What should I watch out for when dual-booting Linux with Windows?

If your desktop has room for a second internal drive, I’d use one drive for Windows and the other for Linux rather than splitting one drive into multiple partitions. It makes recovery and reinstalling easier, and you can select the operating system from the boot menu. Laptops often have only one drive, so partitioning may be the only practical choice; check the model first to see whether a second drive can be added. Testing on an unimportant computer is useful, but it isn’t necessary if you have verified backups and take your time.

Dual-booting is generally reliable, but accidentally choosing an erase-and-install option can wipe the entire drive. Read every installer screen and confirm the disk layout before continuing. Windows updates can occasionally change the boot order or interfere with the Linux bootloader, so keep recovery media and backups available. On newer Windows systems, features such as Secure Boot, Fast Startup, and device-specific firmware settings may affect the setup, although many Linux distributions support Secure Boot.

The most important step is making backups before changing partitions or installing an operating system. Keep a copy of important files on an external drive, and consider creating a full system image so you can restore Windows if necessary. You can usually shrink the Windows partition to create unallocated space, then install Linux there. On a desktop, using a separate physical drive for Linux is often easier and safer. If you do that, disconnect the Windows drive during installation so the installer cannot accidentally modify it. Installing Linux directly to a USB flash drive is not required and is usually slow; a USB installer or live environment is mainly used to test or install Linux.

Create a bootable Linux USB and select the option to try the distribution without installing it. This gives you a temporary desktop where you can check Wi-Fi, graphics, sound, touchpads, and other hardware. Distributions such as Linux Mint, Kubuntu, and Pop!_OS are commonly used by beginners. When you are ready, carefully follow the installer and make sure you select the correct disk and installation option. A tool such as Ventoy can also let you place multiple Linux ISO files on one USB and choose between them at startup.