Is there a way to run Linux in windows environment?

The last 2 Linux box's I build the other weekend where with Linux Mint 17.3. I'm rather enjoying this disto. But everyone has there own preferred distro.

Also reboots to switch OS's on ssd is faster than I can lean up to take a drink of water. :)

1 Like

Well Kali is based on Debian testing.
So its basicly fine to start with.
I personaly dont have experiance with kali.
But since its basicly based on Debian, it should be okay to start with.
It uses the apt-get package manager, just like Ubuntu, mint etc does.
So it shouldnt be that hard to get go with it i think.

My recommendation, is install Oracle virtualbox + extension pack on Windows10 right now.
And creat a virtual machine of Kali, play with it.
And if you feel comfortable with it, then you could go on to the next fase.
Installing it physical next to Windows10 in a dual boot.

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Nice thing about virtualbox, you could create multiple virtual machines.
So if you dont realy like kali, or you would like to try something else.
Like Fedora / Korora or one of the ubuntu flavours, Manjaro what ever.
You could totaly do that.
I currently have 5 diffrent virtual machines created in virtualbox, just to play arround with.
And my hardware is way less then yours.

2 Likes

That's a read only function thanks to window 8.1 and above now..

Now you have serveral options here @NoCntrl.. The first I like to suggest is a dual boot environment where you install linux to another hard drive or partition and give it.. It's own uefi partition. This is good for most users learning to dual boot and want to jump into linux fast.

The second of three is more for beginners.. Like the youngin here (@MisteryAngel haha xP) where you run linux distributions of your choice either as a virtual machine on your system using virtual box or your favorite virtualization software or you buy an old crappie laptop and put linux on there and learn..

The third option is extremely advanced and only recommended if you know what your doing so don't do it just yet and that's running a xen or kvm server and virtualize g both operating systems but you need adequate hardware a multi core cpu.. Multiple gpus and lots of ram for this so it's not recommended

Thanks for that heads up, i wasnt aware of that since i use Windows 7 as main OS.

Yeah well I've moved onto windows 10.. Its actually quite nice.. Spyware woes and privacy aside I love the operating system

@CynicRF how did you get around "Privacy Woes" ?

KVM and barring off windows from most of that stuff with a good pfsense firewall.. It breaks the p2p update system but I stopped almost all the phone home features.. In addition to opting out of everything and using a local account to login... Its a very advanced setup on my x99 rig and adds overhead unfortunately just a bit

Thus far I killed most of the apps in windows. using Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers | Remove-AppxPackage in power shell.
I also used spy bot anti beacon. in a attempt to kill p2p (god I miss Peer block). and I removed edge with a app called winaero.

I still have cortana to figure out. and fully kill one note. lol

if you have a pro or enterprise version of windows10.
did you also use the group policy editor to configure windows update not doing anything without your permission? lol.

I did not Go on.

Yeah its not realy a privacy thing.
But more like a convenience thing, if you have pro or enterprise.
I personaly hate it, that originaly you dont have any control over updates anymore, like you had in windows 7 and 8.1.
But with the group policy editor its possible to revive that setting if you have pro or enterprise.

But yeah thats abit offtopic maybe. ☺

Guess what soon you wont be able to disable that.. Look updates are not bad.. Windows 10 is a rolling release and updates must continue.. i know this is new.. but hey i trust microsoft with my data a ton more than the governments or third parties... TBH and honestly they are fighting hard against the government ever grabbing data without a substantial warrant so the way i see it... microsoft is honestly okay.. and so what if they use my internet history to make things more convenient lol.. i kinda like that to be honest and what are they really gonna do with my porn collection and my endless searching of PC parts hahahahahah? everything that i need to do securely.. i just run in my live machine image of my favorite distro on a throw away laptop LMFAO

and Off topic is okay if the OP permits it am I correct?

You need something like ntfs-3g to access ntfs read/write under linux.

Some of the replies will mitigate a few issues temporarily. But the answer is you don't, microsoft inject the things they want into important security updates so you cant avoid them and wont know what your computer is doing without some heavily restrictive firewall rules. And don't disable windows updates if its connected to a network, your better with updates and microsofts "features" than no updates.

This shouldn't be the case, though ive never been able to use windows partitions if there not shut down in a specific way, and it often forces a file system check on nect reboot if ive written to it.

Kali is a good distro, but I would not recommend it for a day to day distro, its built to normally be sued as a pen testing / forensics distro. It does have everything like @MisteryAngel but its not the best out of the box experience for desktop use.

Personally I like to recommend Fedora is a good balance between leading edge software and stability. (speaking of which i need to work on my Fedora guide), it does have an issue thats about to surface with non-free software usualy provided by rpmfusion in that rpmfusion have basically hit a brick wall, but that seems to be getting resolved.

Another one I usually recommend trying is OpenSUSE tumbleweek (rolling release), or Debian testing (stable, well build, more up to date but still behind in comparison to Fedora or tumbleweed)

If you have a spare disk i recommend dual booting, pull the windows disk before install, then just switch between them using the BIOS boot menu. You can have grub detect everything, but it saves some hassle with windows if it tries to take over.

What games are you wanting to play that arent Linux compatible? I find theres very few these days.

Yes, it usually happens when fastboot is enabled. It's some kind of hibernation where it stores the current session into the drive and this leaves the drive in an uncleaned state. So Linux is only able to mount it read only. Disabling fast boot and any kind of hibernation gets rid of the issue.

Was about to say that. +1

@NoCntrl if you're talking about the new total war that will come out in two days, it's confirmed that they will release a Linux and Mac version some time after launch. Like they did with the previous total war titles.

So while the Linux version comes out, I suggest dual booting using two drives. That's the most trouble free way to achieve that.
It's a bit of a pain to reboot every time, but if you have an ssd it'd be less painful.
And when the Linux version comes out you scan still use windows if you need it for something else.

Is this Win 10 Pro or Home edition? With Pro you get Hyper-V built in which can be used to run mainstream Linux VM's no problem.

I currently have Win 10 Pro on one of my workstations. I have disks assigned to Windows and disks assigned to Linux (1 x SSD and 1 x HDD) the Linux HDD is mounted as /Home, I can dual boot with the SSD as / /boot etc.

Under Win 10 Pro/Hyper-V I have also created a Linux VM. This has it's own virtual disk (VHDX) and then the /home HDD is passed through and mounted as /home in the VM as well. I can now get to my Linux files directly from booting into Linux or from booting into a Linux VM from Windows.

The only advantage of Vmware Workstation over Hyper-V is better virtual GPU support from the guest Linux OS, this will change at somepoint for Hyper-V, but up until now Microsoft have focused on Linux server support rather than desktop. You can use Putty and Xming to access the Linux VM from Windows though and run Linux applications in Windows.

I'm gonna leave this here if you do chose to go the VM route: https://tekwiki.beylix.co.uk/index.php/VGA_Passthrough_with_UEFI%2BVirt-Manager

Total War : Warhammer

Specs:

Case - Fractal Design Define R4
OS - Windows 10
CPU - I7-5820k
RAM - 32GB DDR4 Corsair Dominator @ 3000 MHZ
Motherboard - ASUS X-99 Deluxe
GPU - EVGA 980 Ti SC FTW
Storage - Samsung EVO 500GB SSD, Western Digital 2 TB
Optical - ASUS BW-16D1HT
Cooling - Corsair Hydro Series H105 with 4 Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition and 2 AF120 for the radiator.

After everything i have read today it would be easier just to wipe and dual boot. Now the Only Question I need to figure out Would which distro should I go with?