First post here, if this place isn’t for tech support, I’ll remove it.

I’ve heard dual booting Linux and Windows isn’t a good idea because Windows Update will nuke the Linux boot loader, so I’ve avoided doing that.

For a very long, technical, and complicated reason, I still need Windows because one piece of software that I absolutely MUST have is only compatible with Windows. No, there is no alternative software available for my use case; none, zero, not any, at all. I’ve already tried running it within many different VMs, using many different hypervisors, and I’ve already tried Wine; they aren’t an option, the software isn’t stable in those cases. I don’t want to get in the weeds about it, so please just accept that I NEED some version of Windows installed.

Since Windows 10 doesn’t receive updates anymore, can I dual boot Linux and Windows 10 without worrying about whether Windows Update will break anything?

I intend to keep Windows on one drive and Linux on another. Windows would only be used when I need to run this one specific program, which is maybe five or ten hours per week. The rest of the time, I’d be using Linux.

  • jrgd@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    26 days ago

    Generally, if they are fully on separate drives, things should be fine. When going to install Windows for the dual boot, physically unplug or uninstall the Linux drive. After Windows is installed and can boot, you can then reinstall the Linux drive.

    On the Linux side, you may need to trigger a rebuild for GRUB or your preferred bootloader to get the appropriate Windows 10 entry to show in the boot menu. Don’t attempt to automount any partitions from the Windows 10 side and don’t generally try to mount them unless necessary.

    Also highly recommended to block Windows 10 from connecting to any network if possible, as it is end of life (unless using ESU releases).

    • Dookieman12@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      0·
      26 days ago

      Thank you for the implementation advice, that was my next question.

      I have an old drive I installed Win 10 on a few years ago. It was a fresh build, so it would have been the only drive in the machine when I installed it. The software I need is already installed there and in a working state.

      I also have a new machine with a new drive. I installed Mint on the new drive while it was the only drive in the new machine.

      My plan is to move the Win 10 drive from the old machine to the new one. In the BIOS, I would set the Linux drive as the default boot option. When I need Windows, I would boot into BIOS and select the Windows drive as a one-time boot option.

      Am I on the right track?

      • The_v@lemmy.world
        0·
        26 days ago

        Grub can find the windows install on the secondary drive and give you the option to boot from it at startup.

        That’s how I have it setup on my dual-boot laptop. Two 1GB hard drives with one dedicated to w11 & the other to Linux mint.

        Other than W11 regular stability issues I haven’t had any issues with it.

        • JoshCodes@programming.devEnglish
          0·
          26 days ago

          1GB may not be enough and could prove challenging for a first time user, even with a minimal Linux install… Though I’m not an arch user myself so probably just a skill issue now that I think of it