Windows and linux on the same

Installing Windows and Linux On the Same Computer

SabrinaSouza asked the Answer Line forum how to install Linux onto a PC without losing Windows.

You can pick from many versions of Linux, but I’ll confine my instructions here to Ubuntu. It’s popular, it’s powerful, and it plays well with Windows.

There are other versions that I’ll recommend for specific jobs (such as diagnosing an unbootable PC), but for learning Linux and possibly using it for productive work, Ubuntu is the best choice I know.

You download Ubuntu in the form of an .iso file, which is an image file of a CD–in this case a bootable one. Double-click the file, and a program will likely come up and walk you through the process of burning the disc.

If no such program pops up, download and install the Active@ ISO Burner, then try again.

Another option: Use the Universal USB Installer to create a bootable flash drive out of that same .iso file. I actually prefer the flash drive; it’s faster.

So what can you do with this CD or flash drive? Plenty, but I’ll give you three options:

Just Boot It

Ubuntu is a live version of Linux. You don’t have to install it. You can simply boot it from the CD or flash drive, and, when asked, say you want to run rather than install Ubuntu.

This works for getting a feel for the operating system, but not for actual work. For instance, the contents of Ubuntu’s Document folder disappears when you reboot.

You can actually install Ubuntu as a Windows program, although you can’t launch it as one.

Insert the CD or flash drive. If nothing starts up automatically, open the drive in Windows Explorer and run wubi.exe. Select the option Install inside Windows, and follow the prompts.

When you reboot after the install, your PC will boot Linux and start setting it up. This can take a long time–especially if you’re using a CD. Be patient.

The next time you boot, and with every boot afterwards, you’ll get to pick between Windows and Ubuntu. And you can uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows program.

You can run both OSes simultaneously by installing Ubuntu inside a virtual machine (VM). In a VM, software imitates hardware so that you effectively run one computer inside another.

I can recommend two free VM programs: VMware Player and Oracle VM VirtualBox. Ubuntu installs just fine in either of them. VirtualBox is more powerful, but I find VMware Player easier for the virtual machine novice. (Yes, I know that I recommended VirtualBox just last week, but that was for a Windows 8-specific job.)

By the way, you don’t actually need to burn a CD or prepare a flash drive to install Ubuntu inside a virtual machine. Both VMware Player and Oracle VM VirtualBox can install directly from the .iso file.

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Working across Windows and Linux file systems

There are a number of considerations to keep in mind when working between Windows and Linux file systems. We have outlined a few of them for you in this guide, including some examples of interoperability support for mixing Windows and Linux-based commands.

File storage and performance across file systems

We recommend against working across operating systems with your files, unless you have a specific reason for doing so. For the fastest performance speed, store your files in the WSL file system if you are working in a Linux command line (Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc). If you’re working in a Windows command line (PowerShell, Command Prompt), store your files in the Windows file system.

For example, when storing your WSL project files:

• Use the Linux file system root directory: \\wsl$\Ubuntu-18.04\home\ \Project
• Not the Windows file system root directory: /mnt/c/Users/ /Project$ or C:\Users\ \Project

When you see /mnt/ in the file path of a WSL command line, it means that you are working from a mounted drive. So the Windows file system C:/ drive ( C:\Users\ \Project ) will look like this when mounted in a WSL command line: /mnt/c/Users/ /Project$ . It is possible to store your project files on a mounted drive, but your performance speed will improve if you store them directly on the \\wsl$ drive.

View your current directory in Windows File Explorer

You can view the directory where your files are stored by opening the Windows File Explorer from the command line, using:

Alternatively, you can also use the command: powershell.exe /c start . Be sure to add the period at the end of the command to open the current directory.

To view all of your available Linux distributions and their root file systems in Windows File explorer, in the address bar enter: \\wsl$

Filename and directory case sensitivity

Case sensitivity determines whether uppercase (FOO.txt) and lowercase (foo.txt) letters are handled as distinct (case-sensitive) or equivalent (case-insensitive) in a file name or directory. Windows and Linux file systems handle case sensitivity in different ways — Windows is case-insenstive and Linux is case-sensitive. Learn more about how to adjust case sensitivity, particularly when mounting disks with WSL, in the Adjust case sensitivity how-to article.

Interoperability between Windows and Linux commands

Windows and Linux tools and commands can be used interchangeably with WSL.

• Run Windows tools (ie. notepad.exe) from a Linux command line (ie. Ubuntu).
• Run Linux tools (ie. grep) from a Windows command line (ie. PowerShell).
• Share environment variables between Linux and Windows. (Build 17063+)

Run Linux tools from a Windows command line

Run Linux binaries from the Windows Command Prompt (CMD) or PowerShell using wsl (or wsl.exe ).

Binaries invoked in this way:

• Use the same working directory as the current CMD or PowerShell prompt.
• Run as the WSL default user.
• Have the same Windows administrative rights as the calling process and terminal.

The Linux command following wsl (or wsl.exe ) is handled like any command run in WSL. Things such as sudo, piping, and file redirection work.

Example using sudo to update your default Linux distribution:

Your default Linux distribution user name will be listed after running this command and you will be asked for your password. After entering your password correctly, your distribution will download updates.

Mixing Linux and Windows commands

Here are a few examples of mixing Linux and Windows commands using PowerShell.

To use the Linux command ls -la to list files and the PowerShell command findstr to filter the results for words containing «git», combine the commands:

To use the PowerShell command dir to list files and the Linux command grep to filter the results for words containing «git», combine the commands:

To use the Linux command ls -la to list files and the PowerShell command > out.txt to print that list to a text file named «out.txt», combine the commands:

The commands passed into wsl.exe are forwarded to the WSL process without modification. File paths must be specified in the WSL format.

To use the Linux command ls -la to list files in the /proc/cpuinfo Linux file system path, using PowerShell:

To use the Linux command ls -la to list files in the C:\Program Files Windows file system path, using PowerShell:

Run Windows tools from Linux

WSL can run Windows tools directly from the WSL command line using [tool-name].exe . For example, notepad.exe .

Applications run this way have the following properties:

• Retain the working directory as the WSL command prompt (for the most part — exceptions are explained below).
• Have the same permission rights as the WSL process.
• Run as the active Windows user.
• Appear in the Windows Task Manager as if directly executed from the CMD prompt.

Windows executables run in WSL are handled similarly to native Linux executables — piping, redirects, and even backgrounding work as expected.

To run the Windows tool ipconfig.exe , use the Linux tool grep to filter the «IPv4» results, and use the Linux tool cut to remove the column fields, from a Linux distribution (for example, Ubuntu) enter:

Let’s try an example mixing Windows and Linux commands. Open your Linux distribution (ie. Ubuntu) and create a text file: touch foo.txt . Now use the Linux command ls -la to list the direct files and their creation details, plus the Windows PowerShell tool findstr.exe to filter the results so only your foo.txt file shows in the results:

Windows tools must include the file extension, match the file case, and be executable. Non-executables including batch scripts. CMD native commands like dir can be run with cmd.exe /C command.

For example, list the contents of your Windows files system C:\ directory, by entering:

Or use the ping command to send an echo request to the microsoft.com website:

Parameters are passed to the Windows binary unmodified. As an example, the following command will open C:\temp\foo.txt in notepad.exe :

This will also work:

Share environment variables between Windows and WSL with WSLENV

WSL and Windows share a special environment variable, WSLENV , created to bridge Windows and Linux distributions running on WSL.

Properties of WSLENV variable:

• It is shared; it exists in both Windows and WSL environments.
• It is a list of environment variables to share between Windows and WSL.
• It can format environment variables to work well in Windows and WSL.
• It can assist in the flow between WSL and Win32.

Prior to 17063, only Windows environment variable that WSL could access was PATH (so you could launch Win32 executables from under WSL). Starting in 17063, WSLENV begins being supported. WSLENV is case sensitive.

WSLENV flags

There are four flags available in WSLENV to influence how the environment variable is translated.

• /p — translates the path between WSL/Linux style paths and Win32 paths.
• /l — indicates the environment variable is a list of paths.
• /u — indicates that this environment variable should only be included when running WSL from Win32.
• /w — indicates that this environment variable should only be included when running Win32 from WSL.

Flags can be combined as needed.

Read more about WSLENV, including FAQs and examples of setting the value of WSLENV to a concatenation of other pre-defined environment vars, each suffixed with a slash followed by flags to specify how the value should be translated and passing variables with a script. This article also includes an example for setting up a dev environment with the Go programming language, configured to share a GOPATH between WSL and Win32.

Disable interoperability

Users may disable the ability to run Windows tools for a single WSL session by running the following command as root:

To re-enable Windows binaries, exit all WSL sessions and re-run bash.exe or run the following command as root:

Disabling interop will not persist between WSL sessions — interop will be enabled again when a new session is launched.

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How to Remove Linux and Install Windows on Your Computer

For a Microsoft Windows XP version of this article, see 314458.

Summary

This article describes how you can remove the Linux operating system from your computer, and install a Windows operating system. This article also assumes that Linux is already installed on the hard disk using Linux native and Linux swap partitions, which are incompatible with the Windows operating system, and that there is no free space left on the drive.

Windows and Linux can coexist on the same computer. For additional information, refer to your Linux documentation.

More Information

To install Windows on a system that has Linux installed when you want to remove Linux, you must manually delete the partitions used by the Linux operating system. The Windows-compatible partition can be created automatically during the installation of the Windows operating system.

IMPORTANT: Before you follow the steps in this article, verify that you have a bootable disk or bootable CD-ROM for the Linux operating system, because this process completely removes the Linux operating system installed on your computer. If you intend to restore the Linux operating system at a later date, verify that you also have a good backup of all the information stored on your computer. Also, you must have a full release version of the Windows operating system you want to install.

Linux file systems use a «superblock» at the beginning of a disk partition to identify the basic size, shape, and condition of the file system.

The Linux operating system is generally installed on partition type 83 (Linux native) or 82 (Linux swap). The Linux boot manager (LILO) can be configured to start from:

The hard disk Master Boot Record (MBR).

The root folder of the Linux partition.

The Fdisk tool included with Linux can be used to delete the partitions. (There are other utilities that work just as well, such as Fdisk from MS-DOS 5.0 and later, or you can delete the partitions during the installation process.) To remove Linux from your computer and install Windows:

Remove native, swap, and boot partitions used by Linux:

Start your computer with the Linux setup floppy disk, type fdisk at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

NOTE: For help using the Fdisk tool, type m at the command prompt, and then press ENTER.

Type p at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to display partition information. The first item listed is hard disk 1, partition 1 information, and the second item listed is hard disk 1, partition 2 information.

Type d at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. You are then prompted for the partition number you want to delete. Type 1, and then press ENTER to delete partition number 1. Repeat this step until all the partitions have been deleted.

Type w, and then press ENTER to write this information to the partition table. Some error messages may be generated as information is written to the partition table, but they should not be significant at this point because the next step is to restart the computer and then install the new operating system.

Type q at the command prompt, and then press ENTER to quit the Fdisk tool.

Insert either a bootable floppy disk or a bootable CD-ROM for the Windows operating system on your computer, and then press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer.

Install Windows. Follow the installation instructions for the Windows operating system you want to install on your computer. The installation process assists you with creating the appropriate partitions on your computer.

Examples of Linux Partition Tables

Single SCSI drive

Multiple SCSI drives

Single IDE drive

Multiple IDE drives

Also, Linux recognizes more than forty different partition types, such as:

FAT 16 > 32 M Primary (Type 06)

FAT 16 Extended (Type 05)

FAT 32 w/o LBA Primary (Type 0b)

FAT 32 w/LBA Primary (Type 0c)

FAT 16 w/LBA (Type 0e)

FAT 16 w/LBA Extended (Type 0f)

Note that there are other ways to remove the Linux operating system and install Windows than the one mentioned above. The preceding method is used in this article because the Linux operating system is already functioning and there is no more room on the hard disk. There are methods of changing partition sizes with software. Microsoft does not support Windows installed on partitions manipulated in this manner.

Another method of removing an operating system from the hard disk and installing a different operating system is to use an MS-DOS version 5.0 or later boot disk, a Windows 95 Startup disk, or a Windows 98 Startup disk that contains the Fdisk utility. Run the Fdisk utility. If you have multiple drives, there are 5 choices; use option 5 to select the hard disk that has the partition to be deleted. After that, or if you have only one hard disk, choose option 3 («Delete partition or logical DOS drive»), and then choose option 4 («Delete non-DOS partition»). You should then see the non-DOS partitions you want to delete. Typically, the Linux operating system has two non-DOS partitions, but there may be more. After you delete one partition, use the same steps to delete any other appropriate non-DOS partitions.

After the partitions are deleted, you can create partitions and install the operating system you want. You can only create one primary partition and an extended partition with multiple logical drives by using Fdisk from MS-DOS version 5.0 and later, Windows 95, and Windows 98. The maximum FAT16 primary partition size is 2 gigabytes (GB). The largest FAT16 logical drive size is 2 GB. For additional information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

105074 MS-DOS 6.2 Partitioning Questions and Answers
If you are installing Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, the Linux partitions can be removed and new partitions created and formatted with the appropriate file system type during the installation process. Windows allows you to create more than one primary partition. The largest partition that Windows NT 4.0 allows you to create during installation is 4 GB because of the limitations of the FAT16 file system during installation. Also, the 4-GB partitions use 64-KB cluster sizes. MS-DOS 6.x and Windows 95 or Windows 98 do not recognize 64-KB cluster file systems, so this file system is usually converted to NTFS during installation. Windows 2000, unlike Windows NT 4.0, recognizes the FAT32 file system. During the installation of Windows 2000, you can create a very large FAT32 drive. The FAT32 drive can be converted to NTFS after the installation has completed if appropriate.

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