How to install ubuntu with windows 10

Ubuntu Documentation

Introduction

Back Up Your Data

Although this may seem obvious, it is important to back up your files to an external backup medium before attempting a dual-boot installation (or any other hard drive manipulation), in case your hard drive becomes corrupted during the process. External hard drives, USB flash drives, and multiple DVDs or CDs are all useful for this purpose.

Have a Windows recovery CD/DVD available

Some computer manufacturers that pre-install Windows provide a Windows recovery/re-installation CD or DVD with the computer. However, many companies no longer ship a physical disc but instead create a hidden partition on the hard drive in which the recovery-disk information is stored. A utility is then usually provided which allows the user to burn a recovery/re-installation CD or DVD from it. If you are buying a new computer and intend on dual-booting, make sure you have (or can make) a physical Windows recovery/re-installation CD or DVD. If neither a CD/DVD nor a recovery partition/burning utility is provided by your computer manufacturer, you may need to contact your vendor and ask for a CD or DVD (to which you are normally entitled under the Windows EULA).

Getting Recovery Media

You may need to request a physical recovery/re-installation CD or DVD directly from your computer manufacturer. See WindowsRecoveryCd.

Once you have created a physical backup disc from a restore-image partition on the hard-drive, the restore-image partition can either be removed or left in place. Ubuntu can be installed with it intact without problems.

Install Ubuntu after Windows

A Windows OS should be installed first, because its bootloader is very particular and the installer tends to overwrite the entire hard drive, wiping out any data stored on it. If Windows isn’t already installed, install it first. If you are able to partition the drive prior to installing Windows, leave space for Ubuntu during the initial partitioning process. Then you won’t have to resize your NTFS partition to make room for Ubuntu later, saving a bit of time.

When a Windows installation already occupies the entire hard drive, its partition needs to be shrunk, creating free space for the Ubuntu partition. You can do this during the Ubuntu installation procedure, or you can see How to Resize Windows Partitions for other options.

If you have resized a Windows 7 or Vista partition and cannot boot up Windows, you can use the instructions from WindowsRecovery to fix it.

Install Ubuntu

Automatic partition resizing (not recommended)

Manual partitioning

Master Boot Record and Boot Manager

GRUB2 is the boot manager installed in Ubuntu by default. GRUB2 is an open source boot manager that install the main parts of the boot loaders inside Ubuntu. This means Ubuntu is independent and avoids any need for writing to other operating systems. To accomplish this, the only thing in your computer outside of Ubuntu that needs to be changed is a small code in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the first hard disk, or the EFI partition. The boot code is changed to point to the boot loader in Ubuntu. You will be presented with a list of operating systems and you can choose one to boot. If you do nothing the first option will boot after a ten second countdown. If you select Windows then GRUB or LILO will chain-load Windows for you at the Windows boot sector, which is the first sector of the Windows partition.

Windows Vista no longer utilizes boot.ini, ntdetect.com, and ntldr when booting. Instead, Vista stores all data for its new boot manager in a boot folder. Windows Vista ships with an command line utility called bcdedit.exe, which requires administrator credentials to use. You may want to read http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=112156 about it.

Using a command line utility always has its learning curve, so a more productive and better job can be done with a free utility called EasyBCD, developed and mastered during the times of Vista Beta. EasyBCD is very user friendly and many Vista users highly recommend it.

Installing Windows After Ubuntu

There are two different approaches:

Recovering GRUB after reinstalling Windows

Please refer to the Reinstalling GRUB2 guide.

Master Boot Record backup and replacement

This method does not work for computers with UEFI boot. In consequence, it won’t work for pre-installed Windows 8 and some pre-installed with Windows 7.

Also see

WindowsDualBoot (последним исправлял пользователь tobefree 2015-06-29 08:09:22)

The material on this wiki is available under a free license, see Copyright / License for details
You can contribute to this wiki, see Wiki Guide for details

How to Install Ubuntu 20.04 Alongside With Windows

This tutorial describes the installation process of the latest release of Ubuntu Desktop 20.04, codename Focal Fossa, on a dedicated machine or a virtual machine alongside a pre-installed Windows 10 Operating System. The installation process can be done via the Ubuntu Desktop DVD ISO image or via a bootable Ubuntu USB drive.

The Ubuntu OS will be installed on a UEFI motherboard with Legacy Mode or CSM (Compatibility Support Module) option disabled.

Requirements

Create Free Space on Windows for Ubuntu Install

On a pre-installed machine with a single Windows 10 partition, you need to create some free space in Windows partition in order to install Ubuntu 20.04.

First login to the system using an account with administrator privileges, open a Command Prompt window with admin rights and execute diskmgmt.msc command to open Disk Management utility.

Select the Windows partition, usually C: volume, right-click on this partition and select Shrink Volume option in order to reduce the partition size.

Windows Disk Management Utility

Wait for the system to collect partition size data, add the desired amount of space you want to shrink, and hit in the Shrink button.

Shrink Windows Partition

After the shrink process completes, a new unallocated space will be present in your drive. We’ll use this free space to install Ubuntu alongside Windows 10.

New Windows Partition for Ubuntu Install

Install Ubuntu 20.04 Alongside with Windows

On the first installation, screen select Install Ubuntu and hit Enter key to start the installation process.

Install Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

On the next screen, select the keyboard layout for your system and hit on the Continue button.

Choose Keyboard Layout

In the next installation screen, choose Normal installation and hit on the Continue button. In this screen, you also have the option to perform a Minimal installation of Ubuntu Desktop, which includes only some basic system utilities and a web browser.

You can also turn off Secure Boot option, if this option is enabled in motherboard UEFI settings in order to install third-party software for graphic card, Wi-Fi or additional media formats. Be aware that turning off Secure Boot option requires a password.

Select Ubuntu Installation Type

Next, In the Installation type menu, choose Something else option in order to manually partition the hard disk and hit on the Continue button.

Ubuntu Manual Partition

In the hard disk partition table menu, select the hard drive free space and hit on + button in order to create the Ubuntu partition.

Choose Free Space Partition

In the partition pop-up window, add the size of the partition in MB, choose the partition type as Primary, and the partition location at the beginning of this space.

Next, format this partition with ext4 filesystem and use / as a partition mount point. The /(root) partition summary is described below:

After completing this step, hit on the OK button to return to disk utility. Other partitions, such as /home or Swap are optional in Ubuntu Desktop and should be created only for special purposes.

However, if you still want to add a home partition, select free space, hit on + button and use the below scheme to create the partition.

In this guide, we’ll install Ubuntu alongside Windows 10 with only the /(root) partition set. After you’ve created the required root partition on the disk, select Windows boot Manager as a device for the boot loader installation and hit on Install Now button.

Partition Table Summary

In the pop-up window, hit on the Continue button in order to commit the changes that will be written to disk and start the installation.

Confirm Partition Changes

On the next screen, select your location from the provided map and hit on the Continue button.

Choose Your Country Location

Next, insert your name, the name of your desktop, a username with a strong password, and choose the option with ‘Require my password to log in’. When you finish, hit on the Continue button and wait for the installation process to complete.

Create Ubuntu User

During the installation process, a series of screens that describe Ubuntu Desktop and the installation progress bar will be displayed on your screen. You cannot interfere with the installation process in this final stage.

Ubuntu Installation Progress

After the installation completes, eject the installation medium and hit on Restart now button in order to reboot the machine.

Ubuntu Installation Finishes

After reboot, the system should boot into the GNU GRUB menu. In case the GRUB menu is not displayed, restart the machine, go to motherboard UEFI settings and change boot order or Boot Options -> BBS priority.

The settings to enable the GRUB menu highly depend on your machine motherboard UEFI settings. You should consult motherboard documentation in order to identify the settings that need to be changed in order to display the GRUB menu.

Ubuntu Boot Grub Menu

Finally, log in to Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop with the credentials configured while installing the system and follow the initial Ubuntu welcome screen in order to start using Ubuntu Desktop.

Ubuntu Login Screen Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa alongside Windows 10 on your machine.

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How to install ubuntu with windows 10

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1. Overview

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) allows you to install a complete Ubuntu terminal environment in minutes on your Windows machine, allowing you to develop cross-platform applications without leaving Windows.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to get up and running with Ubuntu on WSL. These instructions will work on both Windows 10 or Windows 11.

Whilst WSL is a powerful tool for all users, some features, such as the ability to run graphical Linux applications, are only available on Windows 11. Please check out our Windows 11 tutorial for more information.

2. Install WSL

Installing WSL is now easier than ever. Search for Windows PowerShell in your Windows search bar, then select Run as administrator.

At the command prompt type:

And wait for the process to complete.

For WSL to be properly activated, you will now need to restart your computer.

3. Download Ubuntu

WSL supports a variety of Linux distributions, including the latest Ubuntu release, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. You can find them by opening the Microsoft store app and searching for Ubuntu.

Choose the distribution you prefer and then click on Get as shown in the following screenshot:

Ubuntu will then install on your machine.

The one line install!

There is a single command that will install both WSL and Ubuntu at the same time.
When opening PowerShell for the first time, simply modify the initial instruction to:

This will install both WSL and Ubuntu! Don’t forget to restart your machine before continuing.

Once installed, you can either launch the application directly from the store or search for Ubuntu in your Windows search bar.

4. Configure Ubuntu

Congratulations, you now have an Ubuntu terminal running on your Windows machine!

If Ubuntu returns an error during this initial installation, then the most common issue is that virtualisation is disabled in your device’s BIOS menu. You will need to turn this on during your device’s boot sequence. The location of this option varies by manufacturer, so you will need to refer to their documentation to find it.

Once Ubuntu has finished its initial setup you will need to create a username and password (this does not need to match your Windows user credentials).

Finally, it’s always good practice to install the latest updates with the following commands, entering your password when prompted.

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

Press Y when prompted.

5. Install your first package

Installing packages on Ubuntu is as easy as using a single command. Below, you will see how to install bpython, a simple python interpreter for trying out ideas, featuring some nice usability features like expected parameters and autocompletion.

To check that you have the latest package lists, type:

sudo apt update

Then install bpython:

sudo apt install bpython

To run the application type:

And you’re ready to go!

6. Customising your Terminal with Windows Terminal Preview

Since you’re likely to be using your Ubuntu terminal a fair bit, it’s always nice to do some customisation. We recommend installing Windows Terminal Preview to get the most user-friendly setup. You can find it in the Microsoft Store.

Windows Terminal allows you to open multiple Terminal instances as tabs, so you can have PowerShell running alongside Ubuntu. It also includes a number of customisation options. In the below screenshot, we’ve changed the tab name and colour, and configured the terminal appearance to use the Tango Dark theme and the Ubuntu font!

These customisations can be applied universally using the Appearance menu in Settings or to individual profiles which each have their own Appearance menu. Try it yourself to find something you feel comfortable with!

7. Enjoy Ubuntu on WSL!

That’s it! In this tutorial, you’ve seen how to install WSL and Ubuntu, set up your profile, and install your first package. You also got some tips on how to customise your experience.

We hope you enjoy working with Ubuntu inside WSL. Don’t forget to check out our blog for the latest news on all things Ubuntu.

How to install Ubuntu 20.04 and dual boot alongside Windows 10

Switching to Linux can be a big decision, depending on how you use your computer. Sometimes, you just need Windows for specific applications, and sometimes you need Linux for other applications. Whether you are just curious or you need it for work or a personal project, having both operating systems on one computer can be useful.

In this article, I will explain the steps you need to install Ubuntu 20.04 next to your existing Windows 10 system.

Get your tools

Before you can create an installation media, you first need the right tools to create one. The first thing is to download the Ubuntu ISO file that you want to install. An ISO file is simply a file that contains the actual operating system in a compact format. Go to https://ubuntu.com/download#download and click on the 20.04 LTS button.

*LTS stands for Long-Term-Support which simply means that this version gets support for 5 year unlike the other releases that are only supported for 9 months. Going for LTS is for many people the best option.

Your browser might ask you if you want to save the file or open it. I’d recommend to save it. The ISO file is about 2.8 GB in size, so be prepared that it will take a while. This is the perfect time to get some tea.

The next tool that you need is a software to create the installation media. There are several tools available such as UNetbootin or Rufus. I personally am a big fan of balena Etcher.

Etcher is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux and pretty easy to use. After the download has finished, you need to install it.

Getting your system ready

After you installed Etcher and downloaded the ISO file, you can create the installation media. You can either use a CD (yes, those still exist) or simply a USB stick. Using the USB stick is the most convenient as you do not need a CD drive which start to be come a rare artifact. Make sure the USB stick is empty as all the data will be erased in the next step.

When you open Etcher, you have a very simple interface.

First, you select the ISO file that you want to use. You can probably find it in your downloads folder. Just navigate to it and select the ISO file. Then, you need to select the USB stick that you plugged into your computer and that you want to use as installation media. Take care that you select the correct one as you don’t want to wipe your internal hard drive or an external drive. The easiest is to look at the size of the different options and select the one with the memory size that your USB stick has.

When the ISO and the USB stick are selected, click on the Flash! button. This will also take a while.

Getting Windows Ready

There is one more step you need to do as preparation before the actual installation. You need to make some free space on your hard drive so your computer knows where to install Ubuntu. For this, you need to open the partitions software with the name “Create and format hard disk partitions”. You can simple type the word “partition” in the search bar of the start menu.

When starting the partitioning software, a new window called Disk Management should open up. This program should show you all the mass storage devices connected to your computer, internally and externally. In my case, I only have one hard drive because I already removed the USB stick and I only have one small hard drive in my demo setup.

Many computers nowadays have one smaller SSD hard drive and a larger HDD hard drive. You will probably want to install Ubuntu on your SSD drive, given that you have enough disk space.

For a bare minimum installation, you should have at least 9 GB. If you also want to install some programs and save some files on Ubuntu, then you probably want a little bit more storage for your Ubuntu system. I would recommend at least 36 GB to make sure you don’t run out of disk space when have all the Ubuntu partitions on one hard drive. You can use less if you want to install Ubuntu on two hard drives: one for the system and one for storing your personal files. More on that later.

Right click the partition that you want to shrink to make free space available on. Then, click on the “Shrink Volume…” button in the context menu.

Next, you need to choose how much storage you want to make available. Enter the amount of Mega Bytes you want to have for your Ubuntu installation. Again, I would recommend to have at least 36 GB. Click on the “Shrink” button.

Creating the new empty partition takes a while and then it should be displayed as Unallocated.

After this is done, you can proceed with the installation of Ubuntu. You may now shut down your computer.

Installing Ubuntu

Now it is time to plug in the flashed USB stick and restart your computer. When the splash screen of your computer’s manufacturer appears, you need to press either F1, F2, F12, ESC or DEL on your keyboard to enter the BIOS menu of your computer. Which key to press depends on the brand of your computer. Your computer might even tell you which key to press. Else, you might need to look it up either in the manual of your computer on online.

Once you entered your BIOS, you need to find the option to change the boot order. The BIOS of each motherboard can be slightly different. You need to navigate through it by yourself to find the option to change the boot order. When you find it, you should place the entry for USB devices on the first position so when you restart the computer it will automatically boot from the USB stick with the Ubuntu installation media.

As an alternative, some computers even allow to directly choose the boot device to continue. In that case, you don’t need to change the boot order and you can simply select the USB stick to boot the computer. Again, this depends on the manufacturer of the motherboard.

Note: If possible, disable the fast-boot option from your BIOS as this can cause trouble when switching from Windows to Linux. The reason is that the fast-boot setting will prevent a full shutdown of the PC and when starting up in a different OS, this could cause some issues. Also, the secure-boot option might need to be disabled. If that is the case, Ubuntu will let you know during the installation process. You will need to type a password during the installation process and then again when rebooting. This password will only be asked once.

When your computer is booting from the USB stick, it will show to you the Ubuntu logo. It might even perform a system check.

After the file check is complete, your computer will show you the Ubuntu welcome screen where you can choose whether you want to “Try Ubuntu” or “Install Ubuntu”. The first option is suited for testing if everything works such as the Wi-Fi drivers or other hardware. You will choose the second option for the installation.

The first thing to do is selecting your keyboard lay out. This can be changed later and you can also add multiple layouts int he settings menu once the installation is finished. If you don’t know what your keyboard layout is, Ubuntu can help you to find your layout.

After you selected the keyboard layout and pressed on the “Continue” button, you will probably be prompted to select a WiFi network. In my setup, I use a Ethernet connection which is why this step is omitted by the system. Simply select the network and enter the password and that’s it.

Next, you have the option to install Ubuntu as normal installation or as minimal installation. If you are new to Linux, it doesn’t hurt to install the normal package including Libre Office, some games and some other tools. Also, you should check the boxes for downloading updates during the installation and to install third-party software which include the GPU drivers for Nvidia and codecs for MP3 files.

Now, you need to select how you want to install Ubuntu on your system: wipe your entire disk or install Ubuntu alongside Windows 10. I always use the third option called “Something else” as this gives me more control on how I have my partitions. Also, I have trust issues with the automatic installation alongside Windows.

Now, you need to manually set up the partitions for the Ubuntu installation. As you can see, you have some free space on your hard drive. This is the space that you freed earlier in Windows.

You could also shrink the partitions here, but I recommend doing it on Windows as this allows Windows to shift files around according to the modifications. When doing it here, you risk to overwrite parts of the hard drive that were used for data.

Just select the free space partition and click on the plus symbol below to add a new partition. The first partition you will make is the SWAP partition. It serves as an extension to your RAM (Random Access Memory) which is the fast memory which it needs immediately to function. If your RAM is full, Ubuntu will then save additional data in the SWAP.

Note: Most guides I know of recommend to use double the size of your RAM for your SWAP partition and at least the same amount of memory as your RAM. Technically, you can do without SWAP at all, but it doesn’t hurt to have some SWAP in case your RAM is not that big. Most systems nowadays have at least 8 GB of RAM.

The more RAM you have, the less likely you need the SWAP memory. On this computer, I have 8 GB of RAM. Therefore, I use 4 GB for this installation. That should be enough. Choose “Logical” for the partition type and select “swap area” from the drop down menu. Then clock “OK”.

Next, you need the so called “root” partition which hosts all your system files necessary by Ubuntu to function. By default, this partition will also contain your personal files, but here we will create a separate partition only for your personal files, such as your “Downloads” folder or “Music” folder. This is why we need to create two more partitions.

Both partitions will be about 16 GB in size. For the “root” partition, select the “Primary” option for the partition type as this partition needs to be bootable. Then, in the drop down menu, select “Ext4 journaling file system” which is still the default file system for Linux. The mount point must be “/” which stands for the “root” partition.

Your last partition will be the “home” partition. Again, click on the plus icon to create a new partition and dedicate the remaining space to this partition. Again, select it to be a “Logical” partition and again choose the “Ext4” file system. This time, the mount point is “/home”.

This partition will store all your personal files. If you do not create a separate “home” partition, your personal files will be stored inside the “root” partition. The reason why I create it as a separate partition is, that you can follow the same procedure to create a partition on a second hard drive. This is especially useful when your “root” partition is on a SSD drive while your personal files are on a HDD drive. My setup did not have two hard drives, but the procedure would be the same, except that you need to pay attention which free space is used for the “root” and which for the “home” partition.

Now that all the partitions have been created, you should not have any free space left. Make sure the boot loader will be installed on the correct hard drive. Usually, this is the same drive where your Windows 10 boot loader is installed. Hit the “Install Now” button and confirm the installation.

In the next step, you simply select the country where you are. This is simply to set the time zone for your system clock. It also affects how the time is displayed such as the 12-hour format or 24-hour format, depending on your country’s default system.

Lastly, you need to create your user account on the system. Fill in your name and verify if the username that is suggested is fine for you. You can also change the name of the computer. In the “Your name:” field, you are supposed to type your full name. Also, you need to set a password. It can be as long as you want, it can contain numbers, letters and symbols. Make sure it is a password you can remember as you will need it every time you install new software or you want to update your system. It should not be too easy though as this would make the password useless.

After you set up your user account, you can click on the “Continue” button and the installation will be executed. Installing Ubuntu will not take a while. This process will probably take around 20 minutes, depending on your system.

You do not need to do anything until the installation is finished. A good time for another cup of tea.

After the installation is finished, you can restart the computer and remove the USB stick. Now, when the computer is starting, it will first show to you the GRUB boot screen.

The GRUB boot screen will show you the installed systems such as Ubuntu and Windows 10. Now, every time you start your computer, you can select which operating system you want to use. Enjoy your Ubuntu system!

Closing Thoughts

As you can see, the entire process is no wizardry. You just need to know which steps you need to do in order to proceed. There are many interesting Linux distributions such as Manjaro, Solus, Fedora or Elementary OS. The installation procedure is usually quite similar. Of course, you can also go for another Ubuntu flavor such as Kubuntu or the Ubuntu Unity Remix. The choice is up to you.

If you do not know which one to chose, it is never wrong to pic the default Ubuntu version to get started. It is very user friendly and has a big user base and likewise many tutorials and explanations that you can use as reference.

How to Install Ubuntu Alongside With Windows 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 the 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 20.04 alongside Windows dual boot (you can use any Ubuntu release for installation). Go to the download link from the topic description and grab the Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 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 choose Install Ubuntu, and the installer utility will start. Choose the keyboard layout you wish to perform the installation and click on the Continue button to proceed further.

Select Ubuntu Installation Language Select Ubuntu Keyboard Layout

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. In 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:

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:

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

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

Next, a new pop-up window will ask you if you agree with committing changes to the 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’s physical location by selecting a city nearby from the map. When done hit Continue to move ahead.

Choose 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 20.04 or Microsoft Windows.

Ubuntu is designated as the 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, log in 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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