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How would I setup a machine such that it can dual boot into Windows 10 and Linux (say Ubuntu), while being able to access the installations as virtual machines? E.G. Boot into Windows 10, and then run the Ubuntu installation as a VM. Doing this both ways would be nice (i.e. also being able to run Windows a VM from inside Ubuntu), but I would be happy simply being able to dual boot and run Ubuntu as a VM from inside Windows.

Some Googling seems to indicate that it may be possible with VMWare Player.

Edit: I found some very old documentation that seems to indicate that VMWorkstation can do this: https://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/ws_disk_dualboot.html And I found someone who seems to have been able to do this with VirtualBox in one direction (dualbooting Windows/Linux, while running the Windows installation as a VM from inside Linux): http://greenash.net.au/thoughts/2016/02/running-a-real-windows-install-in-virtualbox-on-linux/

The closest analogue I can think of would be how you can setup a MacBook to boot OSX and Windows, yet use Parallels to run the Windows installation as a VM, unless I'm misunderstanding what's actually going on in that situation?

As a further bit of a clarification, this setup would be for a personal machine: I would be also be interested in gaming while booted into the Windows installation, so performance is also important.

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Simply install one operating system first (usually Windows 10 first would be your best choice) and then once installed boot into your Ubuntu/Linux installation media and install the Linux OS onto a separate partition.

After the install finishes, make sure to change your BIOS settings to boot into GRUB or Windows Boot Manager first before the hard drive so that you can make a choice whether to boot into Windows or Linux each time you start your machine.

Now that you've got a dual-boot operating system installed, you can boot into either one and start the second step:

Say you choose Windows 10, once you're booted into the OS you'll want to install a virtualization package. I prefer VirtualBox myself, since it's free and open-source and simple to use for beginners, but you can choose VMware as well - both will work pretty much the same.

After installing your virtualization software in Windows, start it up and follow the applicable procedure to install a Ubuntu/Linux virtual machine on that platform. For more specific help, just Google: "how to install Ubuntu on Windows 10 using VirtualBox" - and just adjust per your exact situation to get good instructions from all over. It's a common task.

Once you're done, you should have Windows 10 allowing you to run a Linux virtual machine at the same time from the Windows desktop.

Now, if you wanna do the opposite - run a virtual machine containing Windows 10 on the Linux desktop - you'll just reboot the computer, choose to boot into your Linux installation from the BIOS, and then just follow the same instructions to install VirtualBox or VMware on your Linux distro, and then install Windows inside.

Now you'll have the best of both worlds, depending on your mood you can boot into either type of operating system for primary use, and then fire up the alternative VM when you need to use that!

Maybe a little overkill to go both ways, but that's what you asked for, so hope it helps you decide where to go from here.

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  • Having it go both ways is probably overkill, agreed! And thank you, but I think that would make it such that I would essentially have four installations: 2 that could be natively booted from and 2 that are VMs only. I would somehow like to trim it down to only two installations of the OS, yet somehow be able to run the other installation of the OS as a "VM": again, the best analogy I have is how Parallels is seemingly able to achieve that in OSX
    – Anonymous
    Commented Nov 16, 2017 at 14:17
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    For sure, my example would be essentially 4 installations. I understand what you're asking for now, and unfortunately there's no commercially available virtualization system available for Windows/Linux quite like Parallels in that regard. The closest thing I can think of is running a hypervisor system on bare-metal (or possibly boot into CoreOS which uses minimal resources), which would then solely contain two virtual images that could be used either one at a time as if you had a normal single installation, or both at the same time in a dual-virtual environment. Sorry, there's not much else!
    – ryantidrick
    Commented Nov 21, 2017 at 5:51

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