How to install Kali Linux running Dual Boot with Windows

In today's article, I will guide you how to install and run in parallel (Dual Boot) Kali Linux operating system with Windows operating system that you are using.

The direct installation of the operating system on the machine will help Kali Linux make the most of the hardware power on your PC, ensuring the best compatibility. Let's start doing it right now!

I. What needs to be prepared?

1 / A USB with minimum capacity of 8GB. Of course the bigger the better!

2 / Create a free partition of about 20 GB in advance (with instructions below).

3 / Files required for the installation:

1. The .ISO file of the Kali Linux operating system. The version in the article I guide is the 2018.1 version. You can use the same or download the latest version here … the installation process is quite similar.
2. Software to create multi-function bootable USB WinSetupFromUSB. You can find detailed user manual and download link for this software here. Or whatever way you like, as long as you can boot into the installer.

II. Steps to install Kali Linux

First you need to create an installer for the Kali Linux operating system first….

1 / Create USB Boot containing Kali linux installer

+ Step 1: After successfully downloading the .ISO Kali Linux file and WinSetupFromUSB software, go to the folder containing that file => and launch the WinSetupFromUSB software.

+ Step 2: At the software window, from the top down, you in turn click Refresh and select the correct USB Boot device that has been prepared. Select Auto format it with Fbinst to let the software automatically reformat your USB.

Tick ​​the box Linux ISO / Other Grub4dos compatible ISO => select the ellipsis icon to the right => and navigate to the downloaded .ISO file.

+ Step 3: Finally, press GO and wait for the USB burning process to complete!

2 / Partitioning hard drive to install Kali Linux

After creating the USB BOOT containing the Kali Linux installer, the next step is to create an empty partition on the hard drive to install this operating system on.

Note: This step is quite easy and there are many tutorials on the blog, you can use Partition Winzard software or AOMEI Partition Assistant…. to split more partitions in a very simple way. In this article, I will use the feature available in Windows, divide the hard drive without software!

+ Step 1: If you are using Windows 10, at the Desktop screen, right-click the Start button => then select Disk Management. Or you can quickly use the Windows + X key combination.

Another way to quickly open the Disk Management tool (applicable to all versions of Windows): Open the Run dialog box (Windows + R) => enter the command diskmgmt.msc => and press Enter.

+ Step 2: Select the drive you want to install Kali Linux (if your computer uses more than 1 drive) => right click on the partition with the most free space, the part of the area you want to divide to make the operating system. Kali Linux => then and choose Shrink Volume.

If the machine has two or more hard drives, choose a hard drive that does not contain the previous Windows booter to avoid risks. Here we choose drive D.

+ Step 3: Enter the size of the partition you want to create in the box Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB (here I choose 40GB) => then press Shrink to complete the process.

Result: This is the second preparation step. A 40 GB empty partition has been created successfully.

3. Detailed instructions on how to install Kali Linux

The following pictures and instructions were made by me on a VMware virtual computer to facilitate the process of recording detailed installation instructions. You can do the same with the installation process on a physical hard drive!

+ Step 1: First, restart your computer to access the BOOT MENU of the computer => and boot into the USB containing the Kali Linux installation.

Note: If you do not know how to boot to USB, please refer to the article on how to enter the BOOT MENU of your computer!

This is the Menu after you successfully booted into USB. Navigate to the line with the option potassium-linux => and Enter.

+ Step 2: In the next window, select Graphical install to have an intuitive graphical interface and support the mouse during the installation process, this will help the installation process much faster and more convenient.

There are also other options such as Live . launch directly from USB without installation or installation with command line interface. You can explore more on your own .

+ Step 3: You choose the language to install. You can choose Vietnamese language if you want, but I do not recommend doing this because it is easy to encounter font errors during use.

+ Step 4: Select the country, I default to the US.

+ Step 5: Select the keyboard layout, the default is British-American (American English).

+ Step 6: Some network settings you can ignore. If you like, you can reset it later.

+ Step 7: Go to the account setup step, you set the Password for the Root account and remember this password, because this is the most important administrator account. Other User accounts can be removed and set up later.

+ Step 8: Continue to select the time zone area. 

+ Step 9: Here is the most important step in the installation process: Select the installation partition for Kali Linux, you choose Manual to set up manually.

+ Step 10: Depending on the number of hard drives available in your computer system, the installer will display all those hard drives for you to choose from. Usually these partitions will be named from sda to sdx (sdb, sdc for example).

Note choosing the correct hard drive you created the original empty partition to avoid writing the partition by mistake, causing data loss. If you do not know which drive to choose, please pay attention to the capacity and type of HDD or SSD. At the next screen select Yes to continue.

+ Step 11: Select the empty partition you have prepared earlier. You may notice to find this partition by capacity created and marked FREE SPACE.

+ Step 12: Here is the step of dividing this free partition into sub-partitions for different file systems (eg / root, / boot, swap, ext4 file system .).

Select Automatically partition the free space to have the installer automatically partition the partitions. For those of you who are familiar with the installation of linux versions, you can divide them specifically for each file system.

+ Step 13: At this point, you will be asked how many partitions to split the file system. For those inexperienced, the All files in one partition option is preferred.

+ Step 14: As you can see the installer has automatically divided the original partition into a 34.5 GB partition for the ext4 file system and an 8.5 GB partition for the swap file system (virtual Ram).

Select Finish partitioning and write changes to disk to complete.

+ Step 15: Select Yes to write changes to hard disk. Data recording may take a few minutes depending on the speed of your PC.

The installer asks to choose whether to use the network to update packets. You can choose No to make the installation process faster and perform the update again after the installation is complete.

+ Step 16: In this part select Yes to install GRUB Boot Loader on the master boot record.

GRUB boot Loader is a component that functions Windows Boot Manager, searching and allowing to choose between the operating systems installed on the hard disk when you start the machine.

+ Step 17: Select the hard drive containing the original Windows operating system and Continue. The installer will complete some final procedures.

+ Step 18: So the installation is complete. Click Continue to finish.

Then the machine will automatically Reboot. You will see the Grub boot menu every time you turn on your computer allowing you to choose whether to boot into Windows or Kali Linux.

And here are the results after booting into our Kali Linux operating system

Additional by Admin: In addition to the very detailed instructions above, you can install Kali Linux directly on the Windows environment easily.

A little suggestion:

You create a free 30 -40 GB partition to contain the Kali Linux operating system.

Mount the ISO file (the Kali Linux installer) to a virtual drive ( see how ) => then run the Setup.exe file to start the installation process. And you continue to the installation steps as above only. Good Luck!

Conclude

Above is a detailed article about the entire process of installing Kali Linux running Dual Boot with Windows. I hope the above instructions will help you successfully install Kali Linux on your PC so that you can quickly experience this wonderful operating system.