dual booting Windows and Linux - advice needed.

SeanW

Hi all, hoping for some good tips

With Windows 7 on the way out I'll soon be looking for a new setup.

I am planning to dual boot Windows 10 with some Linux most likely Linux Mint. Idea being to learn Linux and use it for most everything, except things that just flat out won't work on Linux. (I've used Linux a little including my Ubuntu laptop so I'm not a total Linux greenhorn).

The guide I'm sort of using is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4zt3wEt7s

Where the individual who runs Explaining Computers recommends that people looking at dual booting put their Linux and Windows on separate drives because a Windows update could mess up the boot loader. Fair enough.

The problem is that while Linux Mint looks like it lets you pick both the installation drive and also which drive to put the Linux boot loader, I don't know how Windows (10) setup chooses which drive to put its boot loader. Indeed, I got a nasty surprise back in the Windows XP era when I installed an SSD alongside a PATA hard drive, installed Windows on the SSD, took out the HD and then Windows didn't boot anymore because it must have put NTLDR or something on the old HD. To be clear, I would plan to have Linux and its boot loader control everything, including giving me an option to boot into Windows at boot time.

Is there any way, apart from not physically having the second HD for Linux in the machine at install time, to guarantee that Windows 10 setup won't put anything on a drive that Windows is not to be installed on? I'm thinking of putting Linux on a new M2 NVME drive while putting Windows on a SATA SSD, installing Windows first and Linux second.

Secondly, Linux Mint comes with 3 desktop choices, Cinnamon, MATE and Xfce. Which is best for a "Classic" Windows user (e.g. used to using the older type Start menu, didn't use Windows 8 etc).

Finally, I understand Windows 10 has a massively different licensing regime and that if you don't want to set up a Microsoft account, you can only activate Windows 10 once with a license key, so some people take a disk image immediately after installing/activating Windows in case they need to rebuild from it. What is the best method/software for doing so?

Thanks in advance.

advertsfox

You don't need a new hard drive, just two partitions on the same table. You can split this during Windows Setup or in Computer / Disk Management in Windows 10. Leave the 2nd partition blank / unformatted at first and install Mint to this partition (formatted as EXT2/3/4) alongside the Windows Boot Manager.

Cinnamon is the best, most Windows like theme for Mint.

To retrieve the license key, you can use Nirsofts ProduKey.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html

Johnboy1951

While you do not need two drives, I too would recommend you use separate drives for Windows and Linux, if you have the space and the drives available.
I do not use this myself but I am well used to multiple OS booting.

The 'safest' method I know is to have one drive connected to the motherboard when installing Windows. Finish that installation ...... rebooting, updating etc..

Set Windows to shutdown completely and not 'hibernate' when you power down (Win quick boot (or whatever they call it now) set OFF)

When done, disconnect the Win drive from the motherboard, attach the Linux drive; install Linux and ensure it is booting and set up correctly.

Re-attach the Win drive ....... reboot and in the BIOS/EFI set the Linux drive as the first boot device.
When Linux is booted update Grub so that it 'sees' the Win drive.

When you next reboot you should have the option to boot Linux or Windows.

As for which Desktop Environment to use - that is a personal choice.
I much prefer KDE over those others you listed.

So the best thing you could do would be to run each DE on live media and decide for yourself which you prefer.
You should do the same with your choice of distro

Ten Pin

Consider (more as a backup) putting a boot loader on a USB stick that will allow booting into either OS.

Syslinux should work, just match the correct files to the computer boot setup eg BIOS or EFI, 32 or 64 bit

Johnboy1951

Ten Pin wrote: »

Consider (more as a backup) putting a boot loader on a USB stick that will allow booting into either OS.

Syslinux should work, just match the correct files to the computer boot setup eg BIOS or EFI, 32 or 64 bit

Good idea.
This is the one I use
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/

I even install it on my Linux drive which provides an alternative boot method from 'one time' boot selection list.

JoyPad

Do we still need dual boot, in this age of virtualization?
Personally, I prefer the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which allows me to run Linux apps on my Windows 10 machine.

Johnboy1951

JoyPad wrote: »

Do we still need dual boot, in this age of virtualization?
Personally, I prefer the Windows Subsystem for Linux, which allows me to run Linux apps on my Windows 10 machine.

Try virtualisation with low ram in a device and then tell me dual boot is not necessary.

JoyPad

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Try virtualisation with low ram in a device and then tell me dual boot is not necessary.

I wouldn't try Windows 10 on a low RAM computer.

PropJoe10

I wouldn't try Windows 10 on anything, but that's a discussion for another day.

Johnboy's instructions are spot on, and also my preferred method for dual booting. Also a vote here for the KDE plasma desktop environment - it's absolutely delicious, and runs lighter than even XFCE these days.

KDE Neon is a nice option at the moment - runs on a stable Ubuntu base, but gets the latest and greatest KDE software. Well worth a shot:

https://neon.kde.org/