How to Dual Boot Windows 10 PC and Windows 11 PC – Guide
Windows 11 is now available and rolling out to users worldwide. If you’ve read our Windows 11 review, you know there’s a lot to love about this new operating system, but there’s also some risk involved in trying out an entirely new operating system. Some problems may still appear up, so it’s good to have a backup in case something goes wrong. For that reason, you can try to configure up a VM with Windows 11 or you can boot two versions of Windows on your PC. In this guide, we will show you how to dual boot Windows 11 along with your current Windows 10 installation.
To install Windows 11, you’ll need a PC that meets the Windows 11 system requirements or one of the PCs from our list of compatible PCs. You will also need an external USB flash drive that will be used as installation media for your new copy of Windows. You will also need to have enough free space on your hard drive to install Windows 11. Additionally, back up your data before starting. No harm should be done to your files in the process, but it’s always good to be safe. ..
Dual-booting a computer with two operating systems can be a time-consuming process, but it can be done successfully if you have enough free space on your computer. A minimum of 25GB of free space is required, but the more free space you have on your Windows 11 installation, the better. Up to 50GB or 60GB of free space is ideal. Once you have created a dual-boot system, it will take some time to get used to the different context menus and settings. But once you are done, you can switch back and forth between the two versions of Windows without any problems. ..
Download Windows 11
To get started, you will need to download Windows 11. You can do this by going to the Microsoft website. Choose Create Windows 11 Installation Media option and download the tool. Launch it and choose Use the recommended options for this PC. Then choose USB flash drive and click Next. Make sure your USB drive is connected. Choose your drive from the list and click Next. Your PC will create a bootable Windows 11 drive.
Get Ready to Partition Your Windows 10 Main Hard Drive
In the Volume Down menu, you will see a new option called Create a new hard disk partition. Click on it and then follow the on-screen instructions. When you are finished, click on the OK button to close Disk Management. Now that you have created your new hard disk partition, you will need to format it using the Windows 10 Format tool. Open up the Start Menu and search for “Format” Once you find it, right-click on it and choose “Format”. On the next screen, click on “Advanced” and then select “Partition type”. Select “New” from the drop-down menu and then follow the on-screen instructions. When you are finished, click on the OK button to close Format. ..
Reduce Windows volume
After clicking Shrink Volume, wait for Windows to query your disk. You can then reduce the drive by MB. Keep in mind that 1 GB is equal to 1,000 MB. So Windows 11 needs 64,000 MB minimum. We suggest that you reduce your unit to close to this value. In our example, we reduced it to 100,000 MB. Accept the shrink with Shrink button. ..
Create a new volume
If you’re having trouble turning down the volume on your computer, it may be because your PC is frozen. However, don’t worry; you can fix it by right-clicking on the empty space and choosing New Simple Volume. Once you do, you’ll see a new gray volume that says Unallocated. If you see this, just right-click and choose New Volume to continue.
Next, assign a new drive letter to your new drive. You can also label the volume. We chose to name our Windows 11. Leave everything as it is and make sure it looks like the picture above. Click Finish to complete the process.
Disable Fast Startup and Bitlocker Encryption
To disable fastboot encryption and Bitlocker in Windows 10, you will need to use the following steps:
- Open the BIOS and change the boot order to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1 or earlier.
- Disable fastboot encryption and Bitlocker in Windows 10 by using the following command: fastboot disable
To power down or restart your computer, open the Start menu and choose Power and Sleep Settings. Scroll down to Additional Power Settings and choose the option that best describes how you want to power down or restart your computer. Disable the Fast launch checkbox if you don’t want Windows to start up quickly when you press a power button. Click Save Changes to finish. ..
Boot your PC from Windows 11 bootable drive
Next, you will need to boot your PC from the USB drive you just created. You can usually do this by pressing the F12 key on your laptop or keyboard after turning on the power and choosing your USB drive name from the list of available options. Specific directions vary according to laptop manufacturers. Here are some instructions from HP, Dell, Lenovo.
Final note
This guide will show you how to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11 on your PC. If you have any questions about this article, please don’t hesitate to ask us. Additionally, please share this guide with your friends so that they can also benefit from it.
