Dual booting Linux and Windows is simple, and in this guide, we’ll walk you through how to do it on your PC step-by-step.
Windows might be your bread and butter, but you can dual-boot it with Linux if you want to tinker, or play around with a wider range of open source software. Whether you’re using Windows 10 or Windows 11, you can install a range of different Linux distributions as a secondary operating system to give you the best of both worls.
Here’s how to dual boot Windows and Linux.Start by installing Windows
The first step is to install Windows, assuming you’re starting from scratch. We have a full guide on how to install Windows 11, so make sure to keep that handy if you need extra detail. For dual booting, the process is largely the same minus one key difference.
Instead of allowing Windows to take up all of the space on your hard drive, you’ll allocate it a partition. If you have multiple hard drives for dual booting, you can allow Windows to take up the full space on your hard drive. This process works for Windows 10 and Windows 11, but we’ll be using Windows 10 for our example.
If you don’t have an extra Windows PC to create installation media, you can install Windows first before installing Linux (though you may need to fully defrag your hard drive to create a partition for Linux).
Step 1: With your spare PC, download the Windows Media Creation Tool and follow the steps to create installation media on one of your blank USB drives. Note: you may be asked to format the drive, which will remove all of the data.
Step 2: Leaving your installation USB drive plugged in, turn off your PC. Turn it back on and select the F12 on your keyboard rapidly while the computer boots. This will take you to a boot menu. Select your Windows USB drive and continue.
Step 3: Follow the steps for the Windows installer until you reach the What type of installation do you want page. Choose Custom: Install Windows only.
