Linux

You dont even install. You download, write to usb and try linux.

Give it a good hour or more, trying to do a couple basic things like browsing the web, using some apps.

If you find yourself liking the experience, hit install and go dual boot. You can then decide on every boot if you need windows or linux today.

In case you feel like getting rid of windows, you can just disable the item in the boot menu (tutorials online) i guess.

So as you see, there are many failsafes which you can use to not get stuck without a computer that you understand.

Have a good one.

Something I only saw mentioned in a somewhat snarky comment in this thread (apologies if I missed it elsewhere) is that Windows has the option to do a full system image backup.

If you have an external hdd or a nas, from the Windows Backup applet in control panel (not settings) you can create a system image that will contain a full backup of your C: drive and, optionally other drives in your system. You can then restore that backup from the recovery options in your windows install media.

For the windows install media, I’d recommend using the windows media creation tool to create a usb installer on a separate usb key from your Linux installer and then setting it aside just in case. Trying to create windows install media from within Linux is, while not impossible, difficult.

Obviously, you should do all of this before committing to installing Linux to disk. Most Linux install media also functions as a live Linux environment from which you can try things out and see if things will work for you.

Just because no one else is mentioning it, there's a free tool in github to activate any copy of Windows, that could be on a new machine, a VM, Windows To Go, etc. You don't need a product key.

If you're comfortable with swapping out components in your PC, just buy a second SSD. Remove the Windows drive, put Linux on the new drive. If Linux doesn't work out for you, just swap them back.

You could also run a live Linux distribution from a USB stick, or potentially install Linux onto a USB stick or SD.

Windows, in the past has been known to sometimes overwrite the Linux boot loader after a windows update, so be careful with that, since windows assumes no other os exists in the universe. Depending on your windows version, it might not be a bad idea to backup the license key. Recent versions store your computer's information in the cloud, so unless you change a lot of components, it should reinstall without much hassle. But it doesn't hurt to extract the key just in case. Microsoft gonna Microsoft. There are tools for this. E.g. jellybean key finder (or something like that).

Depending on the distro, it might help to disable secure boot in the uefi bios.

That being said, take it one step at a time. Don't try to recreate everything you were doing in windows right off the bat. Get comfortable with the desktop first. Try different apps for certain tasks. If you have an Nvidia GPU, the experience can vary greatly between different distros. As others have mentioned, most distros have a "live environment" on the installation cd, which you can test to see if your hardware is recognised straight away. That being said, don't feel like you're married to a specific distro. Most Linux users will distro hop quite a bit, before they settle on one that just feels right. And even then they might change again after a while, if they get bored.

If you could install the linux then you can re-install the windows

Install Linux in a VirtualBox virtual machine to try it out. No change to your existing Windows system is needed.

Better: install it in a virtual machine on a second hard drive: if you like it and you're ready to switch, switch to booting the real Linux hard-drive and turn the Windows hard drive into the virtual machine, to use within Linux when you need it.

If you switch to Linux, this will happen:

• It's gonna be tough: it's a different system, you're not used to it. Like everything else, it's hard to change and get used to new things. So realistically expect some learning curve and some pain. It's normal.

• If you give it an honest shot but you decide Linux is not for you, you'll switch back to Windows. You'll be back to your old normal, but you'll start to notice how infuriating and spirit-crushing it is a lot more, having been exposed to a non-insane, user-centric OS for a while. And then you'll be that much sadder in Windows and you'll wish you had the best of both OSes - which you can't.

Just be aware than exposure to a non-Windows OS will probably make you hate Windows more and make your life in Windows ever slightly more miserable, even if you don't stick to the non-Windows OS.

Unless you want to feel like Cypher from Matrix, there is no turning back. Jokes aside, if your computer is pre-built or a laptop, it probably already has Windows key saved in BIOS. Though you must install the same version of Windows when you got it the first time. However, there is another way. With a program called Magical Jelly Bean KeyFinder, you can extract your installation's keys (yes, not just the Windows key), and you can use those keys to install Windows later. It's better anyway because sometimes they don't give you a key.

You can debloat your PC after the installation with certain tools.

If your PC already has Windows, you can create an installation USB key.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d

There's no need for a Windows key because your system is already registered with Microsoft. It creates a unique ID from your computer's peripherals.

So just pop in the USB key, boot from the usb key and follow the instructions. To boot from the USB key you might need to go configure the boot order in your BIOS.

Just run Linux straight off the installation media in what's usually called something similar to a "live environment" until you're sure it works.

Otherwise, installing Windows is somewhat more difficult than installing an "easy" Linux distro (e.g. Mint) because you'll have to deal with "activation" bullshit and updated/manufacturer-provided drivers. Unless your computer comes with a computer-specific recovery disk or recovery partition (that you didn't delete when installing Linux), in which case it's easier.

Recent iterations of Windows have been easy to install, esp. when using an entire drive. I (almost) never had issues.

It depends on how far down the rabbithole you go.

I switched to Linux 27 years ago. My wife asks me to help her with her Windows computer every now and then, and I can't really do it for more than a few minutes before my blood pressure is in the risk zone.

There's no turning back...

you should already have backups which will let you restore the system with everything you need. your post indicates you don't have one. what if some malware or hardware failure fucks it up or so? create a backup strategy that works for you. it will also give you the freedom to do experiments like this. best of luck.

If you have a big storage device you can just partition it and have dual boot, or if you need to use windows stuff you can always virtualize it with Virtualbox for example.

Answering you question, you just need to download the windows iso and use MAS(google it) to activate windows/office permanently. But anyway nowadays isn't required to activate windows unless you want to change how your desktop looks.

It isn’t all that difficult to install a dual-boot setup, so you can choose at startup which OS to use.

You can install Linux on a flash drive to test it out. Or spend $50 on a SSD and just have both