This is why I no longer dual boot and removed windows all together.
this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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Realized I hadnβt booted Windows on my personal PC in 6 months and said yup time to nuke it all together
Recently booted Windows to install a BIOS update with a Windows only installer and realised it had been about a year since last boot. Think it may be time to reclaim that space.
Most mobos usually have a bios flash utility in the bios setup itself, so you don't need to rely on the windows installer. You just need to stick the update on a USB stick (extract the binary file from the zip).
Sadly that's only common for desktop PCs, with laptops it's a lot less common. But many can be updated from within Linux nowadays
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There are two or three work functions that can only be done on Windows when working from home. So it gets its own Windows 10 VM with just enough resources to perform those functions, installed with a local account and ShutUp10 to remove all the automated "feature" updates. If something goes wrong, I can nuke it and lose nothing.
Put it in a tiny box and starve that fucker.
I like it.
Might be able to starve it further with Windows 10 Ameliorated. It's got a fancy UI now, but under the hood it's a bunch of Powershell scripts to disable a lot of the bullshit (or at least it used to be).
Using IoT LTSC install media is good too, doesn't include a lot of the BS to begin with.
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Don't use your phone computer for work. Even if you're an independent consultant, S Corp or whatever. Just don't.
For privacy and legal reasons, and your own sanity, just get a separate computer and only ever use that for work.
Most of the time you can write that off anyway.
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I'm in school. I 100% need windows for proctored tests. Institutions that offer online schooling are slowly building infrastructure around Microsoft 365 and underlying tech that depends on windows.
I get it. I main Linux too but you 100% need windows in remote learning. So it's dual boot.
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idk what this meme means because i've never considered dual booting
the cat in the image is windows update taking over the linux boot partition: the box, instead of leaving it alone for the much more comfortable windows boot partition: the cat tree.
I honestly never had isses as long as both are kept on separate drives
Until you update your EFI and have forgotten all about the fact that non-Windows EFI boot images need to be registered with the Secure Boot key store even if Secure Boot is off. And that the key store is wiped when updating the EFI.
And then you spend an entire afternoon trying to find out why your Linux boot every isn't even recognized by the EFI anymore. Fun.
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If I didnβt have to use it a handful of times a year for work Iβd have wiped my windows drive and extended my Linux storage. Alas.
I feel for the folks who canβt afford a second drive to dual boot.
I have five machines, one headless, the other four on KVM, 2 Linux 2 windows. Mainly only use the one windows for work bs that I never want to touch my personal space. I spend most my time on my Linux machine and just use rustdesk though. Having three monitors helps because one is pretty much dedicated to rustdesk.
This is the only way to go.
The correct fix
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If you do want windows do this....put windows on a sacrificial drive.... Promise to yourself that there's just garbage in there so it doesn't matter... Install Linux on another drive. Have your computer start from the Linux drive thru grub. Set up grub to recognize the windows drive. No, no matter how hard that bitch ass OS tries to update your godly Linux install, it won't find anything. Fuck you Microsoft! Knowledge is power. Now go out there and compute.
You forgot step 2. Throw sacrificial drive into trash.
Yes! That's the recommended way of doing it! Hammer it first or someone might bring that virus home and try to use it.
Nah emphasize sacrificial; you gotta reach in and rip out its beating heart like that one guy from Indiana Jones
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I built a computer in 2012 with the idea of having 3 OSes to boot from: Windows 7, Mac OS 10.7 (hackintosh), and CentOS.
I partition the drive into three main parts, and install each OS on one each. Except that I had to do it again, because Windows 7 lost its absolute shit that it wasn't on the first partition. Just threw an absolute shit-fit that it didn't come first.
So I re-do the installations, let Windows be first in the partition order, Mac OS second, CentOS third. The next problem was that I couldn't download any drivers on Windows, because it couldn't recognize the absolutely bog-standard network controller on my motherboard. So I boot into Mac OS X, which (with a couple of quick kext edits) already recognized all of the hardware on the mobo despite none of it being Apple or Apple related, download the drivers for windows, throw them on a FAT partition I set up to exchange data between the OSes, and finally get Windows running in about 4x the time it took to get Mac OS running on the exact same built-for-windows hardware I'd cobbled together.
And of course I fire up CentOS, and it was pretty much, "I got this" right off the bat.
I've been using Windows and Mac OS since the late 80s, and linux since about 1999, and I still have never encountered a more fussy OS than Windows.
I mean, that's what happens when you install spyware; it infects things...
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Considering Bill Gates made it, you can expect it to be grabby and invasive.
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Maybe we should speak to them in a language they actually speak. In this case, I am thinking the proper language is class action lawsuit.
please don't equate cats with windows
this is why we don't dual-boot with Windows anymore. Linux only. No computing device in my household runs on any version of Windows
No, slopOS is not a cute cat.
Everyone saying you need two harddrives needs to know: all you need are 2 efi partitions: one for windows one for linux.. You can have them on the same drive. It's nonstandard, but I have never found a machine where it doesn't work.
Windows 11 is just unusable junk. Makes Vista and ME look like masterpieces
It's unusable MALICIOUS junk
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In my experience, Windows only fucks-up your Linux bootloader if they both share the same EFI System Partition. Keeping them separate fixes the issue. Though, this means that you'll have to install Windows first, since it will automatically pick your Linux ESP otherwise.
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is there a way to avoid this? and what workflow should be in place ahead of it happening if not?
You need two separate SSDs. One for Linux, one for Windows.
- Install Linux on SSD-A. Make sure it has an EFI system partition with a bootloader in it (GRUB, systemd-boot, REFInd), don't use an efistub. If the installer is done, disconnect the SSD to be safe.
- Install Windows on SSD-B with the desired updates. It will create its own EFI partition.
- Optionally, you can create a separate NTFS volume for your
C:\Usersso you don't have to mount the entire system on Linux if you need to access your files.
- Optionally, you can create a separate NTFS volume for your
- Boot into Windows. Use a tool to completely disable the updates. I use WinUtil by Chris Titus.
- Reconnect SSD-A.
- Boot and enter the firmware configuration. In the boot device list, make sure SSD-A has a much higher priority than SSD-B! You can even remove SSD-B from the bootable devices.
- Boot into Linux. In the bootloader configuration, create an entry that targets the Windows C: volume on SSD-B.
- Alternatively, you can just use the firmware's boot menu to boot from SSD-B.
Done. If you need to update Windows, physically disconnect SSD-A and boot from SSD-B.
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Separate hard drives one for windows and one for Linux+GRUB then grub just needs to be told where the windows boot loader is and BIOS should load GRUB default.
OP post happens when you attempt to just use partitions. It can work per other comment, just more fragile.
Itβs why I put windows on its own drive. It can enshittify itself in its own space.
I went nuclear, when gaming was still hit or miss (only wine existed) since I only installed windows to update my BIOS. I advise to use a separate harddrive and do not do as I did: Used gparted to separate space for windows in my data drive, installed, updated the BIOS, used gparted to recover my initial state. I was sweating the whole time, but all of my data was intact.
Dual booting may be a bad idea. You should run MAS-activated Windows in a VM.
Hell yeah, accessibility text!
I did not realize the beer McConaughey was drinking in True Detective was a real brand
Product placement matters.
I haven't had this problem. I use two hard drives and when I boot windows I boot it off the drive its installed to.
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Dumb windows
My Windows partition at work went unused for several months before I wiped it.
At home it took about two weeks before I reclaimed that space!
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