Dual booting is a great fashion to get the best of both worlds of Windows and Linux. Information technology'due south relatively straightforward to install the two operating systems alongside each other, and it'southward also a neat opportunity to learn more about computers and how software works.

When building your own computer, you become to choose from various hardware components that will go into your system. There are some compatibility restrictions to be enlightened of, but yous're still left with enough of options even if y'all go Team Green, Squad Red, or Team Blue.

Once you put everything together and go that glorious Mail service beep, you're on your fashion to enjoying your new rig! However, before you beginning to game on it, give-and-take process, or merely scan the internet, there is ane crucial component that still needs to exist installed: the operating arrangement!

Ubuntu is a user friendly choice for Linux newcomers, but there are other Ubuntu-based experiences, each offering a unique take on Linux. Zorin and Pop!_OS are ideal for users interested in gaming or transitioning from Windows and elementary Bone (shown to a higher place) features a hit pattern that many have likened to macOS.

The number of OS options quickly reduces to merely a handful of them. For almost, Windows is the defacto operating system for the PC. Many utilize information technology for their solar day-to-mean solar day jobs, it supports many applications natively, and there is a whole market presence in its wake.

macOS is Apple'south proprietary operating system. However, you tin can't simply install macOS on your new rig, given the licensing and restrictions placed on non-Apple hardware. Folks take figured out how to pull it off, only according to Apple tree, such methods are illegal.

Dual booting is a great opportunity to learn more than most computers and how software works

Third, there is Linux. As we've covered before, there are many flavors of Linux, and you can choose the one that all-time suits your needs. Fundamentally though, they all are derived from one Linux kernel, so nosotros're going to bunch them up all together for the sake of argument.

So substantially, you come down to a simple choice: practise you install Windows or Linux? In this article, we're going to explore the selection, "Why not both?"

Why Linux? And Why Dual Kick?

If you are like nearly people, the safer and closer-to-habitation option is to simply "install Windows." You probably use it more anyway, and it should piece of work out of the box. So why even bother with Linux?

Well, for i, nigh Linux distros are gratuitous, so you lot can potentially salve some coin. Since the cadre Linux kernel is open up-source, and nigh Linux OSs remain free, you can even track the latest OS features past following its development.

Linux is also relatively lightweight upon installation. It comes with little bloatware and the hardware requirements are typically much more pocket-size than Windows: it needs less RAM, takes up a smaller install size on your deejay, supports older CPUs, and let's not fifty-fifty bring up TPM. This can brand some Linux distributions ideal Bone choices if trying to resurrect an former calculator.

For most folks though, Linux offers a wealth of customization opportunities -- starting from the pick of the Linux distro itself! Each distro is unique in its ain way. Nosotros refer the reader to this article nosotros wrote a while back for a rundown on many pop choices.

Even within a distro, you can customize the expect and feel past choosing different window managers, animation choices, desktop options, you name it. And with a strong and vibrant community, you lot can typically get the best tech support on many forums for what you might exist looking for.

Linux doesn't have everything though. For example, certain applications might be specifically coded up for a Windows or Mac surround, and thus not work in Linux. There are a plethora of open-source alternatives that y'all can utilize, but sure things (like games) might exist glaringly missing. This has started to change -- Steam has begun supporting many games on Linux -- but these are some merchandise-offs you'd need to consider before deciding to abandon Windows altogether for the open-source life.

Linux titles continue to grow on Steam

But again, why carelessness annihilation? Why non install both Windows and Ubuntu side-by-side, and benefit from the best of both worlds? This is precisely the concept of "dual booting," and information technology requires just a piffling bit of guidance to get you along the way.

Earlier jumping in, nosotros wanted to give a chip of an explainer on what is going on underneath-the-hood in your estimator when dual booting. The following department isn't a requirement to dual booting, but will provide a certain background in the diverse choices and complexities about why at that place needs to exist a guide on this in the showtime place.

What Happens Underneath the Hood at Bootup?

When you press your PC's ability button, the motherboard takes agree and begins the boot procedure. Control is handed off to the BIOS, which will run some basic diagnostics and cheque that the required hardware is in place and functional (RAM, storage, keyboard, mouse, etc).

The BIOS will then seek the chief boot record to begin booting up the Bone and permit y'all to start running applications on your hardware.

The master boot record (MBR) is typically stored as the first cake of a bootable disk (whether a HDD, SSD, USB bulldoze, etc). The MBR location is hardcoded to brand certain information technology can be institute during the kicking process. Its job is relatively simple: observe and kick the OS. However, this is where some of the magic begins.

The MBR itself is besides pocket-size to include all the data on how to kicking an Bone. Instead, it typically points to a bootloader, which is tasked with the actual process of reading the OS details and loading the necessary files into RAM, and brainstorm the general process of preparing the OS to be used. Different OSes typically take different kick loaders. Windows naturally names it the Windows Boot Manager, while on Linux the bootloader is chosen grub.

When dual booting, you lot at present want to innovate multiple OSes into the mix, and likewise requite yourself the option to select the OS you wish to kick up from. How do yous practice that? Well, you need an Bone for selecting the Bone! In the Linux world, that "operating arrangement" is (also) chosen chow.

The general simplistic procedure for dual booting then is every bit follows:

  • Install the outset Os. It is highly recommended to first with Windows, since chow can easily recognize Windows, while the Windows Boot Manager is optimized to work just for Windows.
  • Division the deejay. Split up up your disk to provide storage space for each OS separately.
  • Install the second Os. In this case, that would be a Linux distribution such equally Ubuntu.

Once the installation is done, yous will automatically overwrite the Windows bootloader with grub.

Chow and so scans the disk, and identifies all the unlike Os versions installed on it. It will record the disk location of each OS' bootloader, so that it can jump to the respective bootloader once the user makes their option.

Chow is typically installed as part of the Linux installation process for most distros (such as Ubuntu). This makes it easy to just follow the installation guide, and the process is seamless. Installing a new Os requires a flash drive that is carve up from the main storage, since you technically have to boot from the USB to perform the installation of the first and 2d Os.

You practise not need to necessarily know all of this information to dual kick your PC. Nosotros'll explicate each procedure along the way, but feel free to bound dorsum to this section if you lot're curious what each stride is doing.

Before you Start

There are certain things you need before first, as well every bit a few highly recommended things to proceed in mind. In this tutorial, nosotros'll be dual booting Windows 11 alongside Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (long term support).

The nuts:

  • Make sure your PC satisfies the Bone requirements for Windows 11.
  • Make sure your PC satisfies the OS requirements for Ubuntu twenty.04 LTS:
    • 2 GHz dual-cadre processor
    • 4 GB RAM (but i GB can work)
    • 25 GB of hard drive space
    • VGA capable of 1024×768 screen resolution
  • Enough storage space to concur both operating systems.
    • Co-ordinate to current specifications, the recommended size of Windows eleven and Ubuntu LTS xx.04 is 25 GB each. And then the minimum storage medium should have at least l GB of space.
    • Nosotros highly recommend dual booting with at least 128 GB of storage.

You will need 2 (ii) flash drives for the installation process, each with at least 8GB of storage space. We recommend at least eight GB for the storage medium that will be used to install Ubuntu, and at to the lowest degree 16 GB for the storage medium for installing Windows 11. You should not use a single flash drive to hold both images. This will cause a headache when trying to kick from the flash drive for installation.

When dual booting, you can determine how much storage space to allocate to each Os. There is ane very important caveat to continue in heed though: while using Ubuntu, you will have admission to all your Ubuntu files also as your Windows files through the file system.

Nonetheless, when you are in Windows, y'all will not exist able to access the files on your Ubuntu segmentation. The reason is that Windows does not back up the Linux file system, including ext4. As a issue, Windows cannot straight read or notice an ext4 partition or device.

A simple workaround is that you tin can all the same have multiple physical drives in your organization, and utilise the "other" devices for shared file access. Every bit long equally the secondary drives are formatted in an NTFS file format, so the additional drive will be visible while you are in either OS.

Finally, even though yous can technically dual kicking across two different SSDs, we would not recommend it. It adds a lot of complexity that might not exist worth managing and debugging (as explained briefly in the previous section).

Step-by-Footstep for Dual Booting

After checking that you have your PC upwards to spec, decided on an SSD for the installation, and have your ii flash drives on the ready, you can dive right in and begin the procedure!

i. Download the ISO for each operating system

You can download both Windows 11 and Ubuntu 20.04 ISOs directly from our download section.

2. Create bootable thumb drives for each Bone

After the downloads are complete, y'all'll need to move them over to a flash drive and brand the flash drives bootable. Unlike copying files directly onto a flash drive, making the bulldoze bootable requires calculation certain metadata to signify to the BIOS that the drive includes Os-related files during bootup. The utility tool volition exercise that automatically for you.

two.1 Download a utility tool for creating bootable USB drives

At that place are enough of tools for this, but we recommend Rufus. Not simply is information technology a simple tool, but information technology also works well for both Windows and Ubuntu ISOs.

2.2 Create a bootable pollex drive for Os 1: Windows 11

This pace depends on whether or not you lot plan to dual boot on a machine that has Windows eleven installed on it (in other words, you plan to merely add Ubuntu to a pre-existing system), or if yous are installing on a new motorcar without any operating systems.

If you already have Windows installed as your first Bone, and so y'all tin skip forward to Pace two.3, and you but need to ready one bootable flash drive containing Ubuntu.

Otherwise, keep forward by using Rufus to create a bootable wink drive with Windows eleven. The image below shows our configuration.

2.3 Create a bootable thumb drives for OS 2: Ubuntu

Follow the same procedure every bit above, and create a bootable wink drive for the second Os you volition be dual booting. Remember: use another USB drive altogether, to ensure that each flash bulldoze contains only ane bootable operating system on it. In fact, trying to employ a single flash drive for both won't work, every bit the 2d OS will force you to format the drive before preparing information technology.

Beneath is the configuration we used for creating our bootable USB drive with Ubuntu 20.04.

3. Install Os i: Windows xi

If you already have Windows 11 installed, you lot tin can skip this footstep. Otherwise, plug in your Windows xi flash drive, and become through the steps to install Windows.

4. Partition Management

After installing Windows 11, kick up your PC into Windows and launch the Disk Management tool (Windows Primal + X, select Deejay Management from the list).

Select the current deejay which has Windows 11 installed, and then right-click and choose "Shrink Volume." In our example beneath, that is the C drive, which is at approximately 100GB.

In the pop-upwardly window, enter the amount of infinite you want to reduce the disk space by and click the "Compress" button to execute. In our example, the drive already has data in the Windows partition, then nosotros volition only compress it past ~32 GB.

Remember to backup your files before performing whatsoever deejay management operations.

After performing this step, you volition accept "Unallocated" space on the disk at virtually ~32GB, which we will utilize when installing Ubuntu for the dual boot.

The Windows partitioning is now reduced to ~70GB, as shown beneath.

5. Installing Os ii: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

After preparing your disk for Ubuntu by partitioning your bulldoze, restart your computer with the Ubuntu flash drive in your PC.

Boot into Ubuntu using your machine's boot bill of fare, typically past pressing the F12 button during kicking (or, depending on the motherboard, the push might instead exist Escape, F2, or F10).

Alternatively, hold Shift while clicking on "Restart" in Windows. That will evidence a menu as shown beneath, where you can select "Use a device". When your car boots, it will automatically kicking from the Ubuntu flash drive.

five.i: Begin installation

You should see a welcome screen equally shown below, allowing you to "Endeavour Ubuntu" or "Install Ubuntu."

Y'all can immediately brainstorm the installation process past choosing "Install Ubuntu," or you can explore Ubuntu from your live USB.

If you get with "Endeavor Ubuntu," you can brainstorm the installation procedure at any indicate by choosing the "Install Ubuntu xx.04.4 LTS" icon on the desktop.

five.2: Linguistic communication Option

The Ubuntu installation begins with the linguistic communication and keyboard layout. Select your preferred choices, and continue with the installation.

5.3: Wireless Admission and Other Updates

Afterwards selecting your linguistic communication, you will exist asked to input Wi-Fi settings for your home network. This is optional.

If you do, the following step will ask about updates and other software downloads to exist function of the installation process. Again, this is optional, since you can always perform the updates and firmware installations later you stop the dual booting process.

To speed upward the installation process, we suggest skipping optional downloads for later, and proceeding with the "Normal installation".

5.four: Installation Type

This is the critical step: telling the installation process to install Ubuntu and Windows on the same disk and side-by-side, rather than overwriting your Windows sectionalization.

The first choice, "Install Ubuntu alongside Windows Kick Manager," is the easiest and preferred way. If your disk has plenty space on it, then proceeding with this method will provide you with a elementary divider to make up one's mind how much space to partition to your Windows Os and how much to partitioning for Ubuntu.

Nosotros suggest allocating at least 25 GB of disk space for Ubuntu, every bit per the installation requirements.

For various reasons, this method might non work (or be available altogether). In our setup in preparing this guide, our 128 GB disk did non manage to automatically identify all the free space, and only left us with vi.5 GB of disk space for Ubuntu.

In nearly scenarios, you lot'll probably need to select "Something else" for the Installation Type, and manually prepare your disk for the dual boot.

Choose your SSD from the drop-down menu at the bottom ("Device for boot loader installation"), which will populate with the various partitions on your disk. Adjacent, find the free space you've set aside from Footstep 4 in a higher place. While it might not be super obvious which division that is, you tin look for the "free space" proper name nether "Device", and check the size.

In our example, we had allotted roughly 32 GB for Ubuntu, and thus we find the sectionalization with the closest disk size equally highlighted below.

Now, click on the "+" sign to create a new partitioning. Y'all volition get a pop-up like below, allowing you to select the partition type and size. Nosotros will demand to manually create two partitions out of the gratis space: i for the file system and one for swap infinite.

The first division is for the bodily file system, which will be in the ext4 format. Prepare the mountain point to "/", and make sure it is a "Master" partition blazon and the location is from the "Beginning of this space". Notice that we reduced the size past most 4 GB, which nosotros will use for "bandy" infinite, described side by side.

Next, choose the remaining free space (in our example, ~4 GB), and create a new sectionalization every bit "swap surface area." Bandy space is essentially reserved space on the drive to exist used if the physical RAM becomes total, to swap pages in and out of RAM.

The suggested amount of bandy space depends on the amount of concrete RAM in your organisation, and the amount of disk space you lot want to classify every bit swap (which you won't exist able to use for files). The general dominion of thumb is:

  • Systems with less than 2 GB RAM - 2 times the amount of RAM
  • Systems with 2 to 8 GB RAM - the same corporeality of RAM
  • Systems with more 8 GB RAM - at least iv GB of swap space

Everything should now exist prepared, and you lot tin can proceed the installation of Ubuntu by clicking the "Install Now" button.

You will get one more confirmation describing the changes you lot just made. In this case, you lot will make two new partitions in the free infinite: an ext4 partition for the Ubuntu file system, and a swap partition for swap space.

If everything is in order, click "Go along." At this betoken, the disk will brainstorm formatting and applying your changes, followed past the Ubuntu installation.

Proceed through the residuum of the installation until it is consummate. One time done, you will be asked to reboot your auto.

6. Reboot and select the Bone you want to use

After you lot terminate installing Ubuntu, you volition see the Chow menu every fourth dimension y'all boot upward your PC. When GRUB shows up, you lot can select whether to enter into Ubuntu or boot into your Windows 11 division.

And that's virtually information technology! Your PC at present can run both Windows and Ubuntu from the aforementioned SSD.

At present, you can become near customizing your Linux environment, or boot back into Windows as if zilch changed.

More Resource

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