Microsoft is moving forward with its plans to turn Windows 11 into a full-fledged “AI” operating system amidst Copilot backlash. The first big move in that direction is an experimental feature called “Agent Workspace,” which gives AI agents access to the most-used folders in your directory, such as Desktop, Music, Pictures, and Videos. It will […]
Installing Linux to a partition typically involves reformatting it[1] which would erase any files on it. So if you go the dual boot route (where you shrink the windows partition and make a new partition for linux) then all your files would be fine and you could just mount the windows partition from linux and access those files like they’re on an external drive. If you go the other route and install linux to the entire drive you’re gonna have to find a way to back up your files, probably by just copying them to a usb drive or an sd card, and then copying them over to linux once it’s installed. I don’t know that much about windows, or your files for that matter, but I think that even if they’re unorganized they’d still all be in like Documents, Downloads, Desktop, and maybe Pictures or something like that? So you could just copy over those folders, or all the folders under your user, without worrying about organizing them, or if you have enough space you could just copy over your whole C:// drive or something like that. If you have one drive this might be a good use for it but I can’t can’t say for sure since I’ve never used it.
Alternatively you could install it like you would for a dual boot setup, mount the windows partition and copy over the files, and then delete the windows partition and resize the linux partition to cover the remaining space, but if you have a spare usb (in addition to the one you’d need for the linux installer) with enough capacity and you’re not already planning on dual booting windows I’d say go for that since it’s probably easier
not always, but a) that’s generally more of an advanced setup and b) if the partition is formatted with NTFS (the windows filesystem) you’re gonna want to reformat it anyway. I mean, I think it is theoretically possible to run linux off of NTFS but that’d be very cursed please don’t do that ↩︎
Installing Linux to a partition typically involves reformatting it[1] which would erase any files on it. So if you go the dual boot route (where you shrink the windows partition and make a new partition for linux) then all your files would be fine and you could just mount the windows partition from linux and access those files like they’re on an external drive. If you go the other route and install linux to the entire drive you’re gonna have to find a way to back up your files, probably by just copying them to a usb drive or an sd card, and then copying them over to linux once it’s installed. I don’t know that much about windows, or your files for that matter, but I think that even if they’re unorganized they’d still all be in like Documents, Downloads, Desktop, and maybe Pictures or something like that? So you could just copy over those folders, or all the folders under your user, without worrying about organizing them, or if you have enough space you could just copy over your whole C:// drive or something like that. If you have one drive this might be a good use for it but I can’t can’t say for sure since I’ve never used it.
Alternatively you could install it like you would for a dual boot setup, mount the windows partition and copy over the files, and then delete the windows partition and resize the linux partition to cover the remaining space, but if you have a spare usb (in addition to the one you’d need for the linux installer) with enough capacity and you’re not already planning on dual booting windows I’d say go for that since it’s probably easier
not always, but a) that’s generally more of an advanced setup and b) if the partition is formatted with NTFS (the windows filesystem) you’re gonna want to reformat it anyway. I mean, I think it is theoretically possible to run linux off of NTFS but that’d be very cursed please don’t do that ↩︎