There’s more than one way to use Linux and Windows operating systems and features together. Today I wanted to write a little about the options to give a general idea how they suit for different needs. I’m not going to take sides with which Linux distro is the best. Go play yourself and make up your own mind – there are so many to choose from. Now, let’s get to the variations that you might want to consider:
1. VM (Virtual Machine)
Virtual machines offer you an isolated image of the operating system running on host system. You install the OS that you want to run on VM using a software. If you’re new to VM remember to check if you have allowed the Virtualization on your systemboard BIOS.
-> If you are using Windows type “Turn Windows features on and off” to searchbar. Then look for “Windows hypervisor platform” and enable it. Re-boot your computer and continue with the software intructions to install VM.
-> When using Linux locate the setting for Intel VT-x (for Intel CPUs) or AMD-V (for AMD CPUs). Make sure it’s enabled and proceed with the software.
Popular options for setting up virtual machine: Oracle Virtualbox, VMware and Gnome Boxes.
VM is a great solution for OS practise, testing and development. You can break you VM image and just re-start it from a snapshot without a complete re-install. A separate device is most ideal for hacking. If it’s not a possibility, I’d say VM is the second best choice since images are disposable. It has all the native commands avaible that come with the OS install image. But it’s important to understand that VM is connected to same network that host OS – measures for covering the digital footprint are still in order.
Downsides for VM are hardware-related; VM needs more RAM/GPU (because of overhead) and GPU support is limited without using PCIe -passthrough.
2. Dualboot (separate partitions)
Dualboot is the option for installing Windows and Linux on 2 different partitions and using a boot manager for choosing which OS to start in the boot menu. This solution requires support for dual boot in system board BIOS.
Machine needs to be re-started for changing OS but you get the full hardware performance with both operating systems. Partitioning for dual boot might be risky but this is the “I still wanna play video games” -version of Winux-combinations!
GRUB and rEFInd are popular Boot Managers.
3. WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
WSL1 emulates linux syscall interface on Windows and WSL2 runs a real linux kernel with a lightweight VM. To use WSL on Windows you have to enable it on BIOS and enable it from “Turn Windows features on and off”-menu.
After that just open PowerShell and type “wsl –install”. No need for separate software downloads.
WSL is opted for development – it runs most of the native commands but not all. I came across problems with WSL while attempting to compress/decompress some files with it. WSL is lightweight but has no full kernel or systemd support. It also has limited GUI support.
NOTE: You might run into conflicts if attempting to use VM and WSL simultaneously – pick one!
I’ll get back to this matter next week – the becoming options are bit more tilted towards aspiring professionals or dedicated hobbyists in my humble opinion.
Read part 2/2: https://jurotar.fi/blog/index.php/2025/10/06/choosing-winux-2-2/
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