Install Linux beside Windows, or replace it

The installer asks one question that matters. Does Windows stay?

Keep it, and every time the PC starts you get a short menu asking which system you want. Windows remains exactly as it was, with your programs and files, shrunk into a smaller share of the disk. Mint’s guide calls this installing alongside. The other choice is labelled Erase disk and install Linux Mint, and it hands Mint the whole machine.

Keep Windows the first time, provided there’s room. Mint itself takes roughly 15 GB and its guide suggests giving it 100 GB or more to grow into. If your disk can’t spare something near that, or the PC is a spare you’ve already written off, erase and enjoy the space.

Before you start

Three things should be true. Your files are backed up to an external drive and you’ve opened a few from it. Your BitLocker recovery key is written on paper, if your disk is encrypted. And you’ve run Mint from the USB stick on this PC and the wifi worked.

Plug a laptop into the wall. Then start from the USB stick as before.

The installer, screen by screen

1. Double-click Install Linux Mint on the desktop and choose your language.
2. Connect to your wifi when asked, then tick the box offering multimedia codecs. Those are the pieces that let common video and music files play.
3. Choose the installation type. If Windows is on the disk, the installer offers to install Mint alongside it, and according to Mint’s guide it resizes Windows and makes the room by itself. Read this screen twice. The erase option is on it too.
4. You’ll see an offer to encrypt the new installation. Mint’s own guide steers newcomers away from that one, noting problems with some NVIDIA drivers, and towards a gentler option that comes up shortly.
5. Pick your time zone and keyboard layout.
6. Enter your details. Your name can be anything. Your username should be lowercase with no punctuation, which Mint’s guide recommends to prevent bugs. Choose a password you’ll remember, because Linux asks for it whenever you install something. If the laptop leaves the house, tick Encrypt my home folder, which protects your files should it be stolen.
7. Wait. There’s a slideshow.

When it finishes, restart, and pull the USB stick out when the screen tells you to.

The first start

If you kept Windows, a plain menu appears with Linux Mint at the top and Windows further down. Do nothing and Mint starts after a short wait. Arrow down and press Enter for Windows.

Go into Windows once, now, to confirm it’s still healthy. If it asks for the BitLocker recovery key, this is the moment the piece of paper earns its keep.

Back in Mint, two jobs come before anything else. Open Update Manager, the shield icon near the clock, and let it install what it finds. Then open Driver Manager from the Administration part of the menu, which Mint’s guide lists among the first things to do on a new install. If your PC has an NVIDIA card or a wifi chip that wants its own driver, this is where you’ll be offered it.

The flaw in keeping both

The startup menu belongs to Mint, and Windows doesn’t know it exists. Mint’s guide is blunt about it: Windows does not detect other operating systems, and if you ever reinstall Windows it overwrites the startup sequence so that the PC goes straight to Windows again. Mint is still on the disk when that happens. Getting the menu back is a documented repair, and it involves starting from the USB stick and typing commands into the terminal, which is more than this site normally asks of anyone.

So keep the USB stick somewhere you’ll find it, and if Windows ever needs reinstalling, read Mint’s multi-boot page first.

When you stop needing Windows

You may find yourself restarting into Windows less and less. There’s no rush to remove it, since the disk space it occupies is the only cost.