How To Dual Boot Fedora And Windows

In this guide, we will explore the process of installing and configuring a dual boot setup with Fedora and Windows. We will cover the necessary steps to prepare your computer, partition the hard drive, install Fedora alongside Windows, and frequently asked questions about Dual booting Fedora with Windows.

This guide provides a step-by-step procedure for setting up a dual boot system with the latest Fedora 38 Workstation and Windows 10. The process described here is also applicable for dual booting Windows 11 with other versions of Fedora.

Introduction

Dual booting is a popular method of running multiple operating systems on a single computer, allowing users to switch between them as needed. One common dual boot configuration is Fedora and Windows, where Fedora represents a robust and user-friendly Linux distribution, while Windows offers a familiar environment for many applications and games.

By setting up a dual boot system with Fedora and Windows, users can leverage the strengths of both operating systems for different purposes. Fedora provides a powerful open-source environment, rich with tools for software development, system administration, and other Linux-based tasks. On the other hand, Windows offers compatibility with a wide range of commercial software, a vast library of games, and an intuitive user interface.

Whether you are a developer looking to work with Linux tools or an enthusiast who enjoys the flexibility of multiple operating systems, setting up a dual boot system with Fedora and Windows can provide you with the best of both worlds. So, let's dive in and learn how to install Fedora in a dual boot setup with Windows.

Advantages of Dual Booting Windows and Fedora

Dual booting Fedora with Windows offers several advantages. Here are some key advantages of setting up a dual boot system with these two operating systems:

1. Compatibility with a wide range of software: Windows has an extensive library of commercial software, including productivity tools, multimedia applications, and games. By dual booting with Windows, you can ensure compatibility with these applications.
2. Robust Linux environment: Fedora provides a powerful and secure environment for software development, system administration, and other Linux-based tasks. It offers a vast repository of open-source software, development tools, and command-line utilities that are ideal for developers and enthusiasts.
3. Flexibility and choice: Dual booting allows you to choose the operating system that best suits your needs for a particular task. You can switch between Windows and Fedora depending on the specific software requirements or personal preferences, ensuring that you have the right tools for the job.
4. Learning and exploration: If you are new to Linux or want to expand your knowledge, dual booting with Fedora provides an opportunity to explore the Linux ecosystem without completely abandoning Windows. You can gradually transition to Linux and learn its intricacies while still having the familiarity of Windows as a fallback option.
5. Increased privacy and security: Linux distributions like Fedora are known for their strong focus on security and privacy. By dual booting with Fedora, you can benefit from its built-in security features and take advantage of its robust security model to protect your data and ensure a more secure computing environment.

Overall, dual booting Windows and Fedora provides a balance between compatibility with commercial software, a powerful Linux environment, flexibility of choice, and the opportunity to explore and learn. It allows users to leverage the strengths of both operating systems, making it an attractive option for developers, enthusiasts, and those who require diverse software capabilities.

Things to do on the Windows System

Prior to installing Fedora, there are some necessary preparatory steps that need to be taken care of from the Windows side.

1. Windows 10/11 should be already installed.
2. Check the partition scheme. This article is targeted at disks with the GPT partition style.
3. Check if windows is using BIOS or UEFI. This article is targeted at systems running in UEFI mode.
4. Disable secure boot.
5. Disable drive encryption.
6. Create separate disk partitions for Fedora Linux.

Step 1 - Check Disk Partition Scheme in Windows

To check the partition scheme in Windows, open PowerShell on your Windows system and execute the following command:

$ Get-Disk

As you see in the above output, the last part of the output shows the disk partition type. In our case, it is GPT.

Step 2 - Check if Windows is using BIOS or UEFI

To determine whether your Windows system is using BIOS or UEFI, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Start menu and search for "System Information."
2. Open the "System Information" application from the search results.
3. In the System Information window, locate the "System Summary" section.
4. Look for the "BIOS Mode" field in the system summary.
5. If the BIOS mode is set to "UEFI," it indicates that your system is using UEFI.
6. If the BIOS mode is set to "Legacy," it indicates that your system is using BIOS.

As you see, my system uses UEFI as BIOS mode.

Step 3 - Disable Secure Boot

The next step in the process is to disable Secure Boot. Secure Boot, when enabled, only allows the loading of OEM-signed bootloaders, which can sometimes cause compatibility issues with Linux operating systems like Fedora.

Some linux distributions go well with secure boot and some do not, so I suggest you disable it.

To disable Secure Boot and restart your machine in UEFI mode, follow these steps:

1. Open the Start menu and go to "Settings."
2. In the Settings menu, select "Recovery."
3. Under the Recovery options, click on "Advanced startup" and then choose "Restart now."

Upon restarting, your system will enter the Advanced startup mode.

In the Advanced startup options, select "Troubleshoot".

Next, choose "Advanced options".

And then select "UEFI Firmware Settings".

Click on "Restart" to enter the UEFI/BIOS settings.

Once your system restarts, you will be directed to the UEFI/BIOS settings. The appearance and layout of the BIOS/UEFI window can differ based on the manufacturer of your desktop or laptop. For Dell laptops, specifically, you can find the option to enable or disable Secure Boot under the "Boot Configuration" section.

To disable Secure Boot, toggle the switch to the "OFF" position. Confirm the action by selecting "Yes" to disable secure boot and save the profile. Lastly, press the "Exit" button to restart the machine, applying the saved settings.

You can also check the state of the secure boot from within Windows. To verify the status of secure boot from within Windows, follow these steps:

1. Open the "RUN" dialog by pressing the Windows key + R.
2. Type "msinfo32" in the dialog box and hit Enter.
3. In the System Information window that appears, search for the "Secure Boot State" entry.
4. In your case, if the state shows as "OFF," it indicates that secure boot is currently disabled on your system.

Step 4 - Turn Off Device Encryption

By default, Windows encrypts your drives. However, to avoid potential conflicts, it is recommended to turn off drive encryption. To do so, open the Settings menu, search for "Device Encryption", and then click on "Turn Off" to disable the encryption.

Windows will now start decrypting the existing files. Please note that it will take some time depending on the data size.

Step 5 - Create Partitions for Linux

In this step, we will create a separate partition for the Linux installation. To begin, open the "Disk Management" utility from the Start menu. In my example, I have a single 1 TB disk where all available space is allocated to the Windows C Drive.

In order to create a separate partition for Linux, it is necessary to reclaim some space from the C drive as there is currently no free space available. This can be accomplished by shrinking the C drive.

To resize the partition, follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the partition you wish to resize. In my case, it is C: partition.
2. Select "Shrink Volume" from the context menu.
3. Enter a suitable value in megabytes (MB) for the amount of space you want to shrink from the partition.
4. Click on the "Shrink" button to initiate the shrinking process.

Now I have approximately 600GB of unallocated space. This unallocated space will be utilized for creating the Linux partitions.

Windows and Fedora Dual Boot: Step-By-Step Installation

As mentioned earlier, Fedora 38 Workstation will be used in this dual boot setup. However, it is important to note that the steps outlined are generally applicable and can be followed for other versions of Fedora as well.

Step 1 - Create Fedora Bootable USB using Fedora Media Writer

Typically, I download the ISO image via torrent and utilize tools like Etcher to create a bootable medium. Alternatively, Fedora provides a Media Writer tool that simplifies this process. The Fedora Media Writer tool not only downloads the ISO image but also creates a bootable medium. It is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. You can obtain the Media Writer tool from the Fedora Official Downloads page.

After downloading the Media Writer for Windows, I proceeded to install it following the standard installation process for Windows applications.

Upon launching the Media Writer, the initial screen presents two options:

1. Download Automatically: This option allows for the automatic download of the selected ISO image, which will then be written to the external medium.
2. Select .iso File: If you have already downloaded the ISO image separately, you can choose this option to select and use the existing ISO file.

I am going with the first option to download the ISO image automatically.

Clicking "Next" will prompt you to select the desired Fedora edition. In this case, I chose the "Official Fedora Workstation Edition". After making the selection, click "Next" to proceed to the next step.

On the subsequent screen, you will be presented with options to choose the Fedora Workstation version, architecture, and the USB drive where the ISO image will be written. If desired, you can select the checkbox "Download after writing" to enable automatic deletion of the ISO image after it has been written to the USB drive.

Select "Download & Write" to proceed with bootable medium creation.

Upon successful Fedora bootable media creation process, you will see the following notification window.

If you are creating bootable media from a Linux system, there are many bootable USB creation tools available. You can choose any one of the following tools to create Fedora bootable USB.

Command line bootable USB creation tools:

• How To Create Multiboot USB Drives With Ventoy In Linux
• How To Create Bootable USB Drive Using dd Command
• Bootiso Lets You Safely Create Bootable USB Drive In Linux

Graphical bootable USB creation tools:

• Create Bootable USB Drive With Ventoy WebUI In Linux
• Create Bootable USB Drives And SD Cards With Etcher In Linux
• Popsicle – Create Multiple Bootable USB Drives At Once
• Create Bootable USB Drive With USBImager In Linux
• Kindd – A Graphical Frontend To dd Command

Start 2 - Start Fedora Installation

1. Plug in the bootable medium and restart the machine. Keep pressing the boot loader shortcut key during restart to open boot settings. Select the USB device as the first boot device and press ENTER.

NOTE: The boot loader shortcut key and the UI varies according to the manufacturer. In my case, the shortcut key to open the boot settings is F12.

2. After a few seconds, the GRUB boot menu will appear. Choose "Start Fedora Workstation Live 38" option and hit ENTER.

3. After successfully booting into the live operating system, you will be presented with an interface that provides the option to "Install Fedora" automatically.

Alternatively, you have the option (Not Now) to skip the installation and test the operating system in live mode. If you choose this option, you can launch the installation wizard at a later time from the application launcher.

4. Select your preferred language. The chosen language will be used throughout the entire installation process.

5. Next, you will be presented with the installation summary wizard. This step requires configuration of three settings:

1. Keyboard Configuration: Set up your preferred keyboard layout or language.
2. Date & Time Configuration: Adjust the date and time settings according to your location and time zone.
3. Disk Configuration: Configure the disk settings, including partitioning and disk allocation for the installation.

KEYBOARD CONFIGURATION

Click on the "Keyboard" option. By default, the keyboard layout is set to "English US". If you would like to add a new layout, click on the "+" symbol and select the desired layout. To remove any existing layout from the list, click on the "-" symbol. Once the keyboard layout is configured, click on "Done" to proceed.

DATE & TIME CONFIGURATION

To configure the date and time settings, click on the "Time & Date" option. You will have three options to set the date and time zone:

1. Select the region and city from the provided dropdown menus.
2. Use the interactive map to choose your region and city.
3. Enable the "Network Time" option to automatically synchronize the date and time with the network time server.

Choose your preferred method to set the date and time, either by selecting the region and city from the dropdown or using the map interface.

If you want to set the network time, toggle the "Network time" switch to ON. You can configure NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers by clicking on the settings icon.

Once all the configurations are completed click "Done".

INSTALLATION DESTINATION

This step is crucial in the installation process as it involves deciding how your hard drive will be partitioned and determining the allocation of space for each partition.

Click on "Installation Destination", which will direct you to a window similar to the one shown in the following image. It will display a list of standard disks and present you with three partition scheme options:

1. Automatic Partitioning: This option will wipe out any existing disk partitions and allocate all available space to the root partition.
2. Custom Partitioning: Here, you can manually create your own disk partitions and allocate sizes according to your preferences. There is also an option to have partitions created automatically.
3. Blivet Gui: This is a graphical utility that allows you to configure storage devices.

You are free to choose any of the three options. In this case, I opted for a custom configuration. Select "Custom" and click on "Done" to proceed.

Upon selecting the "Custom" option, you will be directed to a window that displays the overall disk capacity, available free space, existing partitions, and options to add or remove partitions.

To create partitions manually, click on the "+" icon. This action will open a window where you can select the desired mount point and specify its capacity. The following predefined mount points are available for selection:

• root (/)
• /boot
• /boot/efi
• /home
• /var
• swap

By choosing the appropriate mount point and assigning the desired capacity, you can manually create partitions to suit your requirements.

For example, I am allocating 500GB of space to /home mount point. Similarly, you can create partitions according to your needs.

After adding a mount point, you have the option to modify its configuration from the main menu before finalizing the changes and writing them to the disk. If you refer to the following image, you will notice that the right-hand side displays the configurations, including the mount point, size, partition type (Btrfs, Standard, LVM), and file system (EXT4, XFS, etc.). If you need to make any modifications, simply adjust the parameters accordingly and click on "Update Settings".

Alternatively, instead of manually creating partitions, you have the option to automatically generate partition schemes based on the available free space.

In the provided image, you can set the partition scheme to "Standard Partition" from the dropdown menu. By doing so, an option will appear that says "click here to create them automatically". Clicking on this option will automatically generate the partitions based on the selected partition scheme.

In the below image, you can see the list of partitions automatically created. More space is allocated to /home and root partitions.

My recommendation is to opt for automatic partition creation, as it simplifies the process. However, you can make any necessary adjustments to the created partitions if desired.

Click on "Done" to apply the changes to the disk. A summary of the modifications will be displayed, and you can proceed by clicking on "Accept Changes" to move on to the next step.

6. After completing the previous steps, you will be directed to the "Installation Summary" section. Click on "Begin Installation" to initiate the installation process. Now, all you need to do is wait for the installer to carry out its tasks.

7. Once the installation is completed, click "Finish Installation" and restart the machine.

8. Each time you boot your machine, you will be greeted by the GRUB menu, which presents the option to choose between Fedora and the Windows Boot Manager. Take a look at the below image. The first option is to boot the Fedora Workstation and the third option is to boot Windows Boot Manager.

Fedora Post Installation Setup

A setup wizard will open at first boot. Click "Start Setup" to start the Fedora initial setup.

In this step, you can enable or disable location services and automatic problem reporting. Click "Next" to move to the next step.

In this step, you have the option to enable or disable third-party repositories. Enabling third-party repositories provides access to additional software and drivers that may not be included in the default repositories. You can choose to enable or disable these repositories based on your preferences and specific software requirements. By default, it is disabled.

The next step is to connect to online accounts. Either you can connect to your account or click "skip" to move to the next step.

In this step, provide your desired username and full name.

In this step, set a password for the user. This user will be automatically added to the wheel group, granting them sudo privileges.

Congratulations! The setup process is now complete, and you can begin using the Fedora Workstation. Enjoy exploring and utilizing the features and capabilities of your newly installed Fedora operating system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here is the FAQ for Fedora and Windows Dual Boot Setup:

Conclusion

In this article I have provided Step-by-Step instructions on how to setup dual boot with Fedora 38 Workstation and Windows 10. Remember to take necessary precautions before proceeding with the dual boot setup, such as backing up your data and ensuring adequate disk space. Following the instructions provided, you can successfully create a dual boot configuration and enjoy the benefits of both Fedora and Windows.

Related Read:

• A Step-by-Step Guide to Install Linux Mint Alongside Windows
• Ultimate Guide To Dual Booting Windows And Ubuntu
• A Step-by-Step Guide To Install Debian Alongside Windows
• A Step-by-Step Guide To Install Pop!_OS Alongside Windows