If you want to use Windows 11 and Linux on the same computer, the best option may be to dual boot. Here's how to set up your PC for it.

Windows 11 is widely available to all kinds of PCs, and it packs a lot of improvements from previous releases. There's a new design language that looks a lot prettier, a new Settings app, and many more goodies that came with updates like version 22H2 and version 23H2. But as good as it may be, Windows 11 isn't for everyone. What if you prefer Linux or need it for certain tasks? In this guide, we'll show how you to set up your PC so you can dual-boot into either Linux or Windows 11 whenever you want.

For this guide, we're assuming you already have Windows installed on your PC since that's the case for most people. We'll go through the necessary steps to create a partition and install Linux on it to dual-boot. So to follow along, you'll need a Windows 11 PC (though the same steps will work on Windows 10), a USB flash drive (8GB or more) for installation media, and another external storage method to back up your data in case anything goes wrong.

If you haven't yet upgraded to Windows 11, we highly recommend doing that. You can follow our guide on installing Windows 11. You can follow either of those, although a straight upgrade should be a lot easier. Once that's done, we can focus on installing Linux for dual-booting.