Your time is valuable

• Insert a USB device 8 GB / GiB or greater into your machine
• Download a disc image flashing solution, such as Ventoy.

  You may use other disc image flashing solutions, but you will lose much of the flexibility Ventoy offers and always need to format the device.

• Mandatory (if not using Ventoy) Download a Linux distribution's live session disc image
• Optional: Move all content you wish to keep out from the USB device
• Use your disc image flashing solution to flash on USB — you will be formatting this device.

  If using Ventoy, select either of the following options for  Partition Style  depending on what vintage your machine is:
  

  • MBR — (MS-)DOS partition format, "Legacy boot" pre-GPT machines
  • GPT — GUID Partition Table, "Modern boot" machines with disks using GPT format

    If you are not sure, pick GPT. If it fails, use the other option. If you need to enable CSM, likely you did something wrong; try again with this option.

  You can also enable  Secure Boot Support  if using a distribution which supports Secure Boot.

• Select and format USB device
• Optional (If using Ventoy), Move all preserved content pre-format back to USB device

  Be aware; the more files you have on this device, the longer things will take to see options you've made available.

• Optional (If using Ventoy), Install PortableApps suite and dual-purpose your USB stick to run portablised cross-platform applications in Windows
• Mandatory (if using Ventoy): Download a Linux distribution's live session disc image
• Mandatory (if NTFS partition is encrypted with BitLocker): Make space by shrinking (at least 48 GiB from) the NTFS partition of your Windows installation

  You may use diskmgnt.msc or third-party tools within Windows.

• Eject the USB device you installed Ventoy on. Do not unplug it until the system declares doing so is safe.

  You can also simply do nothing for an indefinite amount of time, at which point all data in the write buffer going to your USB device will have been transferred.

• Re-insert USB device, and reboot
• Interrupt normal boot to adjust some settings:
  

  • Disable Secure Boot

    If using Ubuntu, Fedora or derivatives with their Secure Boot shim, you don't need to do this, but with Ventoy, you still need to add the Secure Boot cert it provides in VTOYEFI.

  • Disable Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) / set drive mode from RAID to AHCI
  • Disable Fast Boot / Fast Startup, which only benefits Windows and locks the NTFS partition when Windows is not in use.
  • Adjust mainboard boot parametres if selecting a boot device is not an option.

• Save, reboot, and boot into the Linux instance
• Mandatory (if using Ventoy): If you had Ventoy add the boot cert in VTOYEFI, now is your time to add it.

  If not using Ventoy to boot your system with, should a boot shim exist, there is no additional action necessary for Secure Boot-capable distributions.

• Try it out and see if you like it

  If using Ventoy for boot method and during evaluation you don't like your current selection, reboot and try others. Also do not forget you can keep disc images in other media outside the USB device and trial them by selecting images in locally-attached media via pressing  F2 , but if this is the partition Windows is in, it will be on-call and unable to be adjusted if space for a dual-boot arrangement has yet to be provisioned; your best bet is always to boot into an image on the same USB device Ventoy is on.

• Mandatory (if not yet done in Windows): Make space by shrinking (at least 48 GiB from) the NTFS partition of your Windows installation

  If BitLocker is enabled on this partition, then you must either commit your resize or remove BitLocker from the partition in Windows.

• Install the system

  If using EndeavourOS, when prompted for bootloader; choose one:

  • GRUB2 — Great for smaller ESPs (like what Windows instantiates), more common and extensible.
  • Systemd-boot — The modern replacement for GRUB2, as a simplified alternative; EndeavourOS' default.

  Of any Linux distribution; For partitions used, minimally:

  • Fat32 part — Keep, EFI System Partiion, mount as /boot/efi or /boot

    If you are re-visiting this page, this said /bin/boot was a valid option; it is not. Apologies for significant inconvenience this advice may had caused.

  • Other parts for tools / recovery — Do nothing
  • Microsoft Reserved — Do nothing
  • NTFS — Shrink at least 48 GiB

    If using a separate /home to part out your user-generated files and application preferences, consider a minimum of 16 GiB per-user.

    Symbolic links can simplify your file storage needs by having one big space everything can reside in, and personal files between systems can be shared through this way with linked directories and files. Consider it! They aren't that hard to make and manage, either — especially as in some file browsers for open-source systems you can make absolute links (with the whole file path defined) on-demand, mostly negating the need for a terminal but anything beyond that may still require the terminal with ln.

  • Unallocated — Format as ext4, mount as /

    Under special circumstances where ext4 is not accepted on the disk for any reason, use BTRFS for root instead.