How to change linux to windows

How to Make the Switch From Windows to Linux

If you’re sick of Windows 10 or don’t want to upgrade to Windows 11, you can install Linux instead. Here’s how to make the switch to an open-source operating system and install apps.

Microsoft is getting closer to replacing Windows 10 with the sleeker Windows 11, but if you’re sick of embedded advertisements, constant updates, data collection, software lock-ins, and rising hardware requirements, we don’t blame you. The good news is you have options.

If you’ve been thinking about making the jump to a different operating system, now is the perfect time. But you aren’t stuck with the Windows-macOS binary, and don’t have to settle for the browser-based Chrome OS. Instead, you can turn to the world of Linux.

Choose Your Distribution

Unlike Windows and macOS, there isn’t just one version of Linux. Instead, Linux is packaged into many different distributions, or «distros,» each with their own interface and set of features. One may use a Mac-like interface with a dock and an «app store,» while others may use a more minimalist interface and require installing apps from the command line.

Exploring the bevy of Linux distributions out there is a fun part of the hobby, but for your first installation, you will likely want something popular and beginner-friendly, so it’s easy to get help when you need it. That’s why I recommend starting with Linux Mint.

There are a lot of distributions that aim to mimic Windows in layout and functionality, like Zorin OS, but they’re on the smaller side, and you won’t have as big a community to tap as you learn your way around. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is arguably the most popular distro on desktop PCs, but it isn’t very Windows-like at all these days.

Linux Mint is a perfect in-between option: it’s designed for beginners, offers a familiar desktop environment, and it’s based on Ubuntu, so you can make use of the enormous Ubuntu/Mint community when you need help.

You’re free to check out other distros instead, but I’ll be using Mint for the purposes of this guide, and I recommend you do too. It’s not my personal distro of choice, but it’s great for new Windows migrants, and it’s easier to explore other distros once you’ve nailed down the basics on a beginner-friendly system.

Create Your Installation Drive

Head to Mint’s download page and choose the 64-bit «Cinnamon» version. Cinnamon is the desktop environment I recommend for former Windows users, though MATE is also pretty Windows-like, even though it’s a bit less modern. XFCE is ideal for old or low-powered PCs, thanks to its light resource usage. Mint’s download page provides a number of links depending on where you live. If you use BitTorrent, I recommend grabbing the torrent file, which will download much faster.

The installer will come as an ISO, or disc image file. To install it on your system, you’ll need to burn the file to a DVD or USB flash drive. We’re going to do the latter using a tool called Rufus. Install Rufus, open it up, and insert a flash drive that’s 2GB or larger. (If you have a fast USB 3.0 or 3.1 drive, all the better.) You should see it appear in the Device drop-down at the top of Rufus’ main window.

Next, click the Select button next to Disk or ISO image, and choose the Linux Mint ISO you just downloaded. Press the Start button, and if prompted to download new versions of Syslinux, click Yes. Note that this will erase your flash drive, so make sure there isn’t anything important on there before continuing. When it’s finished, you’ll see a success message and your flash drive will be named LINUX MINT.

Now it’s time to back up your data and reboot your computer. Buckle your seat belts because it’s time to install Linux.

Install Linux on Your PC

As your computer reboots, you should see a message telling you to press a certain key to access the Boot Menu (usually something like F12). If not, you’ll see a key to enter Setup (often Delete). Press one of those keys, and look for the option to boot from the inserted USB drive. (If you enter the full setup menu, it’ll be in a Boot settings menu somewhere, and you’ll have to exit the menu to reboot again when you’re done.)

You will then be greeted by GRUB, Linux Mint’s boot menu, where you can choose to boot into Linux Mint. If you run into any errors, you may need to Google around for a fix. I had to enable the nomodeset option for my graphics card, for example. Others may have to tweak or disable Secure Boot in the BIOS.

This installer is what we call a Live CD, where you can actually poke around and use the Linux Mint desktop before installing it. This will give you a chance to see if this particular distro appeals to you without it actually touching your system drive. Once you’re satisfied, double-click the Install Linux Mint icon and go through the wizard.

Be sure to check the box next to Install third-party software, since it contains useful drivers and codecs you almost certainly want. From here, you can wipe your hard drive entirely, erasing all traces of Windows and using Linux as your only operating system. (Make double sure you’ve backed up your data before doing this.)

Alternatively, you can divide your drive up into two partitions and dual boot Linux alongside Windows. This will allow you to reboot into one or the other whenever you want. If nothing else, it’s comforting to know you have that safety net during the transition before you remove Windows entirely.

Choose the relevant option from the Installation Type menu, and click Install Now. The process may take a little while, but when it’s done, you’ll get a success message. Click the Restart Now button to boot into Linux Mint and start getting acquainted with your new OS.

Get Acquainted With Linux and Install Some Apps

When you reboot, you’ll be dropped into the Linux Mint desktop once again—only this time, it’s installed on your PC. The basics are pretty familiar: click the button in the lower-left corner to see applications, manage windows from the bottom taskbar, and so on. There are, however, a few things in Linux that work differently than in Windows, with apps being the biggest.

In Linux, it’s less common to download apps from the web. Instead, each distro has its own repository—kind of like a free app store, with a directory of popular apps. You can install an app from the repositories in one of two ways: from a graphical software manager (again, which looks like an app store) or from the command line.

To open Linux Mint’s Software Manager, click the menu button in the lower-left corner and head to Administration > Software Manager (or just start typing «software manager,» like you would in Windows). From here, you can download plenty of free, open-source apps.

Some are Linux versions of their Windows counterparts, like Steam and Spotify, while others are open-source alternatives to common apps (Banshee is a music player similar to iTunes, Gimp is an image editor akin to Photoshop). You can browse here or search for apps using the bar at the top.

How to Install and Uninstall Apps

If you know what you’re looking for, it’s generally faster to install apps from the command line. And while it may seem intimidating at first, Linux relies on the command line for various tasks, so it might behoove you to get comfortable with it. To install an app—let’s say the open-source media player VLC—open a Terminal window and run:

Sudo apt update

sudo apt install vlc

Let’s break that down: «sudo» tells the system to run the command as root (or, as it might be called in Windows, as an administrator), «apt» is the name of Linux Mint’s package manager, and «update» ensures the list of available apps is up to date.

The second command, which includes «install vlc,» is self-explanatory. You should run «sudo apt update» before installing any app, and you can replace «vlc» with the name of any app you want to install. If you aren’t sure what the repository calls it, you can run:

sudo apt cache search vlc

To uninstall an app, just run:

sudo apt remove vlc

This will remove the app, but not your configuration files, so if you decide to reinstall it later, your settings will still be there.

If you want to remove configuration files too, you can instead run:

sudo apt purge vlc

How to Update Apps

You’ll also want to periodically update those apps, so you have the latest versions. You can do this, again, in two ways: from the graphical tool or from the command line.

For the graphical tool, click the shield icon in the lower-right corner to open the Update Manager app. You can then click the Install Updates button to update all your software.

Alternatively, you can open a Terminal and run two commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

Again, the «update» command checks for new versions of your software, and the «upgrade» command actually upgrades all your apps. You’ll want to run these two together, just like you do for installing new apps.

Those are the most crucial things to know right now, but take some time to browse around Mint’s interface and its settings to see what it has to offer. The Welcome window that appears at startup can be a big help—its First Steps area will show you how to choose different desktop layouts, install multimedia codecs you might want, and install necessary drivers for your hardware.

You’ll get the hang of the basics pretty quickly, but the Mint and Ubuntu forums are always there to help if you get stuck. Just be sure to search around, since there’s a good chance someone before you has had the same question.

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How to Remove Linux and Install Windows on Your Computer

For a Microsoft Windows XP version of this article, see 314458.

Summary

This article describes how you can remove the Linux operating system from your computer, and install a Windows operating system. This article also assumes that Linux is already installed on the hard disk using Linux native and Linux swap partitions, which are incompatible with the Windows operating system, and that there is no free space left on the drive.

Windows and Linux can coexist on the same computer. For additional information, refer to your Linux documentation.

More Information

To install Windows on a system that has Linux installed when you want to remove Linux, you must manually delete the partitions used by the Linux operating system. The Windows-compatible partition can be created automatically during the installation of the Windows operating system.

IMPORTANT: Before you follow the steps in this article, verify that you have a bootable disk or bootable CD-ROM for the Linux operating system, because this process completely removes the Linux operating system installed on your computer. If you intend to restore the Linux operating system at a later date, verify that you also have a good backup of all the information stored on your computer. Also, you must have a full release version of the Windows operating system you want to install.

Linux file systems use a «superblock» at the beginning of a disk partition to identify the basic size, shape, and condition of the file system.

The Linux operating system is generally installed on partition type 83 (Linux native) or 82 (Linux swap). The Linux boot manager (LILO) can be configured to start from:

The hard disk Master Boot Record (MBR).

The root folder of the Linux partition.

The Fdisk tool included with Linux can be used to delete the partitions. (There are other utilities that work just as well, such as Fdisk from MS-DOS 5.0 and later, or you can delete the partitions during the installation process.) To remove Linux from your computer and install Windows:

Remove native, swap, and boot partitions used by Linux:

Start your computer with the Linux setup floppy disk, type fdisk at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

NOTE: For help using the Fdisk tool, type m at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

Type p at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to display partition information. The first item listed is hard disk 1, partition 1 information, and the second item listed is hard disk 1, partition 2 information.

Type d at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. You are then prompted for the partition number you want to delete. Type 1, and then press ENTER to delete partition number 1. Repeat this step until all the partitions have been deleted.

Type w, and then press ENTER to write this information to the partition table. Some error messages may be generated as information is written to the partition table, but they should not be significant at this point because the next step is to restart the computer and then install the new operating system.

Type q at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to quit the Fdisk tool.

Insert either a bootable floppy disk or a bootable CD-ROM for the Windows operating system on your computer, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.

Install Windows. Follow the installation instructions for the Windows operating system you want to install on your computer. The installation process assists you with creating the appropriate partitions on your computer.

Examples of Linux Partition Tables

Single SCSI drive

Multiple SCSI drives

Single IDE drive

Multiple IDE drives

Also, Linux recognizes more than forty different partition types, such as:

FAT 16 > 32 M Primary (Type 06)

FAT 16 Extended (Type 05)

FAT 32 w/o LBA Primary (Type 0b)

FAT 32 w/LBA Primary (Type 0c)

FAT 16 w/LBA (Type 0e)

FAT 16 w/LBA Extended (Type 0f)

Note that there are other ways to remove the Linux operating system and install Windows than the one mentioned above. The preceding method is used in this article because the Linux operating system is already functioning and there is no more room on the hard disk. There are methods of changing partition sizes with software. Microsoft does not support Windows installed on partitions manipulated in this manner.

Another method of removing an operating system from the hard disk and installing a different operating system is to use an MS-DOS version 5.0 or later boot disk, a Windows 95 Startup disk, or a Windows 98 Startup disk that contains the Fdisk utility. Run the Fdisk utility. If you have multiple drives, there are 5 choices; use option 5 to select the hard disk that has the partition to be deleted. After that, or if you have only one hard disk, choose option 3 («Delete partition or logical DOS drive»), and then choose option 4 («Delete non-DOS partition»). You should then see the non-DOS partitions you want to delete. Typically, the Linux operating system has two non-DOS partitions, but there may be more. After you delete one partition, use the same steps to delete any other appropriate non-DOS partitions.

After the partitions are deleted, you can create partitions and install the operating system you want. You can only create one primary partition and an extended partition with multiple logical drives by using Fdisk from MS-DOS version 5.0 and later, Windows 95, and Windows 98. The maximum FAT16 primary partition size is 2 gigabytes (GB). The largest FAT16 logical drive size is 2 GB. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

105074 MS-DOS 6.2 Partitioning Questions and Answers
If you are installing Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, the Linux partitions can be removed and new partitions created and formatted with the appropriate file system type during the installation process. Windows allows you to create more than one primary partition. The largest partition that Windows NT 4.0 allows you to create during installation is 4 GB because of the limitations of the FAT16 file system during installation. Also, the 4-GB partitions use 64-KB cluster sizes. MS-DOS 6.x and Windows 95 or Windows 98 do not recognize 64-KB cluster file systems, so this file system is usually converted to NTFS during installation. Windows 2000, unlike Windows NT 4.0, recognizes the FAT32 file system. During the installation of Windows 2000, you can create a very large FAT32 drive. The FAT32 drive can be converted to NTFS after the installation has completed if appropriate.

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