Nibodhika, 1 month ago

I will keep this as easy as possible, but if you installed Windows 10 that’s much harder than installing most Linux distros. If you want a lengthier tutorial but with pictures go to …readthedocs.io/…/index.html

1. Go to linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=311 click any of the links there, the nearest to you they are the faster they will be.
2. Find a USB drive you can use (probably like you did with Windows, and just like then everything inside it will be lost, so make a backup on another drive) and plug it on the PC.
3. Download www.balena.io/etcher/ select the image you just downloaded, the USB drive you just plugged, and click flash.
4. Reboot and boot using the USB drive like you did for Windows 10.
5. You’re now on Linux, feel free to just poke around, you can connect to your wireless, browse the internet and do whatever, just notice that anything you install or save will be lost since its not really installed but running from the USB drive. When you’re ready click the install button.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions like you did with Windows 10 (or )
7. Reboot and unplug the USB drive and you should now be in Linux.

As you can see it’s 99% of the same you did with Windows, the hardest part of it (boot via USB drive) you already know how to do.

Now, that being said I do have one small recommendation, while installing you’ll see this screen …readthedocs.io/…/installer-install.png I personally recommend you select the “Something Else” option there and manually partition your drive to have:

• 512MB vfat (or fat32 not sure how the Mint installer calls it) partition to be mounted on /boot (this might not be needed, but if you’re in UEFI mode, which is very likely because the machine originally had Windows 11, it is needed)
• 60GB ext4 partition to be mounted on / (this is your system, 60GB should be enough, but if your disk is large enough you can give it 100 or whatever you like, just bear in mind that every program you install will be here)
• <Amount of RAM> swap partition (e.g. if you have 16GB of RAM then 16GB swap partition) (Swap is a place in the disk that can be used as RAM, you want it at least the same size as your RAM so you can hibernate the computer since RAM gets wiped when the computer powers off)
• Remaining as an ext4 partition to be mounted on /home (This is where your data, games, photos, etc will be, having this in a different partition is the reason I recommended to go with the custom partitioning. Unlike Windows on Linux partitions are just folders, so if your data is in a different partition than your system you can wipe your system, reinstall it or even install a completely different distro, without touching your data. In short this means that even if you screw up and end up with a non working system, you can follow the installation again, ensure that this partition is not marked for formatting, and you should be back in a new system but without losing any data or configurations)

That’s just a recommendation for future-proofing, but if you just want to try it and are okay with wiping everything later if needed then feel free to choose the default.