How to Install Ubuntu 20.04 Alongside With Windows

This tutorial describes the installation process of the latest release of Ubuntu Desktop 20.04, codename Focal Fossa, on a dedicated machine or a virtual machine alongside a pre-installed Windows 10 Operating System. The installation process can be done via the Ubuntu Desktop DVD ISO image or via a bootable Ubuntu USB drive.

The Ubuntu OS will be installed on a UEFI motherboard with Legacy Mode or CSM (Compatibility Support Module) option disabled.

Requirements

1. Download Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 ISO image for x86_64bit architecture.
2. A direct or a proxy internet connection.
3. Rufus utility in order to create an Ubuntu Desktop bootable USB drive compatible with UEFI motherboards.

Create Free Space on Windows for Ubuntu Install

On a pre-installed machine with a single Windows 10 partition, you need to create some free space in Windows partition in order to install Ubuntu 20.04.

First login to the system using an account with administrator privileges, open a Command Prompt window with admin rights and execute diskmgmt.msc command to open Disk Management utility.

Select the Windows partition, usually C: volume, right-click on this partition and select Shrink Volume option in order to reduce the partition size.

Windows Disk Management Utility

Wait for the system to collect partition size data, add the desired amount of space you want to shrink, and hit in the Shrink button.

Shrink Windows Partition

After the shrink process completes, a new unallocated space will be present in your drive. We’ll use this free space to install Ubuntu alongside Windows 10.

New Windows Partition for Ubuntu Install

Install Ubuntu 20.04 Alongside with Windows

On the next step, place Ubuntu Desktop DVD ISO image or the bootable USB stick into the appropriate motherboard drive and, reboot the machine and hit the appropriate bootable key ((usually F12 , F10 or F2 ) in order to boot the Ubuntu installer DVD or USB bootable image.

On the first installation, screen select Install Ubuntu and hit Enter key to start the installation process.

Install Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

On the next screen, select the keyboard layout for your system and hit on the Continue button.

Choose Keyboard Layout

In the next installation screen, choose Normal installation and hit on the Continue button. In this screen, you also have the option to perform a Minimal installation of Ubuntu Desktop, which includes only some basic system utilities and a web browser.

You can also turn off Secure Boot option, if this option is enabled in motherboard UEFI settings in order to install third-party software for graphic card, Wi-Fi or additional media formats. Be aware that turning off Secure Boot option requires a password.

Select Ubuntu Installation Type

Next, In the Installation type menu, choose Something else option in order to manually partition the hard disk and hit on the Continue button.

Ubuntu Manual Partition

In the hard disk partition table menu, select the hard drive free space and hit on + button in order to create the Ubuntu partition.

Choose Free Space Partition

In the partition pop-up window, add the size of the partition in MB, choose the partition type as Primary, and the partition location at the beginning of this space.

Next, format this partition with ext4 filesystem and use / as a partition mount point. The /(root) partition summary is described below:

• Size = minimum 20000 MB recommended
• Type for the new partition = Primary
• Location for the new partition = Beginning of this space
• Use as = EXT4 journaling file system
• Mount point = /

Create Root Ubuntu Partition

After completing this step, hit on the OK button to return to disk utility. Other partitions, such as /home or Swap are optional in Ubuntu Desktop and should be created only for special purposes.

However, if you still want to add a home partition, select free space, hit on + button and use the below scheme to create the partition.

• Size = size allocated as per your requirements, depending on the size of remaining disk free space
• Type for the new partition = Primary
• Location for the new partition = Beginning
• Use as = EXT4 journaling file system
• Mount point = /home

In this guide, we’ll install Ubuntu alongside Windows 10 with only the /(root) partition set. After you’ve created the required root partition on the disk, select Windows boot Manager as a device for the boot loader installation and hit on Install Now button.

Partition Table Summary

In the pop-up window, hit on the Continue button in order to commit the changes that will be written to disk and start the installation.

Confirm Partition Changes

On the next screen, select your location from the provided map and hit on the Continue button.

Choose Your Country Location

Next, insert your name, the name of your desktop, a username with a strong password, and choose the option with ‘Require my password to log in’. When you finish, hit on the Continue button and wait for the installation process to complete.

Create Ubuntu User

During the installation process, a series of screens that describe Ubuntu Desktop and the installation progress bar will be displayed on your screen. You cannot interfere with the installation process in this final stage.

Ubuntu Installation Progress

After the installation completes, eject the installation medium and hit on Restart now button in order to reboot the machine.

Ubuntu Installation Finishes

After reboot, the system should boot into the GNU GRUB menu. In case the GRUB menu is not displayed, restart the machine, go to motherboard UEFI settings and change boot order or Boot Options -> BBS priority.

The settings to enable the GRUB menu highly depend on your machine motherboard UEFI settings. You should consult motherboard documentation in order to identify the settings that need to be changed in order to display the GRUB menu.

Ubuntu Boot Grub Menu

Finally, log in to Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop with the credentials configured while installing the system and follow the initial Ubuntu welcome screen in order to start using Ubuntu Desktop.

Ubuntu Login Screen Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa alongside Windows 10 on your machine.

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How To Install Ubuntu Alongside Windows 10

Brief: This detailed article shows you how to dual boot Ubuntu with Windows 10, step-by-step, accompanied with proper screenshots.

Previously I had written about dual booting Ubuntu Linux with Windows 7 and 8, but those tutorials did not cover systems that come with Windows 10 pre-installed. The newer systems that come with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1, have UEFI instead of BIOS. This makes thing a little different from the conventional way of dual booting.

In this tutorial, we shall see how to install Ubuntu with Windows 10 already installed.

This tutorial is performed on a newly bought Dell Inspiron 7437 that has Core i7 fourth generation processor, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM and built in 1 GB Intel graphics. I’ll cover all the steps you need to do in order to successfully dual boot Linux with Windows 10 UEFI. If you have already done some of these steps, just skip to the next one. If you have a fresh system, even better.

The steps mentioned here are applicable to other Ubuntu based Linux distributions such as Linux Mint, Elementary OS etc. Cutting the chit-chat, let’s see how to dual boot Linux on a UEFI secure boot enabled Windows 10 system.

Dual boot Ubuntu with Windows 10 and Windows 8.1:

Though I have used Ubuntu 14.04 here, it is applicable to all versions of Ubuntu, be it Ubuntu 15.10 or Ubuntu 16.04. There are various prerequisites to install Ubuntu on a UEFI system. I’ll list them for easier read here:

• Ubuntu ISO burned to a USB or DVD (we’ll see it)
• Windows backup (optional)
• Windows 10 bootable USB (optional yet recommended as it will save your day if anything goes wrong)

Let’s see the steps of installing Ubuntu along side Windows 10.

Step 1: Make a backup [optional]

It is always nice to make a back up, just in case if you mess up with the system. There are numerous articles on the web to show you how to backup your system. You can follow this tutorial here.

Step 2: Create a live USB/disk of Ubuntu

The next thing you need to do is to create a live USB or disk. I recommend Universal USB Installer to create a live USB of Linux OS in Windows.

Step 3: Make a partition where Ubuntu will be installed

Assuming tat you have a fresh system, the first thing we need to do is to make a partition to install Linux. The 256 GB in my system was already had several partitions from manufacturer but mainly for backup and other purposes. Main partition was C drive, of around 220 GB, where Windows 8.1 was installed.

If you have just one partition like this, you need to make some free space out of it for Linux. If you have several partitions of considerable size, use any of them except C drive because it may erase the data.

To make a partition in Windows 8, go to Disk Management tool. You can find disk management tool by searching for ‘disk’ in Control Panel.

In the Disk Management tool, right click on the drive which you want to partition and select shrink volume. In my case, I shrank the C drive to make some free space:

You can leave the free space as it is. We shall use it while installing Ubuntu.

Step 4: Disable fast startup in Windows [optional]

Windows 8 introduced a new feature called “fast startup” for quick boot. While it is not mandatory, it would be better to have it disabled.

Go to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Power Options > System Settings > Choose what the power buttons do and uncheck the Turn on fast startup box.

Step 5: Disable secureboot in Windows 10 and 8.1

This is the most important step. The new secure boot feature of Windows 8, originally intended for security feature for rootkit viruses, prevents dual booting of Windows with Linux. To dual boot Windows 8 with Linux, we must disable secure boot in UEFI.

Step 6: Installing Ubuntu along with Windows 10, 8.1

Once you have disabled secure boot, it’s time to install Ubuntu. I hope you already created the live USB as mentioned in step 2. Plug in the USB and boot the system from it.

To boot from USB, will have to choose boot from USB option from within Windows itself. Either with PC Setting (like for UEFI) or pressing shift key while clicking on Restart.

Once you have booted in the live USB, you will be presented with option to try or install Ubuntu. Click on install. You will be presented with few screen options to choose the language. It will then do some checks on available space, power and internet connection etc. Just click on Continue.

The main screen which you should pay attention to is Installation Type. Choose Something else here:

Remember we had created some free space beforehand? We shall use the free space to create Root, Swap and Home. Select the free space and click on the + sign.

It will provide you with option to create Linux partition. We are creating the Root partition. Any thing above 20 GB is more than sufficient for it. Choose the size, select Ext 4 as file type and / (means root) as the mount point.

Clicking on OK in previous step will bring you to the partition screen. Next we will create swap. Like previously, click on the + sign again. This time use the file type as Swap area. Suggestible swap size is double of RAM.

In similar fashion, create a Home partition. Allocate it maximum space (in fact allocate it rest of the free space) because this is where you’ll save music, pictures and downloaded files.

Once you are ready with Root, Swap and Home, click on Install Now:

Well, you have almost won the battle. You can smell victory now. Next you will be asked to set username password etc. Basically, you just need to click next now.

Once the installation is completed, restart the computer, you should be welcomed by a purple grub screen. Enjoy Ubuntu along with Windows 10 in dual boot mode.

Note: If after installing Ubuntu, you boot directly in Windows, check in UEFI settings for changing the boot order.

I hope this guide helped you to dual boot Ubuntu with Windows 10 UEFI. If you want to reverse the process, follow this guide to remove Ubuntu from dual boot with Windows. Though this article is written for Ubuntu, it should be helpful for other Linux OS as well. Any questions or suggestions are always welcomed.

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