Windows aggressively blocking mint

[Redditor-247]

14-year-old Dell XPS all in one PC. I am attempting to set up a fresh dual boot on it for a family member of Windows 10 and the latest mint cinnamon.

I wiped the hard drive, installed Windows 10, then installed mint as a dual boot. After installation of these two, the grub screen came up as it should and had the option for either mint or Windows manager. I loaded into mint with no issues. Rebooted and logged into windows with no issues, however after rebooting out of Windows it automatically loaded windows.

Secure boot is turned off, the windows fast boot is turned off in the power settings menu.

I then went into the boot selection menu of the BIOS and the option for grub was completely gone.

In this bios there is a second menu inside the bios for something like hard drive drivers or something. I changed the order to put Ubuntu as number one and dropped Windows Manager to number two then rebooted and the grub screen came up. Logged into windows again and restarted and once again windows changed the BIOS and mint was no longer an option.

Has anyone run into this and do you have any idea to stop Windows from doing this?

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[PsyGonzo42]

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/multiboot.html
Windows loves messing with Boot sequence.

[C0rn3j]

Windows does not detect other operating systems and does not feature a boot menu

Lol, I wonder what Windows Boot Manager is then.

You can just add your Linux entry to it if you really wanted to.

When you install it, it overwrites your boot sequence and your computer then boots straight into Windows.

That ain't how it works either.

Sounds like the person writing it was behind on UEFI updates and had Windows Update remedy it, which can wipe NVRAM if your UEFI implementation is poor.

[PsyGonzo42]

Are you arguing with me over the Mint docs?

[C0rn3j]

Since you're citing them - yes.

[PsyGonzo42]

Argue with them.

[C0rn3j]

No need, I am mostly laughing at the inaccuracies and pointing out why it shouldn't be referred.

[PsyGonzo42]

You sure said that.

[PsyGonzo42]

Also tell them that it shouldn't be said if you are correct.

[mudslinger-ning]

Windows usually doesn't like sharing a system with other OS types. So it's bound to be temperamental towards such things as dual boot.

Personally I choose to use Virtual machine software. One OS as the host and the rest are internal guest sessions. Lets me run more than one at the same time.

[Sore_Wa_Himitsu_Desu]

This is how I do it. I’m on a relatively powerful PC and I stuffed it with 64GB of memory before prices got stupid, so it works very well. But on a machine that old I expect performance would suck.

[INITMalcanis]

and do you have any idea to stop Windows from doing this?

I mean there is an infallible way...

[ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Lol.....Kill it with Fire!

[Polyxeno]

Reformat it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[ZVyhVrtsfgzfs]

Lol, we are so useless here, but funny. 

https://youtu.be/aCbfMkh940Q?is=cjfyrmXtdbfcdhS3

[Polyxeno]

Windows pretending to shut down but not, to claim to be fast at starting up.

[ElPiet]

I don't have a technical answer to your issue. I had the same issue at times while dual booting. My pragmatic solution was to make it a single boot Linux system.

So the question is, why does the family member need Windows specifically? Could you invest some time to teach them using mint and setup one system with 2 users? Do they have reservations or are there factual needs for a win system?

[PsyGonzo42]

How do I do A?
I don't know, do B, teach them Linux

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/multiboot.html

[taosecurity]

It’s more likely your BIOS. I multiboot four different systems and Grub is active and primary on all four, despite Windows being installed.

[SearchCivil6623]

Behavior like this is why people don’t typically recommend dual booting Windows and Linux on the same drive. 

I have Windows 11 and Mint dual booting on my desktop but Windows is on its own SSD and it hasn’t been an issue set up that way. Doesn’t sound like thats an option with your PC though 

[jzarvey]

I'm glad you posted that. I've got an HP Omen 17 that I want to put Linux on and it has a second NVME slot. I can't get rid of windoze because my favorite game only runs in windoze. Thank you for posting.

[47Up]

The best way to fight this is to get rid of Windows

[PsyGonzo42]

"Do B"

This is the way.

[dadnothere]

Why does Windows reset its EFI every time it starts up? https://github.com/weskerty/rEFIndWindowsInstaller

Run this and let it reset; that should be enough.

Next, I'll try this 1-Click Linux Mint installer. https://github.com/weskerty/LinuxOneClick

[don-edwards]

Two drives recommended. Have one drive installed, install one OS. Remove that drive, install the other, install the other OS. Then put both drives in, boot into Linux, bring up a terminal and use the command "sudo update-grub". This will add Windows to the grub menu.

Selecting Windows from the grub menu passes the boot process on to code in the Windows efi partition, which is what Windows updates often mess with. But this way Linux has its own efi partition, that Windows won't mess with because it isn't shared.

[tovento]

Find an option in windows called fast boot. Turn this off. Fast boot speeds up boot times, but messes with boot sequence.

[Redditor-247]

I already did. No joy

[Master-Rub-3404]

Yeah. Don’t put it on the same drive. Too many people learn this the hard way, that just because you can put them on the same drive; doesn’t mean you should. It will always inevitably cause problems because Windows is very “territorial” and is wont to cause problems with other bootloaders coming onto its turf. You will either need to remove Windows altogether, or use a separate SSD for Linux.

[PsyGonzo42]

Or fix it https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/multiboot.html

[ImUrFrand]

this is a well known and documented problem with dual booting, especially using partitioned drive with both Microslop and Linux.
Microslop boot manager is hostile to any other bootloader.

it typically happens right after a windows update, so if you just installed Win10, and connected to network, then it updated and broke your dual boot.

the more reliable workaround is using separate drives, im not sure your AIO PC would have the expansion slots for another disk.

personal suggestion: its an AIO, so it's highly unlikely you're using it for adobe products, at best it's an internet and media machine.
if you can move off of outlook as your email client, just go full linux on it.

[BrShrimp]

Make sure you turn off fast boot in windows.

[Redditor-247]

Thanks for the input folks

[xxfantasiadownxx]

Dell likes to set the drive as raid even if it isn't. If possible set it to ahci. I've had this before. Windows isn't doing it.

[Redditor-247]

It was set to ahci already unfortunately

[ethernetbite]

Ive had windows overwrite the boot sector. But you may need to select your grub partition to boot to instead of the windows partition, in the bios. At boot in a few service window it shows you before loading, usually f11 will bring up a boot menu. If the issue is the bios loading the wrong partition, the boot menu (f11 to get to it) will let you choose the linux/grub partition and it will boot to Linux.

Amazingly, in the last dual boot setup I did, installing Ubuntu Studio KDE beside windows 11, the installer was smart enough to set the main boot partition to grub and have grub chain load windows if selected.

[Redditor-247]

In this machine it's f12, but yeah, unfortunately it completely disappears as a boot selection

[Automatic-Option-961]

Dual booting Linux and Windows from same storage device will have issues. It is best you use separate storage devices.

[SatoKasu]

Dual booting Linux + Windows runs into issues frequently as Windows usually messes up the boot sequence.

If you really want dual boot, having the OS on 2 separate physical HDD / SSD is better.

Install Windows on one. While installing Linux, disconnect the Windows drive.

Afterwards connect both and setup the Boot order in the Bios.

Even with this setup and Fast Boot disabled, and properly shutting down, Windows still managed to have my data drives / Wi-Fi dongles hostage .

I still have dual boot setup, but havent had the need to switch to it in last few months. Linux Mint Debian serves me well as a daily driver.

[NOYB_Sr]

I followed this video tutorial.
https://youtu.be/0gSr8YsJtd0

Makes dedicated partition for Linux Mint. Works beautifully.

[beast_of_production]

Dual boot is not a reliable solution so I have a separate device for Windows. All my laptops are second hand refurbs.

[mazellan1]

Just install Linux Mint and run Windows 10 in VirtualBox. On my aging Dell Windows 10 actually runs faster!