Dual-Booting Windows and Linux

You don't have to give up Windows to try Linux.

If you'd like to give Linux a try, but you can't (or simply don't want to) give up your Windows operating system or applications, and you can't afford to build two computers, then consider building a dual-boot system.

A dual-boot computer is one that is capable of running two different operating systems (but not at the same time). It's also possible to build computers than can boot three or more different operating systems, which are called multi-boot computers.

When designing a dual-boot system, the most important considerations are to make sure that there's enough hard drive space to accommodate both systems, and to make sure that all of the hardware is compatible with both systems. In practice, this means making sure it's all Linux-compatible, since practically any recent hardware will work with Windows.

Linux hardware compatibility is less of an issue now than it used to be. That used to be the single most frustrating thing about building a Linux box. But nowadays, Linux has become so popular as a desktop OS (especially outside the United States) that it's easy to find compatible hardware. But you can check here just to make sure that the hardware you're considering is compatible.

Installing Windows and Linux on the Same PC

There are several ways to configure a dual-boot PC. You can, for example, use third-party software such as Paragon Partition Manager 11 Personal to set up multiple partitions before you actually start installing the operating systems. This is very handy if you frequently install and remove operating systems for hobby, business, or educational purposes, and also makes it easier to make modifications and repairs to the partitions once the systems are installed.

If you don't want to use third-party software to pre-partition your hard drive, however, then you don't really have to. Pretty much all Linux distributions have built-in utilities in the setup routines that can create new partitions and manipulate existing ones. QtParted and GParted are two of the graphical partitioning front-ends more commonly included with Linux distributions. All popular Linux distros also include ntfsresize, which can non-destructively re-size existing NTFS partitions, and can be accessed through the graphical partitioning interface (or via the terminal, if you're doing a text-based installation).

In short, a Linux distribution will include everything you need to partition a hard drive for a multiple-boot machine configuration because most distros assume that the user may be adding Linux to a machine that already hosts Windows, so they include utilities to make room for Linux. But when you're building a new multi-boot computer, there's an easier way to set up the hard drive from the start that make the process more straightforward and less time-consuming.