This is why I no longer dual boot and removed windows all together.
Realized I hadn’t booted Windows on my personal PC in 6 months and said yup time to nuke it all together
Recently booted Windows to install a BIOS update with a Windows only installer and realised it had been about a year since last boot. Think it may be time to reclaim that space.
Most mobos usually have a bios flash utility in the bios setup itself, so you don’t need to rely on the windows installer. You just need to stick the update on a USB stick (extract the binary file from the zip).
I’m in school. I 100% need windows for proctored tests. Institutions that offer online schooling are slowly building infrastructure around Microsoft 365 and underlying tech that depends on windows.
I get it. I main Linux too but you 100% need windows in remote learning. So it’s dual boot.
why not just use a VM?
Because a lot of software will refuse to run in a VM for security reasons. Testing software is very likely to be one of those.
If I didn’t have to use it a handful of times a year for work I’d have wiped my windows drive and extended my Linux storage. Alas.
I feel for the folks who can’t afford a second drive to dual boot.
The correct fix
This is the only way to go.
I run Win10 IOT in a virtualbox to run one app once a month for a few minutes, that I haven’t found a replacement for.
It’s on a separate hard drive for me, and I have it so I select which drive to continue booting from when I first turn the machine on.
If you do want windows do this…put windows on a sacrificial drive… Promise to yourself that there’s just garbage in there so it doesn’t matter… Install Linux on another drive. Have your computer start from the Linux drive thru grub. Set up grub to recognize the windows drive. No, no matter how hard that bitch ass OS tries to update your godly Linux install, it won’t find anything. Fuck you Microsoft! Knowledge is power. Now go out there and compute.
You forgot step 2. Throw sacrificial drive into trash.
Yes! That’s the recommended way of doing it! Hammer it first or someone might bring that virus home and try to use it.
I’m going to call out rEFInd for dual booting, since it doesn’t require you to configure anything and finds and recognizes bootable partitions at boot time. Less stuff to mess up, less work when you want to add/remove an OS.
I mean, that’s what happens when you install spyware; it infects things…
I am forced into using W11 and I can confirm this is true.
Maybe we should speak to them in a language they actually speak. In this case, I am thinking the proper language is class action lawsuit.
Considering Bill Gates made it, you can expect it to be grabby and invasive.
Gnu linux and gonorrhoea windows
this is why we don’t dual-boot with Windows anymore. Linux only. No computing device in my household runs on any version of Windows
Windows 11 is just unusable junk. Makes Vista and ME look like masterpieces
It’s unusable MALICIOUS junk
Just threw up in my mouth a little bit…
No, slopOS is not a cute cat.
please don’t equate cats with windows
Everyone saying you need two harddrives needs to know: all you need are 2 efi partitions: one for windows one for linux… You can have them on the same drive. It’s nonstandard, but I have never found a machine where it doesn’t work.
In my experience, Windows only fucks-up your Linux bootloader if they both share the same EFI System Partition. Keeping them separate fixes the issue. Though, this means that you’ll have to install Windows first, since it will automatically pick your Linux ESP otherwise.
Not sure how I managed this but I installed windows long after Linux on my gaming PC (to use a VR headset that was given to me), and somehow it created its own EFI partition without nuking the real one.
Yup and adding a password to the BIOS was recommended to me by some sysadmin online. Don’t know how that specifically helps but haven’t had problems since.
It’s why I put windows on its own drive. It can enshittify itself in its own space.
is there a way to avoid this? and what workflow should be in place ahead of it happening if not?
You need two separate SSDs. One for Linux, one for Windows.
- Install Linux on SSD-A. Make sure it has an EFI system partition with a bootloader in it (GRUB, systemd-boot, REFInd), don’t use an efistub. If the installer is done, disconnect the SSD to be safe.
- Install Windows on SSD-B with the desired updates. It will create its own EFI partition.
- Optionally, you can create a separate NTFS volume for your
C:\Usersso you don’t have to mount the entire system on Linux if you need to access your files.
- Optionally, you can create a separate NTFS volume for your
- Boot into Windows. Use a tool to completely disable the updates. I use WinUtil by Chris Titus.
- Reconnect SSD-A.
- Boot and enter the firmware configuration. In the boot device list, make sure SSD-A has a much higher priority than SSD-B! You can even remove SSD-B from the bootable devices.
- Boot into Linux. In the bootloader configuration, create an entry that targets the Windows C: volume on SSD-B.
- Alternatively, you can just use the firmware’s boot menu to boot from SSD-B.
Done. If you need to update Windows, physically disconnect SSD-A and boot from SSD-B.
Any viable option if you can’t install 2 drives? My laptop only allows one. It currently has Win10 on it and I’m hoping to replace it with Linux with an option to boot into Windows when needed, especially for my wife who isn’t as technical or experienced with Linux. Not sure if there’s anyway to do it without Windows nuking my setup.
Simply dual-booting is viable. My Win10 + Arch worked well for over a year. If you’re worried about Windows Update nuking the EFI partition, you can clone a backup of just that partition (
ddor a dedicated tool like Clonezilla) that you can then restore from a live environment if needed. Another option, if the disk becomes unbootable, is to boot into a live environment from a USB stick and simply reinstall GRUB into the EFI partition.(edit) It’s also a good idea to reduce the frequency of forced updates. You can do that using WinUtil.
Thank you. I think my biggest concern is that I can’t fix it when it breaks, simply due to lack of experience. I’ve fixed busted Windows partitions and boot issues, but never Linux because I’ve just never had an issue with the installs I have and don’t have nearly the same number of years under my belt with it.
As you said I think first order of business is a functional bootable USB which I can use to both backup and restore the partition, and I need to do a practice run restore to prove it works and that I know what I’m doing before I need it.
Separate hard drives one for windows and one for Linux+GRUB then grub just needs to be told where the windows boot loader is and BIOS should load GRUB default.
OP post happens when you attempt to just use partitions. It can work per other comment, just more fragile.
Dual booting may be a bad idea. You should run MAS-activated Windows in a VM.
My Windows partition at work went unused for several months before I wiped it.
At home it took about two weeks before I reclaimed that space!
