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As you probably know, most people run Microsoft Windows on their desktop computer while others will run macOS or even Linux. Windows 11 has been out for some time now and many people are not happy with its bugs, and Windows 10 will be unsupported soon or may already be, depending on when you are reading this.
If you are looking for something different besides Windows, then you may want to try the Zorin OS. It’s a Linux based operating system but has a similar look and feel to Windows with its start menu and taskbar configuration. There is a free version as well as a Pro version that will cost you around $50 but supposedly comes with $5000 of free software. Like many versions of Linux, Zorin will let you load the OS into memory so you can test it out without installing it. But if you want to install it and test it out without removing Windows from your computer, you can do that as well. In this article, we will be showing you how to dual boot Windows and the Zorin OS.
The first thing you will need to do is download the Zorin ISO image file from their website here. Then you can use an app such as Rufus, Ventoy or UNetbootin to create a bootable flash drive to install Zorin with. You can also burn it to a CD if you still have a CD drive and software that will make the CD bootable.
When it comes to installing Zorin OS, you will need to decide where you want to put it. Ideally, it’s better to install it on a secondary hard drive to keep things separate from the Windows drive. But if you have unallocated space on your Windows drive, you can use that as well. And if you don’t have unallocated space, you can create some assuming you have space on your C drive that you can give up.
For our example, we will be creating some space on our C drive to install Zorin. To do so, we will open the Windows Disk Management tool and right click on the C drive and choose Shrink Volume.
Our C drive is 150GB total and we want to allocate 50GB for Zorin so we will type in 50000 in the box that says Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB. Then we will click the Shrink button to have the space converted to unallocated space.
As you can see in the image below, we now have approximately 50GB of unallocated space ready to use to dual boot Windows and the Zorin OS.
Now we will boot the computer with the Zorin flash drive and will be presented with several options. We will choose the first option labeled Try or Install Zorin OS.
Zorin will then check the installed hard drives for any errors.
Next, you will see the welcome screen where you can choose your language and choose between Try Zorin OS and Install Zorin OS. The first choice will allow you to run Zorin in memory without actually installing it onto your hard drive. Just keep in mind that if you use this option, any changes you make to the OS will be lost when you shut down the computer since its only running in memory.
We will choose the Install Zorin OS option since we want to install it on our hard drive.
On the next screen, You will need to confirm you keyboard layout and then you will see the update screen. Here you have the choice to download updates while installing Zorin. If you uncheck this box, you will need to install any updates after the OS is installed on your computer. You should also keep the second box checked to install third party software for your video and network adapters.
The next screen is where you will need to decide where you are going to install Zorin. Since we are doing a dual boot configuration with Windows, we will choose the 50GB partition that we created during the previous step within Windows.
As you can see in the image below, the first option says you can install Zorin OS alongside the Windows boot manager. If you choose this option and do not have any unallocated space on your Windows drive and have a secondary drive, it will want to use that secondary drive so you need to be careful here.
We will choose the last option labeled Something else. Then we will need to find the 50GB of unallocated space that we created from the list of partitions. These partitions will not be labeled like Windows partitions since we are technically running Linux at this point.
We will then click the + button to create a new partition to install Zorin on. We will leave the entire 50GB to be used even though you can reduce the size of the partition during this step. We will also choose the option for the primary partition and have it placed at the beginning of this space. We will also go with the default Ext4 file system and set the mount point to /.
Next, we will click the Install Now button.
We will then be prompted to confirm the changes that will be made to the hard drive. If everything looks good, click the Continue button.
You will then see a screen asking you to confirm your time zone and you can change it if needed.
Before the installation begins, you will be asked to enter your name, a name for the computer and a username which must be lowercase. Then we can type in a strong password and click the Continue button.
You will then see the installation process on the screen which will take several minutes.
When the installation is complete, you will then be told that the computer needs to be rebooted. You will also be informed that you should remove the installation media from your computer before doing so to prevent the Zorin installation from starting over.
You will then see the boot options for your computer. As you can see in the image below, we can boot into Zorin OS or Windows by selecting the option we want with the arrow keys and then pressing Enter on the keyboard. The Advanced options for Zorin choice will give you options such as a safe graphics mode and recovery options in case you are having problems booting your computer.
Once Zorin loads, you will see your new desktop and can start exploring and installing new apps.
Here is a video showing the main features of the Zorin OS.
As you can see, it’s fairly easy to dual boot Windows and the Zorin OS so you can use them both on a single computer. Its also a great option if you have built your own computer and want to try something new.
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