how to install linux alongside windows 7

We're using Ubuntu in this guide, which does have Secure Boot support, so you shouldn't have to worry about that. However, Secure Boot can cause issues with a lot of Linux distributions that don't support this feature. Modern Windows computers come with a feature called Secure Boot, which is meant to enhance the security of your device by preventing malicious software from loading with your PC. Preparing to dual-boot Linuxīefore you do anything else, there's something you need to be aware of. Once that's done, we can focus on installing Linux for dual-booting. You can follow either of those, although a straight upgrade should be a lot easier. You can follow our guide on installing Windows 11 to do it in the way that's most convenient to you. If you haven't yet upgraded to Windows 11, we highly recommend doing that. So to follow along, you'll need a Windows 11 (though the same steps will work on Windows 10) PC, a USB flash drive (8GB or more) for installation media, and another external storage method to back up your data in case anything goes wrong. We'll go through the necessary steps to create a partition and install Linux on it to dual-boot. For this guide, we're assuming you already have Windows installed on your PC, since that's the case for most people.

How to install linux alongside windows 7