How to Install Ubuntu Alongside With Windows 10 or 8 in Dual-Boot

This tutorial will guide you on how you can perform the installation of Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 19.04, Ubuntu 18.10, or Ubuntu 18.04 in dual-boot with a Microsoft Operating System on machines that come pre-installed with Windows 10.

This guide assumes that your machine comes pre-installed with Windows 10 OS or an older version of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows 8.1 or 8.

In case your hardware uses UEFI then you should modify the EFI settings and disable Secure Boot feature.

If your computer has no other Operating System already installed and you plan to use a Windows variant alongside Ubuntu, you should first install Microsoft Windows and then proceed with Ubuntu installation.

In this particular case, on Windows installation steps, when formatting the hard disk, you should allocate a free space on the disk with at least 20 GB in size in order to use it later as a partition for Ubuntu installation.

Requirements

Download Ubuntu ISO Image as per your system architecture using the following link:

Step 1: Prepare Windows Machine for Dual-Boot

1. The first thing you need to take care of is to create free space on the computer hard disk in case the system is installed on a single partition.

Log in to your Windows machine with an administrative account and right-click on the Start Menu -> Command Prompt (Admin) in order to enter Windows Command-Line.

Preparing Windows for Dual Boot with Ubuntu

2. Once in CLI, type diskmgmt.msc on prompt and the Disk Management utility should open. From here, right-click on C: the partition and select Shrink Volume in order to resize the partition.

Shrink Volume to Resize Windows Partition

3. On Shrink C: enter a value on space to shrink in MB (use at least 20000 MB depending on the C: partition size) and hit Shrink to start partition resize as illustrated below (the value of space shrink from below image is lower and only used for demonstration purposes).

Once space has been resized you will see a new unallocated space on the hard drive. Leave it as default and reboot the computer in order to proceed with the Ubuntu installation.

Create Windows Partition for Ubuntu Installation Windows Partition for Dual Boot Ubuntu Installation

Step 2: Install Ubuntu with Windows Dual-Boot

4. For the purpose of this article, We will be installing Ubuntu 19.04 alongside with Windows dual boot (you can use any Ubuntu release for installation). Go the download link from the topic description and grab Ubuntu Desktop 19.04 ISO image.

Burn the image to a DVD or create a bootable USB stick using a utility such as Universal USB Installer (BIOS compatible) or Rufus (UEFI compatible).

Place the USB stick or DVD in the appropriate drive, reboot the machine and instruct the BIOS/UEFI to boot-up from the DVD/USB by pressing a special function key (usually F12, F10 or F2 depending on the vendor specifications).

Once the media boot-up a new grub screen should appear on your monitor. From the menu select Install Ubuntu and hit Enter to continue.

Ubuntu Boot Screen

5. After the boot media finishes loading into RAM you will end-up with a completely functional Ubuntu system running in live-mode.

On the Launcher hit on the second icon from top, Install Ubuntu 19.04 LTS, and the installer utility will start. Choose the language you wish to perform the installation and click on the Continue button to proceed further.

Select Ubuntu Installation Language

6. Next, choose the first option “Normal Installation” and hit on the Continue button again.

Select Ubuntu Normal Installation

7. Now it’s time to select an Installation Type. You can choose to Install Ubuntu alongside Windows Boot Manager, an option that will automatically take care of all the partition steps.

Use this option if you don’t require a personalized partition scheme. In case you want a custom partition layout, check the Something else option and hit on the Continue button to proceed further.

The option Erase disk and install Ubuntu should be avoided on dual-boot because is potentially dangerous and will wipe out your disk.

Select Ubuntu Installation Type

8. On this step, we’ll create our custom partition layout for Ubuntu. This guide will recommend that you create two partitions, one for root and the other for home accounts data and no partition for swap (use a swap partition only if you have limited RAM resources or you use a fast SSD).

To create the first partition, the root partition, select the free space (the shrinking space from Windows created earlier) and hit on the + icon below. On partition settings use the following configurations and hit OK to apply changes:

1. Size = at least 20000 MB
2. Type for the new partition = Primary
3. Location for the new partition = Beginning
4. Use as = EXT4 journaling file system
5. Mount point = /

Create Ubuntu Root Partition Root Partition Settings

Create the home partition using the same steps as above. Use all the available free space left for the home partition size. The partition settings should look like this:

1. Size = all remaining free space
2. Type for the new partition = Primary
3. Location for the new partition = Beginning
4. Use as = EXT4 journaling file system
5. Mount point = /home

Create Home Partition

9. When finished, hit the Install Now button in order to apply changes to disk and start the installation process.

A pop-up window should appear to inform you about swap space. Ignore the alert by pressing on the Continue button.

Next, a new pop-up window will ask you if you agree with committing changes to disk. Hit Continue to write changes to disk and the installation process will now start.

Confirm Partition Changes

10. On the next screen adjust your machine physical location by selecting a city nearby from the map. When done hit Continue to move ahead.

Select City Location

11. Pick up a username and password for your administrative sudo account, enter a descriptive name for your computer and hit Continue to finalize the installation.

These are all the settings required for customizing the Ubuntu installation. From here on the installation process will run automatically until it reaches the end.

Create Ubuntu User Account Ubuntu Installation Process

12. After the installation process reaches its end hit on the Restart Now button in order to complete the installation.

The machine will reboot into the Grub menu, where for ten seconds, you will be presented to choose what OS you wish to use further: Ubuntu 19.04 or Microsoft Windows.

Ubuntu is designated as default OS to boot from. Thus, just press Enter key or wait for those 10 seconds timeout to drain.

Ubuntu Installation Completed Ubuntu Windows Dual Boot Grub Menu

13. After Ubuntu finishes loading, login with the credentials created during the installation process, and enjoy it. Ubuntu provides NTFS file system support automatically so you can access the files from Windows partitions just by clicking on the Windows volume.

Ubuntu Login Screen Access Windows Partition from Ubuntu

That’s it! In case you need to switch back to Windows, just reboot the computer and select Windows from the Grub menu.

If you want to install some additional software packages and customize Ubuntu, then read our article Top 20 Things to Do After Ubuntu Installation.

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Windows 10 Ubuntu dual boot not working [QUICK SOLUTIONS]

Many people use a dual boot setup on their PCs depending on their requirements and need. Some use both Ubuntu and Windows 10 because both have their pros and cons.

Ubuntu, like many other non-Windows operating systems, does support dual booting. Windows 10, on the other hand, usually ships with settings that are not optimal for dual boot setups.

GRUB (the acronym for GRand Unified Bootloader) is the bootloader which is used by Ubuntu to manage the operating systems installed on your computer.

Basically, it is the software that looks at the operating systems installed on your PC and allows you to choose which one to start after switching on the machine.

Most of the problems are related to GRUB, so if you are unable to boot into Grub and the system boots directly to Windows repeatedly, you are going to find below some solutions to this problem.

You can use this guide to fix the following Windows 10-Ubuntu issues:

• Dual boot option not showing in Windows 10
• GRUB menu not showing in Ubuntu
• Ubuntu won’t dual boot with Windows 10

What can I do if there is no GRUB on Windows 10 Ubuntu dual boot:

Solution 1: Repair from Windows – Command Prompt

The simplest way to try to solve this issue is by using the Command Prompt from Windows. In order to do this, please use the steps described below:

1. In Windows go to menu and search for Command prompt
2. Right click on Command Prompt and choose the option Run as administrator
3. Copy and paste the command bcdedit /set path EFIubuntugrubx64.efi
4. Restart your computer

Solution 2: Disable Fast Boot

You can also try to deactivate fast boot function of Windows 10 to access the GRUB menu. To do so, please follow the steps below:

1. Access Control Panel
2. Search for the term power in the search bar at the top right
3. Click on Change what the power buttons do
4. Click on the Change settings currently unavailable
5. Uncheck the item Turn on fast start up (recommended)
6. Press Save Changes to save the settings

You can’t open Control Panel? Take a look at this step-by-step guide to find a solution.

Solution 3: Use the Boot Repair Tool

The Boot Repair Tool is a small software that can solve most of the boot related problems. In order to install it and use it:

1. Boot into your operating system
2. Enter the following commands:
   sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair
3. After the installation is complete, you can launch Boot Repair tool from the apps menu
4. It will do some scanning so let it finish its job
5. Then a screen will appear which will be saying recommended repair based on the scan
6. After choosing recommended updates, it will start the repair
7. Open the terminal and copy and paste the highlighted command in terminal one by one.
8. Select yes by using arrow keys or tab buttons and hit enter to select
9. in Boot Repair Tool screen hit forward
10. Copy the command mentioned there and paste it into terminal and hit enter and let it do the job
11. If prompted some options to configure where to install GRUB Choose yes and then hit enter
12. Use spacebar to select an option and TAB to navigate through options
13. After you finish installing GRUB, you can close Terminal
14. select the forward option in Boot Repair Tool screen
15. Select Yes for every option regarding confirmation
16. a successful confirmation message will appear on the screen
17. restart your computer
    

Solution 4: Windows and Ubuntu are installed in different modes

It is not possible to dual boot two operating systems if they are installed in different modes – one in UEFI mode and the other one in BIOS Legacy mode.

Therefore, to solve the problem and restore the dual boot you have to convert the installation of Ubuntu to the same mode in which Windows is installed.

In order to solve this, you can use the Boot Repair Utility and you will need a live bootable DVD of your installed operating system. Afterwards, you can follow one of the steps below, depending on your situation.

1. To convert Ubuntu to UEFI mode you need to start Boot Repair and activate the panel with the Advanced options, then select the GRUB Position tab, put the check on separate Partition/boot/efi and click Apply.
2. To convert Ubuntu to BIOS Legacy mode, start Boot Repair and activate the panel with Advanced Options, then select the GRUB Position tab, uncheck the separate Partition/boot/efi item and click Apply.

Afterwards, enter into the UEFI firmware configuration panel and choose whether to start the computer in UEFI or Legacy mode.

Most users don’t know how to enable Legacy Boot on Windows. Check out this guide and be a step ahead. If you’re having UEFI boot problems on Windows, this guide should help you solve them in no time.

We hope that one of the solutions described above helped you solve the dual booting problems and now you are welcomed by the familiar Grub screen.

If you have any more questions, feel free to post them in the comments section below.