Install Linux then Install Windows?

Now sure if I should post this here or in Linux, but it's mainly about Windows, so it'll go here. 

Anyway, I have a quick question about installing windows without using a boot setup like you normally would. If I were to install Linux then put in my USB and run the Windows ISO within Linux, would that work? Or do I have to set a boot drive and everything? I'm kind of just trying to do the lazy way, but I also don't wanna screw it up cause I'm terrible with software. I've installed Linux before, but never Windows. 

If it's the same as setting up Linux, awesome, if not, could I setup Linux then setup Windows from within Linux?

Let me know, anything is helpful.

Install windows then linux

Wow, way to not answer my question, bro. Am I able to install Linux first?

You can. Last I heard, however, Windows has this mentality "I'm the only thing you need" and will delete everything during it's install. It's easier to install Windows first, then Linux. Linux doesn't delete everything during its install so you will still have Windows on your computer after the Linux install. 

Oh sorry, just remembered your other questions. You set up Linux in the Linux install and Windows in the Windows install. Both of the installations are seperate. 

Of course it's possible. It was explained in the thread called "What if I want everything?". It's the best and safest way to install windows. There are many options to do it, you can use kvm-qemu, xen hypervisor, vmware esx, oracle vm server, etc...

The technology that makes this possible for *nix-systems has been around since way before Windows or even the x86 platform was even invented, it was originally developed by IBM in the 1960's, with the first ever "type 1 hypervisor" called IBM z/VM.

On x86, it took much longer to have this capability, as linux had to come onto the scene first, but as linux was adopted by the major technology creating companies as standard almost immediately after it came out in 1991, including by IBM, the evolution of hypervisors sped up even before Windows was really popular, to the point now where there are at least 20 type 1 hypervisors by different companies and organizations, all based on linux, and only a small minority of them are not free and open source software, so you have a wide selection of methods to do this.

kvm-qemu is a RedHat driven project mainly, it's entirely free and open source and native to the linux kernel, so I would recommend using that. It offers the best performance and has the most features, and is known for it's stability (which is an issue with some closed source hypervisors like VMWare ESX, which used to be very popular in enterprises, but is also known for having system crashes that resemble windows system crashes, only it's not called BSOD but rather PSOD).

I use it myself, I've used kvm and Xen for years without any problem whatsoever for years now. To have maximum performance in Windows for gaming, you might want to use paravirtualisation of a graphics card, if gaming in Windows is something that you want to do.

The Windows install is slow and chaotic in comparison to a linux install, and it takes a long time, but in a virtual container, it installs much faster than on bare metal, uses less storage space (even though it still uses an enormous amount in comparison) and it doesn't need to "phone home" like on a bare metal install, you can rip the windows install DVD ISO and mount it on your machine, so that it can see the install medium everytime it boots up in the container, and that suffices, you don't even have to enter the software key, you can just cancel it (in fact, you have to cancel it or it will not finish install properly and will show activation pop-up all the time, if you cancel the software key entry, it will just work as well as windows can ever work). You can also ignore most windows updates, and cherry pick just those that actually do something useful, which saves a lot of space and keeps the windows install much faster than with all updates on a bare metal install.

Another way to do it, if you don't want to use a virtual machine (like Zoltan explained), or if you simply want Windows on a different partition, is this:

  1. Install linux.
  2. Install Windows on a FAT32/NTFS partition. This will overwrite the MBR, making it impossible to boot linux.
  3. Use a live USB of a linux distro (I did this with Arch Linux), chroot into the root linux partition, then install os-prober and grub (or whatever boot manager you want to use). Grub has a module (chainloader) that will chainload the Windows boot manager located on the 100 MB partition that Windows 7 creates.

If you don't know the exact commands, post here and someone will definitely help you.