Rephrased a little more clearly:
1) Defragment your Windows partition, using tools inside Windows.
2a) For Vista or newer, use tools inside Windows to shrink the Windows partition to leave unpartitioned space in which to install Linux.
2b) For XP or older, boot the Linux install CD in "liveCD" mode and find the GUI partitioning tool and use it to shrink the Windows partition.
3) Run the Linux installer. Pay attention to the questions that ask how to use the disk. There will be a choice to use the entire disk (destroying Windows). You don't want that. There will be a choice to use just the unpartitioned space. You want that.
The Ubuntu installer will set up dual boot with Windows automatically. Any other questions you might have are already answered in the many other threads here at LQ that discuss "dual boot", Ubuntu, and Windows.
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