installing POP! alongside Windows

write an install medium 1

If you have an Nvidia graphics card you’ll want to fetch the Nvidia build from https://system76.com/pop and burn it to a DVD or write it to a USB stick. If you have trouble booting Pop!_ OS from the LXFDVD (or have no DVD drive), you should write the ISO file from the Pop/ directory (or the link above) to a USB.

Make space 2

Start windows and open the Disk Management tool. The easiest way to find it is by opening the start menu and typing the first few letters of ‘disk man’. Right-click the C: drive and choose Shrink Volume. Make some space for Pop. Pop recommends at least 20GB, but if you can spare it, use it.

Boot Pop! 3

Boot POP!_OS and start the installer. After answering some localisation questions choose the Custom (Advanced) option, unless you’re happy to get rid of everything on the target drive. Select ‘Modify partitions’, right-click the Unallocated Space and click New. Go with the defaults and then click Add and finally Apply the changes.

Select partitions 4

Exit the partitioning tool and click the new partition. Click the ‘Use partition’ switch, again leaving the defaults. Click the EFI partition (it’s usually second from the left on a Windows install and is Fat32-formatted) and again use it as a Boot partition, but please don’t format it as that will break Windows.

Lift off 5

Hit Erase and Install to begin the fun. Either watch the progress bar intently or make a cup of tea. When the installer’s done hit Reboot and do some final setup steps. You can enable location services and connect online services. Finally, set up a user and password, then click the big tick to start using POP!_OS.

update and augment 6

Updates will probably be available. You should install these when prompted, then switch from the Installed tab to the Home tab. Here you can peruse the multitude of applications awaiting your attention in the Pop!_shop. Pop is deliberately lean out of the box, so you may want to install some workhorse applications at this point.