How to Set Up Dual Boot with Linux Mint and Windows 10/11

If you’re like me, and you got your hands on a shiny new computer, you might be wondering about running two operating systems at once. I ain’t talkin’ about runnin’ ’em on different machines neither, I mean on the same one! Yup, I’m talkin’ about dual bootin’ Linux Mint alongside Windows. It sounds complicated, but don’t worry, I’m here to walk ya through it step by step, and it ain’t all that hard. So, let’s get started, alright?

Now, first thing you gotta do is make sure ya got enough space on your computer. That means, if you already got Windows installed, you’ll need to shrink the space it takes up so there’s room for Linux Mint. Don’t worry, you ain’t gonna lose your Windows stuff, just make some room for the new system. You can do that through Windows Disk Management. Go to the ‘Control Panel’, then ‘Administrative Tools’, and click on ‘Computer Management’. From there, choose ‘Disk Management’ and shrink your main partition. You want to leave about 20-30 GB free for Linux Mint. It ain’t too much, but it’ll do the job.

Next, you need to get yourself a copy of Linux Mint. Now, there’s a few ways to do this, but I’ll tell you the easiest one. Head on over to the Linux Mint website and download the ISO file. Just pick the latest version, I think the 21 version’s pretty good, but go with whatever’s newest. Then, you gotta make that ISO into something your computer can boot from, and that means makin’ a USB drive that’ll work like a magic key to let Linux Mint in. For this, you’ll need a tool called Rufus. It’s free and real simple to use.

Once you’ve got Rufus, plug in a USB stick, open up Rufus, and choose your Linux Mint ISO file. It’ll take a few minutes to load up on that USB. Now, don’t go messin’ with your Windows system while it’s workin’, give it a minute. When it’s done, you got yourself a bootable USB stick, ready to go.

Alright, now it’s time to restart your computer. But before you do, make sure you change the boot order in your computer’s BIOS. That way, your computer knows to boot from the USB drive first, instead of the hard drive. You gotta press a special key when your computer starts up – usually it’s something like F2 or F12 – depending on what kind of machine you got. Once you’re in there, find the boot options and move USB to the top of the list.

Now, you’re ready to install Linux Mint! After bootin’ from the USB, you’ll see a screen with some options. Choose ‘Install Linux Mint’ and follow the instructions on the screen. It’ll ask you where to install it, and this is where you need to be careful. You want to choose the empty space you made earlier (remember that 20-30 GB). Don’t touch your Windows partition! If you do that, you’ll end up with a mess and all your files gone.

Once you’ve chosen your partition, it’s time to decide on how Linux Mint is gonna be installed. You’ll usually go with the default options – that’s where it installs GRUB, a bootloader that helps you pick whether you wanna start up Windows or Linux when you turn on your computer.

Install Linux Mint, wait a bit, and you’ll be ready to go! It’s gonna take some time, but when it’s done, your computer’s gonna ask you to restart. Take out the USB stick and hit restart. When your computer turns back on, you should see a menu with two options: Linux Mint and Windows. You can pick whichever one you wanna use. Linux Mint is real snappy, so I think you’ll like it, but hey, if you gotta go back to Windows, that’s just a click away.

And there ya go! You’ve got yourself a dual boot setup, with both Windows and Linux Mint runnin’ on the same machine. Ain’t that somethin’? It may sound like a lot, but once you get the hang of it, it’s real easy. Just remember, whenever you make changes to your computer, always make sure you got backups, ’cause you never know when somethin’ might go wrong.

So, if you wanna try out something new and fancy, Linux Mint is a great choice. It’s simple, it’s free, and it runs real smooth. And with dual bootin’, you ain’t gotta choose between Windows and Linux – you can have both! What could be better than that?

Tags: [dual boot, Linux Mint, install Linux Mint, Windows dual boot, Linux Mint guide, bootloader, GRUB, install Linux alongside Windows]