Web User - UK (2020-02-05)

Weekend Project

Subscribe to Web User at subscribe.webuser.co.uk 5 - 18 February 2020 59

thatyou’llneedthelatter,unlessyourPC

is veryold.

DownloadMintfrombit.ly/mintdl494

andtransferthefiletoeithera DVDora

USBmemorystick.Forspeedandease,

we’drecommendthelatteroption.The

easiestwaytodothisin Windowsis by

usingEtcher(www.balena.io/etcher).

Theprocessofsettingupa dual-boot

systemis verystraightforwardbutyou

shouldtakethetimetobackupallthe

importantpersonaldataonyourhard

drivebeforeproceeding.You’reunlikely

toloseanyfilesfollowingthisguidebut

it’salwaysbettertobesafethansorry.

Dual-bootingexplained

Dual-bootingmakesit possibletohave

twodifferentoperatingsystemsinstalled

in separatepartitions(like

compartments)ona singleharddrive.

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If yourharddriveisn’talready

partitionedintosections,you’ll

needtoresizethecurrentWindows

partitiontomakeroomforthenewOS.

Windows 10 comeswithitsown

partitioningtool.Enterpartition

intotheWindowssearchbox.TheDisk

Managementwindowopens.Inour

example,we’repartitioningdriveC:.^1

2

Right-clickthedriveandselect

ShrinkVolumefromthecontext

menu.Thetotalamountofspaceis

shown,^1 alongwiththeavailableshrink

space.^2 Entertheamountofspaceyou

wanttoshrinkthepartitionby^3 – in our

case,it’sabouthalf.ClicktheShrink

button^4 andWindowscreatesan

unallocatedspace.

3

Right-clickthisnewpartition^1

andselectNewSimpleVolume.^2

A wizard opens. Click Next and specify

the volume size, which is the maximum

amount already entered. Click Next,

choose a drive letter or keep the

suggested one, choose to format the

partition with the default settings, then

click Finish.

partitionandtheymustbeinstalledin a

specificorderoryou’llhavetotinkerwith

theWindowsbootloadersafterwards,

whichcangetmessy.

Disablesecureboot

Securebootis a featurethatwas

introducedwithWindows8 tohelp

protectagainstrootkitsandotherforms

ofmalware.It’sfoundin UEFI(Unified

ExtensibleFirmwareInterface),thenewer

replacementforthetraditionalBIOS.

Previously,youhadtoturnthisfeature

offtoinstallUbuntuorMintonyourPC,

butthat’snolongerthecase.If, however,

yourunintoaninstallationproblem,you

caninitiatedisablingthefeatureby

turningyourPCoffandbackonagain,

thenpressinga keytobetakento

Settings(whichmightbeF2,F8,Delor

somethingelse)beforeWindowsloads.

MINI WORKSHOP | Partition your hard drive

It allows you run Mint whenever you

want, but still use Windows for everyday

tasks. We show you how to create a

partition in our Mini Workshop, below,

and how to install it alongside Windows

in our Mini Workshop on page 68.

Although we’re explaining how to have

Mint running alongside Windows 10 in

this Weekend Project, you are free to

install whichever operating system

configurations you like – Windows 7

alongside Mint, Windows 7 alongside

Windows 10, Windows 10 alongside

Ubuntu, and so on. All you need is an

installable copy of each operating system.

You aren’t limited to just two operating

systems, either – if you want to set up

three or more (Windows 7 with Windows

10 and Mint, for example) then you can.

However, this is a much trickier process

because each OS will need its own

Use Etcher to write the Linux Mint ISO file to a USB memory stick Linux Mint is available in a choice of desktop
environments – download the one you want for your PC

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