If some of us want to dual or tri boot Linux Mint or Fedora... with Windows 7 or 10 on a desktop or laptop HDD, is there software that is user friendly, with GUI for installing? Or could someone make it?

Mint used to be able to do this automatically and install alongside windows or another distro... Why was this discontinued?

I'm sure someone could 'make' this software but I don't expect it to happen because I don't see the demand. You can use software like YUMI to do this on a flash drive for Live installs.

Can't see why and Linux developer would waste their time trying to get dual-boots of windows.

Multibooting isn't that difficult. I have windows 7 and 10 (rarely used) as well as Mint, Slackware and a half dozen other Linux systems. A basic understanding of Linux drive/partition naming conventions and bootloaders is pretty much all that is needed. Just a little bit of research and reading is all that's necessary.

I would guess it is because of UEFI as the Alongside method creates problems with UEFI installs and from reading posts at the Ubuntu forums, the people in the know over there always recommend the manual "Something Else" method.

1 members found this post helpful.

There are third party boot managers and other GUI Linux installers (and\or distros that help more) for microcoughed...

The key is; if you want to keep losedough$ and more importantly your data, do backups then use whatever tools you want,,, just some are truly FREE as in freedom.

Interesting. I am beginning to look at microcoughed, what is it?
What are some of these installer softwares called?

GRUB is the one for me but there's: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comp...f_boot_loaders
and if you're in microcoughed-windblow$ when you pop in some distros that may offer an install from windowz... have fun!

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If you (as in anyone) use Linux as a Hobby something or other I can see where the question comes from. (I agree with yancek.)
BUT - if you (again - as in anyone) use Linux at work then I miss what it is about.
ANY GUI hogs memory. Hogs lots and lots of memory. Plus - Typical installs require either finding a place to store the existing data on the existing partition(s) of the existing drive you intend to use or total disk wipe outs followed by (re)creating some or all of the target disk.
I personally include Slackware's setup's dialog and lilo to be GUI's. The window with the "check/data entry boxes" is a type of GUI.

As for: "...to get dual-boots of windows." Multiple versions of window$ implied.
Well - some programs (especially those written in-house) may only work on specific versions. I do not know any sane company that wants to throw away (possibly) years of in-house resources.
As for Slackware's install procedure - It is pretty much a case of follow the bouncing ball.

See "...A basic understanding of Linux.." above. I do agree with that. Old adage among Mechanics of the day: If you don't understand what it is, don't touch. Do your diligence (homework). Linux, for all its simplicity of use is still, in fact, quite complicated. Window$ has a few thousand employees (or did) who are interested in a paycheck. Linux has millions if not billions of supporters supporting it for free. Guess who has the better product?

Two last things.
One: About a more complicated booting: /etc/rc.d has plenty of space for defining what/where/how you want Linux to engage. Each boot entry in LILO can be given a separate set of "WHAT WE DOING THIS TIME?" instructions. The limit is your imagination. (And disk space

Two: If you setup to do Computer Numerical Controlled Milling, do not put games on it. Same caution if the two are reversed. If you want games - OK. Just leave the CNC off. Games can blow up and take your business out too.

Norseman01

It's just a matter of learning to play well with GRUB... (but, don't play with your food: http://www.erikyyy.de/invaders/...)

Life is possible even with Grub2. Just don't use the terrible grub2-mkconfig and use your favorite editor to keep it simple.

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grub2 works just fine

but windows MUST still be on the first partition of the first drive

otherwise updates WILL FAIL and the os will be FUBAR'ed
( a microsoft caused problem and not a linux one)

Windows has to be on the first VISIBLE partition on the first VISIBLE drive to Windows.

I use a combination of Grub4DOS and Symon partition manager.

Symon allows you to manipulate the partition tables at boot time so you can shuffle up to 36 partitions and deal any 4 from those in any order.

""Free"ware"... no thanks.

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With Slackware and lilo I make Primary Partition 1 a 2Gig type 6 (MSDOS), set the boot flag and load MSDOS normally. (MSDOS only reads/writes a max of 2Gig)
Then: I make Primary Partition 2 a Window$s type c (W95 FAT32 LBA), move the boot flag to Partition 2 and load Windows normally. Yes, lots of reboots. NO - Window$ is not allowed to make any new partitions.
Then: I make Primary Partition 3 a Window$ type c and usually use it as place to pass Window$ program outputs to Linux. If you want another OS here that is OK.
Then I set Primary Partition 4 to type 85 (Linux Extended) and make sure that either Partition 2 OR Partition 3, if it has an OS, has the boot flag set. At the end of the day there is only ONE (1) boot flag set on the disk.
Then: I make the Extended Partition 5 a Linux type 82 (swap space)
Then: I make Extended Partition 6 and that becomes my tried and true Linux of use. type 83
Then: I make Extended Partition 7 and load a Linux for testing. type 83
Then: I make Extended Partition 8 and that becomes MASS STORAGE. type 83. I do not use RAID.
I do have the ability to load/access more than 18 Terabytes of OS's and Storage if want.
Except for Partition 1 as MSDOS, the sizes of the various partitions is user choice.
No MSDOS - no 2 Gig limit on Partition 1.

If you load more than one Window$ or OS that actually requires the Boot flag to function, then you will need to move the Boot flag before starting the OS requiring it. If you use Linux as the traffic director, scripts can do the heavy lifting.
man bash; search here-document .............................aid to move Boot flag
man lilo; search -R; simple sample: "lilo -R S130;reboot" ..to boot OS named S130

Norseman01