Hey everyone!
I got my desktop with dual boot (Kubuntu & W11) and wanted to know if I ever go fully Kubuntu, am I able to reinstall Windows again?
I don’t have a disc, but my desktop came with it pre-installed. Is it tied to my Live account?
You can download the Windows ISO from Microsoft. The Windows License information is stored in your BIOS, IIRC
Just as pee is stored in the balls, sure. Any computer with a BIOS that did the bidding of Windows like that is automatically insecure garbage. Thankfully it isn’t a thing, your license info is stored by Microsoft attached to your account.
It really is.
sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDM
Spec straight from Microsoft: https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/3/8/13818231-a8ad-4fe7-b4e1-a63cbc5d6027/microsoft-software-licensing-tables.docx
An UEFI shell application that can extract it as well: https://blog.fpmurphy.com/2018/01/accessing-acpi-msdm-from-uefi-shell.html
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/pKQp61e94VE
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I just set up a brand new Lenovo laptop today, that came with Win11. I quickly decided Win11 was hot garbage, and installed Win10, removing all partitions and wiping all drives. I never signed into a Microsoft acct on the machine, created only a local acct in Win11 and again in Win10.
When I installed 10, it never asked me for a product key, which had me scratching my head, until I googled and found that it had already activated Win10 home and how I could activate pro.
Long story short, it does appear that newer laptops have the key in their hardware somehow.
Anyway, the writing is on the wall - I can’t keep going with Windows. Which led me to lurking here.
You can download the windows iso from windows webpage, but if I remember correctly you have to do it in Windows since it depends on a downloader program. Then you should store the windows cd-key just in case, you shouldn’t need it and there are ways to recover it from Linux if this is an OEM machine, but it’s always better safe than sorry.
With all that being said, a bit of unpopular opinion now. Why do you want to do that? I kept a windows partition for years because I never knew if I would need it, it was only when I realised I hadn’t touched Windows in months that I felt comfortable removing it, and at that time I didn’t cared if it could be reinstalled. The reason I’m asking is because if you have to ask about it you probably never installed windows on a machine, so you don’t know how to do that, and it’s a lot more complex than Linux because Windows needs all of the drivers to be manually installed to work properly, and while Windows 10 is a bit better in finding those drivers automatically it’s still a Pain in the ass to ensure it got the correct things and wait the thousands of reboots to apply all updates because updates are cumulative in Windows.
You can download the windows iso from windows webpage, but if I remember correctly you have to do it in Windows since it depends on a downloader program.
It only forces you to use the media creation tool on Windows, everything else it gives you a link to download the ISO.
I kept a windows partition for years because I never knew if I would need it, it was only when I realised I hadn’t touched Windows in months that I felt comfortable removing it
I’m exactly the same.
I do not know about W11 (using only Linux since 2000) but usually when installing Windows this is going to wipe out your whole disk, including any other os. That is why to have two (three or four) os you should install windows first, then any other os, the opposite is more like…a problem.
Can confirm, Windows does not give a single fuck about anything else you’re trying to do, will assume every drive is just more space for Windows and steamroller your entire system lol. Much easier to just let it do what it wants first, and then repartition everything to the correct shape when you install Linux afterwards.
You can install windows to a selected Unallocated Space and it will create its partitions, but if it detects an EFI partition, even in a different drive, it uses that for windows.
I just want to reiterate that it is a major pain creating a bootable Windows installation USB drive on a Linux or macOS system. It’d be prudent to create it before installing Linux or make sure you have another Windows computer accessible to you to avoid some headaches if needed.
If you wanna dual boot, I’d recommend installing windows 1st, Linux 2nd. The windows installer has a very high chance to mess up the Linux bootloader, even if you tell it not to touch that particular partition
