Installing an Alternative Operating System: A Practical Approach: Part 2 Download the operating system ISO file
Creating a Boot Disk
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Download the operating system ISO file. Most versions of Windows require you to purchase a license. However, if you have a previous version of Windows 7 or 8, you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Likewise, if you have Windows 10, you can upgrade to Windows 11 for free. Regardless of which operating system you want to install, you can download the ISO file from the developer's website.
v An ISO file is a disc image that needs to be burned to a disc or copied to a bootable USB drive.
v Alternatively, Windows 10 and 11 allow you to download a media creation tool you can use to create a bootable USB drive, instead of downloading an ISO file.
v When upgrading Windows, you can only upgrade to your current edition. This means that if you have Windows 10 Home Edition, you can only upgrade to Windows 11 Home Edition. If you want to upgrade to Windows 11 Pro, you would need to purchase a license to download it.
v You can download various operating system ISO files from the following websites: {https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 Windows 11], Windows 10, Linux Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Linux Fedora, OpenSUSE, Arch Linux
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Download Rufus. Rufus is a free program you can use to create a bootable USB disk drive. You can use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive from the ISO file you downloaded. You can download Rufus from https://rufus.ie/en/. Go to the website and scroll down and click the latest version of Rufus below the "Download" header.
v Alternatively, if you are creating a bootable CD or DVD, insert a blank disk in your CD/DVD RW drive. Then right-click the ISO file you downloaded and click Burn Disk Image.
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Insert a blank USB drive and open Rufus. Make sure you have a 4 GB or larger USB drive. Insert it into a free USB drive on your PC and open Rufus.
v Rufus will erase all data currently stored on your USB drive when it writes the ISO file to the USB drive. Make sure you back up any files and data on the drive you want to keep.
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Select your USB drive. Use the drop-down menu at the top of Rufus to select your USB drive.
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Click Select and select the ISO file for your new operating system. Click the button that says Select next to the "Boot selection" menu at the top. Then select the ISO file you downloaded for your new operating system. By default, downloaded files can be found in your "Downloads" folder.
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Click Start. It's at the bottom of Rufus. This will start writing the ISO file to the USB drive as a bootable disk. Allow several minutes for the process to complete. Once the process is completed, you can use the USB drive to boot your computer.