Dual Booting pre-installed Windows 8 or Windows 10 with UEFI and a Linux System

More and more disgruntled Windows 8.1 Metro users and Windows 10 users email us about dual booting a Linux operating system alongside their factory installed Windows® installation.  As a person who has designed systems for longer than most people have been alive, I can readily understand your frustration. When I’m designing a system there is always the issue of where to place a simple thing like the taskbar. That placement is important but not a game changer in most cases. I look at it as if it were a car being driven either on the left or right side of the car. If one can drive, more than likely, they will be able to drive on either side without too much difficulty. What Microsoft has managed to do is to put the steering wheel in the trunk. With that said - what you need to do first is to get back some familiarity to your computing experience in Windows, especially Windows 8. Let’s put the steering wheel back where it belongs first.

While in Windows 8 head on over to http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php and download their free program to give you back your familiar Windows Start Menu.  This will require that you navigate to your Windows 8 desktop – you will find the icon for that in the Windows 8 Metro Start Screen.

 Next you need to read up on what a UEFI system really is and how to disable some of its features before attempting any sort of dual boot.  Here’s a good site for reference. http://www.howtogeek.com/175649/what-you-need-to-know-about-using-uefi-instead-of-the-bios/ . Please do not think that you can rush through any of this. It is important that you understand what you are working with before you willy-nilly start changing your system settings. It is possible to muck up your system to the point that it won’t boot at all. So be forewarned.

  Here is another article that is worth the read… http://www.extremetech.com/computing/96985-demystifying-uefi-the-long-overdue-bios-replacement.

  There really is more than one way to accomplish the dual boot with a UEFI system and what approach that you need to take depends on your particular computer. There are all sorts of tutorials on the web about how to go about the process (here’s another good one performed while running Ubuntu 14.04 in Live Boot Mode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE8XvuhyaaA . ) Before that I could feel comfortable in assisting anyone to accomplish this dual booting system I would hope that you - Number 1.) Get Windows 8 functioning to where you could use it to “steer” the system as you are used to doing, - Number 2.)  That you know what a UEFI system is and how it is different from the older BIOS based system and  - Number 3.) That you make yourself  familiar with partitioning your hard drive both inside Windows 8 and with a Linux system. There is plenty of information around the web on how to perform the changes to your UEFI system. Once you've taken the time to read and learn about the process anyone should be able to perform the task without a whole lot of difficulty. We will not "train" you in this process nor will we actively assist you in this process by email or otherwise. Doing so puts us in an odd position of responsibility. So please do not email us asking for us to give you instructions on how to dual boot a UEFI system. It is not all that complicated of a process to perform as long as you understand what you are doing and follow the instructions as given on a myriad of web pages that you can find on the web. If you have "specific" questions regarding Peach OSI and a UEFI system, we will answer those questions to the best of our ability. Fell free to post questions about a UEFI system in our forum and perhaps another user might be able to assist you.