this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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Best way to dual boot laptop - Linux and Windows (lemmy.world)
submitted 3 days ago by ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.world
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I'm looking to install Linux on our home laptop and see if I can convince my wife to migrate off Windows. Since I'm not sure there won't be times we need or want to boot back into Windows, I want to set it up so we can dual boot. The laptop only has a spot for one drive however so I can't use two drives and chose them with the bios. I know in the past Windows has been problematic with dual boot setups on a single drive, corrupting the boot drive following updates and what-not. I'd really like to avoid that if possible.

Any suggestions on how best to go about it, or something I should at least avoid because it's known to be problematic?

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[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

i7-4770 or i7-4790? Those Haswell-based CPUs are legendary, even in 2025. I built an i7-4790K based gaming rig probably 10 years ago or so, it was an absolute monster.

For VMs on Linux, I would recommend something called "Virtual Machine Manager". It's in nearly every distro's software repository, and uses qemu (common virtualization tool in Linux servers all over the world) for the backend. But whatever you do, stay away from "VirtualBox".

[–] ReluctantMuskrat@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's an i7-4700MQ. Definitely still a decent CPU and with 12GB of ram more than adequate. Not sure I'll get touchscreen support with Linux, but I usually forget it's a touchscreen anyway.

Thanks for the VM tip. I used VirtualBox in the past but not heard anything good about it lately.

[–] lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Not sure I’ll get touchscreen support with Linux, but I usually forget it’s a touchscreen anyway.

Depends what laptop it is, you might actually get native touchscreen support. Linux has come a long way, it supports quite a lot these days.

Thanks for the VM tip. I used VirtualBox in the past but not heard anything good about it lately.

Yeah, unfortunately VirtualBox is owned by Oracle, and Oracle is an objectively horrible company.