The best way to find out whether Linux suits you is to try it on your own computer, with your own hardware, without giving up Windows. A live USB stick lets you do that without installing anything; dual boot then lets you keep both systems and choose at power-on. Anyone can do it by following the steps in order, but it touches partitions and booting: a couple of precautions make the difference between a quiet afternoon and a data recovery job.
Preparing the stick
You need a USB stick, usually of at least 8 GB, whose contents will be erased, and the distribution's ISO image, downloaded from the official website. The site also publishes SHA-256 checksums: verifying them confirms that the file is neither damaged nor tampered with. On Windows you calculate it with PowerShell:
Get-FileHash .\distribution.iso -Algorithm SHA256
To write the image to the stick you use programs such as Rufus on Windows, balenaEtcher on every system or Ventoy, which lets you copy several ISOs onto the same stick and choose which one to boot. From Linux, dd also does the job, paying the utmost attention to the name of the target device.
Booting in live mode
Plug in the stick and switch on the computer while pressing the boot menu key: depending on the manufacturer it is often F12, F11, F10, F8 or Esc. Alternatively, from Windows, Settings > System > Recovery > Advanced startup lets you choose a USB device.
In the live session the system runs from the stick and from memory: nothing is written to the disk. This is the time to check what matters:
- Do Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work?
- Are audio, webcam and microphone recognised?
- Does the touchpad respond to gestures, can you adjust the brightness?
- Do sleep and wake work?
- Is an external monitor detected?
Some sluggishness is normal, because a stick is slower than an SSD. If a component doesn't work at all, though, it is worth looking up information on that model before installing.
Before touching the disk
Three precautions, in order:
- A full backup of your personal data to an external disk. Partitioning is safe when done properly, but one wrong click can delete a partition.
- The BitLocker recovery key. Many Windows 11 computers have device encryption switched on. Changes to booting can make Windows ask for the key at the next start. Retrieve it beforehand, from your Microsoft account or from Manage BitLocker, and store it off the computer.
- Fast Startup switched off. Windows' Fast Startup doesn't fully shut down the system and leaves the NTFS partition in a state that Linux treats with caution. Turn it off under Power Options > Choose what the power buttons do.
Making room
Space for Linux is obtained by shrinking the Windows partition with Windows' own Disk Management tool: right-click the C: partition and choose Shrink Volume. Doing it from Windows is preferable, because Windows knows its own filesystem best. For normal desktop use a few dozen GB is the reasonable minimum; more if you plan to keep your files on Linux. The freed space should be left unallocated: the installer will take care of it.
Installation
The installers of the most popular distributions detect Windows and offer an option such as «Install alongside Windows», which uses the free space automatically. If you prefer manual control, you create:
| Partition | Indicative size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
root / |
the space you chose | ext4 or Btrfs |
| existing EFI partition | already there | must be reused, mounted at /boot/efi, without formatting it |
| swap | optional | many distributions use a swap file or zram |
The delicate point is the EFI partition: formatting it would wipe Windows' bootloader. It must only be assigned as a mount point. At the end, the installer registers GRUB in the firmware, and at boot a menu appears from which you choose Linux or Windows.
Typical problems and solutions
- The computer always boots Windows without showing the menu: the firmware boot order still puts Windows first. Change it in the UEFI settings, or from Linux with
efibootmgr. - Secure Boot blocks booting: the main distributions are signed and work with Secure Boot on. Problems arise with drivers outside the kernel, such as some proprietary graphics drivers, which require you to enrol a key on the first reboot through a blue screen called MOK.
- Windows' clock is wrong after using Linux: Windows treats the hardware clock as local time, Linux as UTC. The simplest fix is to tell Linux to use local time:
timedatectl set-local-rtc 1. - Windows asks for the BitLocker key: this is the situation anticipated above; enter the saved key and carry on.
- Windows doesn't appear in the GRUB menu: on some distributions automatic detection of other systems is disabled. Enable it with
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=falsein/etc/default/gruband regenerate the configuration.
In my work I still recommend a trial period of a few weeks in dual boot before any final decision: the best choice is the one made after actually working with it.
In short
- Verify the ISO with its SHA-256 checksum and test the hardware in live mode before installing.
- Before partitioning: backup, BitLocker key saved, Fast Startup off.
- Shrink the Windows partition from Disk Management and leave the space unallocated.
- The existing EFI partition is reused without formatting it.
- Boot order, the clock setting and os-prober solve the most common post-install problems.
