Dual-boot Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10 on a PC

This post shows how to dual boot Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows 10 on a machine with UEFI firmware.

For this article, we will be creating three partitions for Ubuntu 16.04

1. The root partition. ('/')
2. The home partition ('/home')
3. The swap area. ('swap')

First, check your computer is compatible with UEFI. In the search box at the bottom of the screen type 'System Information' and when the icon appears at the top click on it.

Then you can find the BIOS Mode of your computer.

Normally you do not need to disable Secure Boot. But if you have an OEM (store-bought) machine that comes with Windows 10, you might want to disable Secure-Boot.

First, you have to shrink one of your drive partitions to make room for installing Ubuntu 16.04. Therefore go to Disk Management and shrink one drive partition and make an allocated space. 

 

You can download Ubuntu 16.04 using this link. Then boot your pen drive or burn it to a blank DVD. Finally, insert the installation media into the appropriate location and reboot the machine.

When reboot process is happening, go to boot manager and select 'Brand name of your pen drive' + 'in UEFI mode'.  Then select install Ubuntu. You can select 'Try Ubuntu', play around with Live desktop, and if you are satisfied, run the installer by clicking on its icon on the desktop.

The first few steps ask basic strategies from you. click through first few steps and you will be found Installation type.

You will have to select Something else option, then click on Continue and go to next step.

You can see that the all partitions of your hard drive are shown here. The Type NTFS  shows the current windows partitions. Go ahead and click on free space, then click the + button.  Now you will come up with the installer's partition editor. Here you have to be careful and follow these steps accurately.

As I mentioned earlier we will have to make three partitions for Ubuntu. For all three partitions, use Ext4 journaling file system which is stick with the default.

1. For the root partition allocate any value higher than 10GB. Select ' / ' for the Mount point. Then click OK. 

Again there will be free space display on the field. Repeat the previous case and follow number 2. 

                      

     2.  The next partition will be mounted as /home. The home partition will bear all new files, folders, software etc. So assign a big amount of your free space. Then click OK. 

  

     3. The last partition will be the swap. For the mount point, select swap area. The size for swap would be greater than 2GB is enough. 

That it's it. Go ahead and click Install Now button to continue with the rest of the installation. The next step will be selecting the region. Select region and click Continue. 

The final step is giving the username, Computer's name and the password. Then click Continue to install Ubuntu to your machine.

After installation has completed successfully, reboot your computer. After rebooting the computer will direct to the GRUB menu. You can select Ubuntu or Windows Boot Manager. So enjoy Ubuntu.