Tutorial about "how to install Windows, when *Linux* is already installed, without Windows giving problems"

Ask Fedora
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1

I’ve already made posts about this issue [1] [2] because “the Windows installer is evil, it will eat the stuff that makes Linux’ things, like Grub2, launch at boot”.

Here’s what to do:

  1. Get an individual, separated Storage Drive on which you want to install Windows (7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11).
    You can’t “dual boot” with different partitions on the same drive if you have Linux already installed because, as said above, it will eat Linux’ stuff (you have to, basically, reinstall Linux to “fix” it, as shown in the links).

  2. Remove every single S.Drive from your desired computer OR from a secondary computer.
    Installing Windows without any other S.Drive mounted will prevent it from eating Linux’ stuff, and from creating problems “by detecting that another version of Windows is already installed”.
    After having mounted just and only the one S.Drive you intend to install Windows upon, you can proceed with the installation.

  3. Now that you have your Windows S.Drive, you can mount it with all your previous S.Drives in the desired computer.
    It will not (automatically) show in Grub2, but it will show in your motherboard’s Boot Options.

  4. This is the last step, in which said Windows will be added in the Grub2 list.
    What you have to do is just “follow Grub2’s reinstall tutorial” from their page here[3].

    Screenshot_20260331_231211
    Screenshot_20260331_2312111174×949 112 KB

    The first command is grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg to “recreate the config file”, while dnf reinstall shim-\* grub2-efi-\* grub2-common (for UEFI alone) will reinstall it.
    In the past I found another post[4] which couldn’t really solve the issue, and since I also knew less about this I didn’t understand how “to fix the shortcomings” of this flawed method.
    The answer is that doing just and only the first one is not guaranteed to work. Doing both of them instead will work.

Now you will have your untouched, working Linux partition/s with its/their Distro/s, and the Windows_X partition, both working perfectly.

Good luck with whatever you people have to do with your computers. :heart:

  1. As shown in this link, you can reinstall Linux without losing personal files, but you will have to reinstall all your software back from 0, so it’s less than ideal. If you, at least, have nothing of importance on said computer and have just and only one Storage Drive on said computer, you can just ignore this tutorial, install Windows first, and then Linux on a separate partition. Reinstalling Fedora while keeping /home partition - #10 by isaac0clarke ↩︎

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Recurring Upgrade Issues
Planning to reinstall Fedora and Windows 10, but I have to plan
Windows entry missing in grub menu
2

Why not just install Windows as a Virtual Machine and avoid all the headaches of trying to dual-boot it?

3

For many reasons, among which “weaker machines need ALL the cores, ALL the RAM and a dedicated GPU to run stuff”.

4

I haven’t heard the therm ‘S.Drive’ before - you mean hard drive or ssd.

People do want to do this - install Windoze after a Linux install, the basic idea of removing the drives, installing Windoze and then reconfiguring Grub is a good one.

5

We all appreciate the participation and the labor needed to make a computer you built work,
but this message is almost impossible to understand.
I think you are praising me? But I am not sure.

Still, it’s a shame that tutorials these simple don’t exist, because the “people who don’t know” either give up, or figure it out themselves; and thus become “people who do know”, whom mostly don’t make tutorials, or guides, for others.
I just felt the obligation to create this tutorial, because this Windows business is so irritating.

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6

Yes, I am praising you. I am saying that there is a need for this guide, as opposed to the previous commenter who said

So keep up the good work buddy!

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7

Storage drive!
The convention when using an abbreviation is to put the abbreviation after the first time you use the proper term, so you could say

“Get an individual, separated Storage Drive (S.Drive) on which…”

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