CD.