How to Install Windows 11 Alongside Windows 10 via Dual Boot (Complete Guide)

A frequently asked question is how to install Windows 11 alongside Windows 10? There are various ways to do this. This article shows you how to install Windows 11 alongside Windows 10 via dual boot.

If you use dual boot, you can choose whether you want to start Windows 10 or Windows 11 when the PC starts.

Basically, you install two Windows versions side by side in different partitions on the same disk.

Install Windows 11 alongside Windows 10 via Dual boot

Step 1: Create Windows 11 installation media on a USB stick

You need a USB stick. This creates a Windows 11 installation volume.

It is recommended to use a PC that suitable for installing Windows 11. This is not a requirement as I will also explain in this article how to install Windows 11 on an unsupported PC.

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If you plan to install Windows 11 alongside Windows 10 on a PC that you already know or suspect does not officially support Windows 11, create a USB stick with the steps from this article (click). In that article, you will use method 4 to create a USB flash drive!

Skip this chapter “Step 1: Installing Windows 11 on a USB stick” and continue to chapter “Step 2: Shrink primary partition in Windows 10” and then follow all further information from this article Step 3 & Step 4.

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Are you sure that the PC you are going to install Windows 11 on in addition to Windows 10 will actually install it? Windows 11 supports? Then continue ↓ If not? Read the above ↑ in red.

First we will use a “media creation tool” to create the Windows 11 installation files on a USB stick. We will need this USB stick later.

Open the browser and go to the website: https://www.microsoft.com/nl-nl/software-download/windows11

Click the “Download Now” button in the “Create Installation Media for Windows 11” section.

There is now a tool called “Media creation tool” downloaded to your computer. Now insert the empty USB stick into your PC and open the “media creation tool”.

Accept the license terms by clicking “agree”.

By default, the Dutch language for Windows 11 is selected. The option “Use the recommended options for PC” is enabled. If you want a different language, disable this option and select the desired language.

Click next if you agree with Dutch.

Select “USB flash drive” and click next.

Make sure the USB stick is detected in your PC. Select the USB stick from the list and click next.

Windows 11 will now be downloaded to your computer. After downloading, the Windows 11 installation files are copied to the USB stick.

Click Finish when the creation of the Windows 11 installation files on the USB stick has been completed.

Step 2: Shrink Primary Partition in Windows 10

Once the USB drive has been created, it is time to shrink the primary partition. This frees up extra data that we can use to create a new partition. We will then install Windows 11 on this new partition and leave the original partition as it is. Windows 10 is installed on the original partition and nothing happens to it.

A partition is a part of the hard drive that is separated from other segments. Partitions allow users to divide a physical or virtual disk into logical sections. For example, multiple operating systems can be installed on the same device.

Right-click on the Start button in Windows 10. In the menu, click on Disk Management.

This part is a bit tricky, so please follow my steps carefully. If at any point you think this won't work, don't continue. If things go wrong you can make Windows unusable.

In disk management you will see a “C:\” partition. In addition to the C:\, you may see another D:\ or “recovery partition”. This concerns the “C:\” partition.

Right click on it and click “shrink volume”.

You will now first see the total size of the disk and then the available space to reduce in MBs. This is the remaining space by default. So if a drive has a standard total volume of 250GB, the data that has already been installed will still be used (in this case Windows 10). Windows will advise you to reduce the remaining data. We're not going to do this.

In the field “Specify how many MB the partition should be reduced by” enter how many MBs you want to allocate to the Windows 11 installation that has yet to be created. Windows 11 requires at least 64GB by default (that's 64000MB). You can specify more if you want, free disk space permitting.

Make your well-considered choice, check whether it is possible, enter the number of MB for the Windows 11 installation and click on “Reduce”.

You will now see the “unallocated” data on the disk. We will install Windows 11 next to Windows 10.

Step 3: Boot from the Windows 11 installation USB Stick

If you have removed the USB stick with the Windows 11 installation files from the Windows 10 PC, reinsert the USB stick. Check if it is detected by Windows 10.

Open the Start menu. Hold down the SHIFT button and click the on/off button. In the menu, click “Restart” while still holding down the SHIFT button on your keyboard.

The advanced boot options are displayed. Click on “use a device”.

Check whether the USB stick is listed here. The USB stick usually has the name “EFI USB Device”, another name is also possible. Click on the USB device.

Step 4: Install Windows 11 alongside Windows 10

The computer will now boot from USB and start the Windows 11 installation. Check the desired language settings etc. and click next.

If you have a Windows 11 product key, enter it. If not, click on “I don't have a product key” at the bottom, which will come later. Click next.

Choose which Windows 11 version you want to install. Click next.

Click the “Install Now” button to continue with the Windows 11 installation.

Accept the license terms and click next.

This is important, click here on “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)”.

You will now see an overview of all kinds of partitions to install Windows 11 on. Click on the “Unallocated space” with the total size that you previously freed up via Disk Management in Windows 10. Then click on “New” and then “Apply.

You can now click on the next button.

Windows 11 is now installed on your PC. This will take a while.

After installation and restarting your PC, you will see the following screen where you can choose to start an operating system.

You can choose from “Windows 11” or “Windows 10”.

You have now successfully installed Windows 11 alongside Windows 10 in a dual-boot configuration. You can now complete the installation of Windows 11.

I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!