flatbield

By the way, how one might do this at the high level.

First, you have to choose virtualization method. Could be any, but if starting with Windows, maybe VirtualBox. When setting up your initial OS you have to figure out how big to make the disk images and what format. If a virtualization format then you’ll have to convert them later when you copy them into a real partition, if in real disk partition to start, one can just copy by imaging partition. In either case, think carefully about the size of the partition your configuring as it is going to have to be smaller or equal to the final partition your going to use for dual booting at the end. There is some question best way to format the VM image so you can actually image it easily to a final partition. May take some thought as you need to think about what needs to be in the final partition and how boot loaders will be setup in the final configuration. Also maybe need to think if the VM should be setup for lagacy/BIOS boot or UEFI boot.

Linux should not have an issue with booting in multiple configurations. That is either direct/dual boot or in a VM. It generally just works. Windows on the other hand, you may have more issues.

When fiddling with low level disk and partition layouts and copying. You want to backup everything maybe both at the file system level, and as full disk images so you can easily undo mistakes. Also on Windows secure boot and Bitlocker can present additional issues if your booting with maintenance media. Make sure you have your Bitlocker emergency unlock codes and know how to use them before doing anything other then windows. You may want to disable/remove Bitlocker when fiddling with this stuff too.

Other then that moving to dual boot from VM should be basically creating a partition into which to place the Linux image, then doing and image copy from your VM image (just the partition, not the whole image), into the new partition perhaps doing the format conversion if your VM image is not using a partition to start with. Then you’d have to setup the boot loader based on some sort of dual booting how to. Too long ago for me to remember the details of that. If the partition is going to be on the drive Windows is filling, you’ll have to figure out how your going to shrink one or more of the existing partitions, and then create space for Linux. There are tools that can do that.

Caution in doing partition layout changes, low level image copies, and fiddling with boot loader and maybe BIOS configs is all quite technical. You have to be prepared for this to take some time, and to be able to restore your original setup if things go poorly. You will also have to have another means of accessing the web/internet as you’ll need to be able to lookup howtos and hints, maybe also download stuff, and format media for things you’ve forgotten to do ahead of time.

If you doing this on a workstation, not a laptop. Another safer way to do this is hot mountable drive drives (do not actually have to be hot mountable). Just have windows on one drive, Linux on another. Pop the drive in you want to boot from and go. The other more expensive method, just have two different computers purchased with the OS preinstalled. As you suggest another method that is not that technical is just run Linux under virtualization in Windows, say with VirtualBox.

Someone who has recently done this should feel free to make any corrections to the above. Thanks.

Edit: Another caution. Linux cannot always boot from USB media with a size larger then 2T. So if using external USB media, consider using media less then 2T. Also if using USB, use USB3 media plugged into USB3 ports for best speed.

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Interesting. Does modern Windows allow booting OEM version into VM? Historically it was a) not allowed by license, b) not possible because Windows tended to hard configure to your motherboard hardware for example. Back in the Windows 7 days, I had to buy a separate Windows 7 Pro version to move from dual booting windows to running windows in a VM and dumping the annoying dual boot config. Back then the Consumer and OEM versions were not allowed to run in VMs. Non-OEM Pro and Enterprise were.

Also, I agree. Linux generally can boot into changing environments without issue. Windows, always a question.

Probably possible but highly technical. Might be better to just run Windows or Linux in a VM whichever system you won’t use much. Exception is gaming or other apps that need hardware video acceleration. I aleays found dual booting annoying unless you have to do it, though I did use it 25 years go when started with linux.

Be aware. you may have to buy a specific Windows version to run it in a VM. OEM versions historically were not licensed for VM use. Also changing hardware configs for Windows historically has been a nightmare without clean install.

Linux works great generally. My wife and I have been using for 20 years since we dumped windows.

The deal is that Linux is great for FOSS but limited for commercial apps. One generally needs to deside based on apps they run. Hardware is similar.