How to Dual Boot Windows 11 with Windows 10?

After the announcement of Windows 11 on June 24^th, Windows users are eagerly anticipating its quick release. However, as of now, it is unlikely that Microsoft would release Windows 11 this year.

With the buzz going around of the amazing UI changes and other improvements Windows 11 is introducing, many of you might be willing to try Windows 11 on your devices. The good news is that Microsoft has released the insider preview of Windows 11 that users can easily install by joining the Insider Program. However, installing Windows 11 on your only device is pretty risky if you don’t have a secondary machine. It is still in a developing phase and might contain bugs and security vulnerabilities. Your system might become unstable, slow in response, or, worst, can break down permanently.

Even after knowing the hazards of unstable Windows 11, if you are still curious to install it and test its features, you don’t have to run the risk of installing it over your primary Windows 10 OS.

In this post, we will discuss how to install Windows 11 without deleting Windows 10 on a single device and dual boot a secondary Windows 11 OS with the primary Windows 10.

Prepare Windows 10 system for Windows 11 Dual Boot

For installing Windows 11 as a secondary OS on your Windows 10 device, you need a few preparations beforehand. Follow these steps and make your system ready for Windows 11 ISO installation.

Check Windows 11 Minimum System Requirements

The most crucial aspect to check is whether your device is compatible with the Windows 11 minimum system requirements or not. For installing Windows 11, Microsoft has made some strict requirements, for example, TPM 2.0, Processor With Generation 8 or higher.

Check the complete list of Windows 11 minimum requirements:

If your system lacks some of these obligations, you should upgrade it if it is possible to do that.

Note: I tried installing Windows 11 on one of my devices with Intel i5 6th Generation Processor. It was installed seamlessly and Windows 11 is working fine on it. Although the requirement is 8th Generation or higher, it seems that Windows 11 Insider Preview is available for every device. The restrictions will be probably applied after the official launch of Windows 11.

Download Windows 11 ISO File

If your system is compatible with Windows 11 minimum requirements or you have upgraded your system for installing Windows 11, you now have to download the Windows 11 ISO file to create a bootable device for installation. For installing the authentic Windows 11 ISO of the latest Insider Preview, the best platform is the UUP dump.

Here are the steps to download the latest Windows 11 ISO file:

1. Visit the UUP dump website.
2. Search for Windows 11 on the search box.
3. Choose the Windows 11 Insider Preview according to your device’s architecture.
4. Select the preferred language.
5. Choose your preferred edition. You can choose to download multiple editions.
6. Under the Download method, select Download and convert to ISO. Similarly, under Conversion options, choose Include updates.
7. After the Windows 11 Insider Preview package is downloaded, extract the files in a folder.
8. Double-click the cmd file to begin the download of the Windows 11 Insider ISO package.
9. The download would begin and would take some time, depending on the internet speed.
10. Finally, press 0 to exit and finish the creation of the ISO file.
11. You will get the ISO file in the same folder.

Create a Bootable Device for Installing Windows 11

After downloading the ISO file, you now have to create a Bootable Device for installing Windows 11 on your PC.

To create a USB Bootable Media, you will require a dedicated software known as Rufus. Here are the steps for that:

1. Download the latest version of Rufus
2. Install the program and launch it.
3. Insert an empty USB drive with at least 8 GB of space.
4. On the program interface, select the Windows 11 ISO, next to Boot selection.
5. The program would start creating USB Bootable Media.

Create a new Hard Disk Partition on Windows 10 (Optional)

You can install Windows 11 on any of your current partitions other than the one where a version of another OS is already installed. However, it is advised to install it on a separate, dedicated partition, especially if you will be using it for testing purposes. The dedicated drive must be of a minimum of 64 GB in size as per the minimum requirements of Windows 11.

To create a new partition volume on your PC for installing Windows 11, follow these steps:

1. On the Windows 10 search box, type Run and launch it by clicking on its icon.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc on the run command box and hit the enter key.
3. Look for the drive that has sufficient free disk space (minimum 65 GB).
4. Right-click on the selected drive and select the Shrink Volume option.
5. Choose a minimum of 64 GB, i.e., 65536 MB of disk space to shrink, and click on Shrink.
6. You will now see the unallocated space in the disk management.
7. Right-click on the Unallocated Space and select New Simple Volume.
8. A new window will be launched. Click Next.
9. On the next window, specify volume size and again click Next.
10. Assign a letter to the new volume and choose Next.
11. Allocate a label to the new volume and select Next.
12. Finally, verify all your selections and choose Finish.
13. You will see a new Disk Volume in the disk management.

Disable the Windows Secure Boot

Secure Boot is a Windows feature that is meant to safeguard the boot process on your system. It comes built-in on modern PCs that have UEFI firmware. Its purpose is to stop unsigned UEFI drivers and bootloaders from loading during the Windows startup process.

Though Secure Boot is an excellent feature keeping in mind the system’s security, it prevents users from installing multiple OS on their machine. So to install Windows 11 on your device as a secondary OS, you need to disable the Windows Secure Boot. I know it is violating the system requirement of Windows 11, but until now, it is working for everybody.

Here are the steps for that:

1. On your Windows 10 device, hold the Shift button while selecting Restart.
2. Navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options: UEFI Firmware Settings.
3. Find the Secure Boot option and disable it. The option can be under either the Security tab, the Boot tab, or the Authentication tab.
4. Restart the system.

Install Windows 11 as a secondary OS

After preparing all the requirements to install and dual boot Windows 11 on your Windows 10 device, it is time to finally install it.

Here are the steps for that:

1. Restart the computer
2. Insert the USB stick into your computer
3. Press the escape button repeatedly to enter the Boot Menu.
4. Choose the USB drive to start the boot.
5. Click on Install to begin the Windows 11 installation.
6. Accept the license terms.
7. Windows would begin installing.
8. After a few restarts, the Windows would get installed.
9. Enter the required details like PC name, password, language, preferred keyboard layout, and others. You can log in with your Microsoft account or create a local account.
10. After the setup, Windows 11 will startup, and the desktop would be loaded.

Enable Dual Boot Menu

After installing Windows 11 as a secondary OS on your device, you might experience problems during booting up to Windows 10 or vice versa. This might be because the dual boot menu is not showing up on the system startup. To enable the dual boot menu, follow these steps:

1. On your Windows device, search for Command Prompt and launch it as Administrator.
2. Type or copy/paste the following command: bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes
3. Hit the enter key, close the Command Prompt window and restart your device.
4. The dual boot menu should be available.

Disable Fast Startup

Even after enabling the dual boot menu using the Command Prompt, it might still not show up. The reason could be because of Windows Fast Startup. To fix the dual boot menu not loading problem, you have to disable the Fast Startup. Here are the steps:

1. Open Control Panel by searching it on the windows search bar.
2. Navigate to Hardware and Sound 
3. From the right pane, click on Power options.
4. Click on “Choose what the power buttons do.”
5. Now click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable” to activate the settings.
6. Now under Shutdown settings, uncheck Turn on fast startup to disable the Fast Startup.

Choose a Default OS

You can choose one of your OS as default so that it can load automatically in case of a dual boot menu failure. Follow these steps:

1. On your Windows search box, type View Advanced System Settings and click on its icon to launch it.
2. Under Startup and Recovery, click on Settings.
3. Expand the Default operating system drop-down menu and choose your preferred OS as default.
4. You can also set the time to display the list of operating systems.

Summing Up

Since Windows 11 is still in the beta phase, installing it on your secondary machine for testing is better. However, if you don’t have a second compatible device, this post has listed step-by-step procedures to install and dual boot Windows 11 on a Windows 10 device.

Peter Brown

Peter is an Electrical Engineer whose primary interest is tinkering with his computer. He is passionate about Windows 10 Platform and enjoys writing tips and tutorials about it.