News How To Dual Boot Linux and Windows 11

Heat_Fan89

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Jul 13, 2020
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As someone who has done this in the past it is an informative article. What could have been added was how to remove Ubuntu or Linux from a dual boot environment in the event the user no longer wants Linux. In the past trying to remove Linux would blowup Windows Boot Mgr.
 

andrep74

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Apr 30, 2008
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I’m surprised you didn’t at least mention WSL2, which works really well under Windows 10 and 11. Installation is also far easier.
 

Nikolay Mihaylov

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Jun 30, 2022
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As someone who has done this in the past it is an informative article. What could have been added was how to remove Ubuntu or Linux from a dual boot environment in the event the user no longer wants Linux. In the past trying to remove Linux would blowup Windows Boot Mgr.

With a UEFI boot system you just go to the BIOS settings and set the Windows Boot Manager as the #1 entry and voila!
 

Nikolay Mihaylov

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Jun 30, 2022
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I’m surprised you didn’t at least mention WSL2, which works really well under Windows 10 and 11. Installation is also far easier.

Frankly, I prefer to install Linux manually in a hypervisor of my choosing, whichi is never Hyper-V. With WSL2 you are bound to have Hyper-V activated which precludes using any other hypervisor.

Also, I find both Cygwin and WSL1 very usefull. Cygwin more so, because it has proper terminal window, where select is copy and middle click is paste. But these are more for command-line jockeys like myself.

Generally, I prefer to go in the other direction - run Windows in VM hosted on a Linux machine. With GPU passthrough I can have close to native performance. On an old Threadripper 1920X machine with sufficient memory I have even done 2 Windows machines simultaneously, both with dedicated GPUs, plus a third one for the Linux host.

Anyway, I have this question to the knowledgable audience here - what is the proper way to license Windows 10 for use in a VM? Do the cheap OEM keys that are being advertised so often by the tech-tubers work for a VM installation?
 
This article is incomplete on a very sensitive matter, and that's too bad because it is otherwise very nice.
Using GPT for the install media makes the boot disk incompatible with older computers that don't use UEFI, and even more modern systems that have a buggy boot process.
Rufus gives you the possibility of using an MBR-compatible scheme (it chain-loads a GPT with a MBR sector, making it work in both types of machines).
But GPT is necessary for SecureBoot to work, right? Thing is, only Ubuntu and Red Hat are compatible with Secure Boot, and Rufus strips those away (if you want SecureBoot to work you need to clone the ISO onto the media instead).
So you'd need to add a section on how to disable SecureBoot in the article, especially on laptops where this can be VERY finicky (e.g. some models allow it only once you've set a BIOS admin password, or other niceties).
Peripheral compatibility isn't much of a problem with dual-booting Linux; BIOS/UEFI settings are MUCH MORE LIKELY to cause headaches. As such, you should also make sure you have the latest BIOS/UEFI flashed on your system. for an often much better Linux experience (hardware makers usually test against Windows and that's it, causing huge problems with UEFI compliance and power management in Linux - many quirks are known and worked around, but some need manual intervention).
 
D

Deleted member 14196

Guest
Frankly, I prefer to install Linux manually in a hypervisor of my choosing, whichi is never Hyper-V. With WSL2 you are bound to have Hyper-V activated which precludes using any other hypervisor.

Also, I find both Cygwin and WSL1 very usefull. Cygwin more so, because it has proper terminal window, where select is copy and middle click is paste. But these are more for command-line jockeys like myself.

Generally, I prefer to go in the other direction - run Windows in VM hosted on a Linux machine. With GPU passthrough I can have close to native performance. On an old Threadripper 1920X machine with sufficient memory I have even done 2 Windows machines simultaneously, both with dedicated GPUs, plus a third one for the Linux host.

Anyway, I have this question to the knowledgable audience here - what is the proper way to license Windows 10 for use in a VM? Do the cheap OEM keys that are being advertised so often by the tech-tubers work for a VM installation?

cheap keys are stolen keys. Microsoft can deactivate them at any time. You can use windows 10 without a key for as long as you like with very minor restrictions like changing the wallpaper.

The keys may work, but they are not guaranteed to work
 

SleepyD

Commendable
May 19, 2020
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Frankly, I prefer to install Linux manually in a hypervisor of my choosing, whichi is never Hyper-V. With WSL2 you are bound to have Hyper-V activated which precludes using any other hypervisor.

Also, I find both Cygwin and WSL1 very usefull. Cygwin more so, because it has proper terminal window, where select is copy and middle click is paste. But these are more for command-line jockeys like myself.

Generally, I prefer to go in the other direction - run Windows in VM hosted on a Linux machine. With GPU passthrough I can have close to native performance. On an old Threadripper 1920X machine with sufficient memory I have even done 2 Windows machines simultaneously, both with dedicated GPUs, plus a third one for the Linux host.

Anyway, I have this question to the knowledgable audience here - what is the proper way to license Windows 10 for use in a VM? Do the cheap OEM keys that are being advertised so often by the tech-tubers work for a VM installation?

Are you able to run Linux in hyper V at full resolution? I have an ultra wide 34 inch monitor and I am not able to run it at its native resolution of 3440 x 1440. The only issues I’ve had with my multi boot PC is I had to disable TPM.
 

newtechldtech

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Sep 21, 2022
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cheap keys are stolen keys. Microsoft can deactivate them at any time. You can use windows 10 without a key for as long as you like with very minor restrictions like changing the wallpaper.

The keys may work, but they are not guaranteed to work

and it never happened ! I never saw intel deactivating keys on the personal computer level .. they just turn a blind eye on it.
 
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Deleted member 14196

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and it never happened ! I never saw intel deactivating keys on the personal computer level .. they just turn a blind eye on it.
I’ve seen it happen. A bunch. Intel doesn’t deactivate keys, Microsoft does. Use them at your own risk
 

USAFRet

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and it never happened ! I never saw intel deactivating keys on the personal computer level .. they just turn a blind eye on it.
s/Intel/MS....

Well, say hello to my little Asus transformer.

Exactly 6 months after purchase (3rd party seller on Newegg).....Win 10 Pro Unactivates itself.

So, now you know someone it has happened to.

Also:

Shall I continue?