Installing Redhat on a machine which has Windows 10

[Denzil]

How may I install Red Hat 8 or 9 in my local machine if MS  Windows 10 has been installed?

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[Travis]

@Denzil -

This is a very loaded question as you don't provide many other details.

Do you want to have RHEL installed replacing Windows (meaning it wipes your disk and the only thing left will be the new Linux installation)?

Do you want to dual-boot the system and be able to boot into RHEL or Windows at boot time?

Do you want to run RHEL on top of Windows and use it as a virtual machine?

What are you wanting to do with RHEL because maybe you can use Podman and a RHEL container image or bootable image to have the components? Maybe you could use RHEL as a WSL instance with Windows.

I think before doing anything you need to consider the questions above because depending on your level of experience some things are more destructive than others and if you follow instructions to install RHEL or any other Linux directly on the system you could wipe out Windows and all your existing files without intending to do so. Also note that there are Live Linux distributions out there and you could always try using a bootable USB to run the system live without touching your existing OS and data.

[Denzil]

Good day to you Travis,

Thank you and appreciate that, along with your professional patience and educating me how to ask a question.

Kindly see my inline responses.

This is a very loaded question as you don't provide many other details. Thank you so much for this.! 

Do you want to have RHEL installed replacing Windows (meaning it wipes your disk and the only thing left will be the new Linux installation)? I woul like to keep my Microsoft Windows 10 Professional.

Do you want to dual-boot the system and be able to boot into RHEL or Windows at boot time? That is correct. Precisely.

Do you want to run RHEL on top of Windows and use it as a virtual machine? No, as I limited RAM. I have tried this with Oracle VM but it failed.

What are you wanting to do with RHEL because maybe you can use Podman and a RHEL container image (Would this need more RAM? I have only 4GB, and Windows eats up a good amount!!)  or bootable image to have the components? (Apprecite if you may educate me here, please. ) Maybe you could use RHEL as a WSL instance with Windows. Kindly advise.

I think before doing anything you need to consider the questions above because depending on your level of experience some things are more destructive than others and if you follow instructions to install RHEL or any other Linux directly on the system you could wipe out Windows and all your existing files without intending to do so. I agree with you.

Also note that there are Live Linux distributions out there and you could always try using a bootable USB to run the system live without touching your existing OS and data. Please advise.

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[LittleCoconut]

Hi there,

As aforementioned, you should take a significant time to consider the implications before installing directly onto your hardware - especially if it's your "daily-driver" or something that you depend on for critical work/information.

Sure anyone can give you advice, but there's no substitution for your own research and judgement.

That being said - It's not that scary and perfectly fine to dual-boot. It's still a method that I use GNU/Linux on one of my machines that I have to use for University "secure" (monitored) exams and online FPS/RPG with anti-cheats that target Linux.

** Assuming you have a RHEL subscription active and already got a copy of the ISO - here's a few helpful resources. **

1. docs.redhat.com | Interactively installing RHEL 9 from installation media
2. YouTube @LearnLinuxTV | Dual Boot Windows 11 and Fedora 42 

Here - Jay walks through how to Dual-Boot Fedora (basically the upstream project for RHEL) & Windows 11.

+ Fedora and RHEL both use Anaconda installer, but you will need to register your machine for RHEL.

+ The process is mostly identical for Windows 10. Your desktop and UEFI/BIOS settings might look different (to disable "fast-boot")

+ 4gb ram is enough for smooth experience on a minimal or vanilla install. Performance will ultimately depend on your use-case and work load.

Moreover the concern would be if you don't have very much storage space available left on your drive. You're installing another entire OS and will need to plan how you will accommodate as your files/usage grows.

Hope that helps some! Have fun, and explore!

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

Thanks @LittleCoconut for your great advice! 

Since he is low on storage and RAM, virtualization will not be practical ( ok for lightweight I guess ), and also he wants to keep both - then I agree that  dual boot is surely is an option while keeping aside 40 GB disk space and 2 GB swap space for RHEL. 

[Denzil]

God day to you, Chetan_Tiwary_

Thank you for that.

Please see my response to littlecoconut.

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[Denzil]

Good day to you Littlecoconut,

Thank you appreciate your kind advise.

I have sufficint diskspace. One (01) TB and though I have 8.0 GB of RAM Windows says 4.90Gb.As regards to disk space, I have allocated 800 GB for Windows 10, and 131.00 GB is left free (for Linux). The facts are some one from youtube did an on line traing for me, charging £ 300.00 and then he ran away! 

I do not mind erasing MS Windows and installing Red Hat. The issue is, my knowledge in Linx is thin, and I do not know what applications, software would work with Linux Rd Hat?

By the way does MS - Office 365 work with Linux Red Hat?

I am unable to buy a new machine which supports Windows 11.

Kind Rgards,

Denzil

[Travis]

@Denzil -

What is the purpose of installing Red Hat Linux on that laptop ... learning for an exam or becoming more comfortable with Linux? One of the things you could do is attempt using a live distribution (Fedora) which is the upstream feeder project into RHEL ... technically now that there is CentOS Stream, that is the closest to RHEL. Using something like Fedora gives a larger software catalog on Linux with a variety of tools. 

You ask about software ... technically, there are no binaries of MS Office that install directly on Red Hat or Linux, but it is possible to use the web versions of Office365 applications on Linux. Red Hat and Fedora have Libre Office available which is a similar product to MS Office and capable of opening MS Office files.

Dual booting is relatively easy, but I haven't done an installation for a long time for dual-boot as I haven't had Windows systems for ages. Essentially one of the harder and more "dangerous" pieces is changing partition sizes and formatting the drive as this is the step that could result in data loss, however, if you already have partitioned and made plans for that you are well ahead of the game. I've given a basic article with the overall steps and process.

https://itsfoss.com/dual-boot-fedora-windows/

Also, given that you have 8GB RAM, you could very easily try a live USB and see what you think. I've been rolling my own Fedora Remix with several applications already pre-installed for graphics and other things along with my own tools.

Repository: https://github.com/tmichett/Fedora_Remix 

Website: https://tmichett.github.io/Fedora_Remix/

The main website is about rolling your own and creating your own LiveUSB of Fedora Remix, but it also has the download link of the ISOs that I have been making, which is a link to Google Drive. The latest Fedora Remix I have there is Fedora 42 from September 2025, but there are lots of versions there.

If you are using a laptop computer and you are wanting a more traditional desktop user experience, Fedora would be your best bet. If you want Red Hat Enterprise Linux, obviously download RHEL from Red Hat Developer Network or if you want something in between with the latest packages destined to end up in RHEL, you would go with CentOS Stream. All of these have the same foundations and Fedora would be what most would call the "cutting edge" while RHEL would be what people would call "enterprise".

[Denzil]

Good day to you Travis.

Thank you so much again, and please see my inline comments/ responses.

Appreciate for those two links too! I shall read though and you can expect dumb questions from me!

May you please help me decide on the best, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, obviously download RHEL from Red Hat Developer Network. If you may please assist me with the precise link?

What is the purpose of installing Red Hat Linux on that laptop ... learning for an exam or becoming more comfortable with Linux? I believe, it relates to gain strong knowledge and mainly for Cloud Computing, IaS; Terraform and Github. Nothing like having your own Linux server, and in most cases I can practice without the internet. 

One of the things you could do is attempt using a live distribution (Fedora) which is the upstream feeder project into RHEL ... technically now that there is CentOS Stream, that is the closest to RHEL. Using something like Fedora gives a larger software catalog on Linux with a variety of tools. How extensively is Fedora and CentOS being used in the Enterprise world of Linux and Cloud?

You ask about software ... technically, there are no binaries of MS Office that install directly on Red Hat or Linux, but it is possible to use the web versions of Office365 applications on Linux. Red Hat and Fedora have Libre Office available which is a similar product to MS Office and capable of opening MS Office files. Thank you for this advise.

Dual booting is relatively easy, but I haven't done an installation for a long time for dual-boot as I haven't had Windows systems for ages. Essentially one of the harder and more "dangerous" pieces is changing partition sizes and formatting the drive as this is the step that could result in data loss, however, if you already have partitioned and made plans for that you are well ahead of the game. I've given a basic article with the overall steps and process.  Thank you for that! I have a spare partition. But as you have stated, I need to do a proper backup of MS-Windows et al first. Having said that, since I have a partition, I hope it is safe to proceed? 

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[Travis]

@Denzil -

Let me try to provide some more guidance ... personally, I run Fedora on most of my systems since it is the most cutting edge of what will eventually end up in CentOS Stream and finally in Red Hat Enterprise Liniux. One of the reasons for this is better hardware support and a greater range of software.

Under the hood, all of these distributions are the same and based on the same technology. Fedora is generally the bleeding edge for hardware and software support and always supports the new features (this is great for laptops and new computers) and this provides a good desktop experience. I do have a few systems and VMs running CentOS Stream and RHEL. Those are more enterprise distributions and not traditionally used as often with graphical desktop interfaces. All of these are capable of running enterprise services, but RHEL is the gold standard and the only one that is supported of the distributions mentioned.

Red Hat Developer Network: https://developers.redhat.com/ 

Use the same account there that you use here, but you might need to agree to some rules and disclaimers if signing up for the first time. This will allow you to download the full Red Hat Enterprise Linux server ISO and also provide self-support and ability to register it to Red Hat and receive updates (free)!!

This also has several articles, getting started topics, blog posts that you might want to check out. It also provides some eBooks and mini learning lessons around Linux and other cloud-based topics by delivering resources like cheat sheets for commands (BASH and Linux) as well as a whole range of resources.

How extensively is Fedora and CentOS used in Enterprise and Cloud? 

This is a harder one to answer. Both can be heavily used in cloud and many businesses, schools, and non-profits can often use CentOS Stream and Fedora for hosting items and providing access because they either don't need the support from Red Hat or more often than not would prefer not to pay for a supported distribution. In the world of Linux and Cloud, they are heavily utilized and our Red Hat issued corporate laptops often have Fedora on them because that is a preview of what a future version of RHEL will be like. Again, with Open Source projects we have what is called upstream which is generally the "free" and completely "unsupported" version of a software where the company performs cutting edge development and active updates and releases. The major features are worked out there and then locked down for shipping to CentOS Stream and finally pushed into Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The main differences are the focus on what you are doing and the level of support needed with the system. Only RHEL has a paid subscription where you can reach out and open support cases. The others would be in forums and Internet searches.

In terms of proceeding:

I would figure out the Linux distribution you want to use: Fedora/CentOS Stream/RHEL and then go from there. If you have backups of your critical data, you should be good. The dual-booting installation has gotten much better and should guide you through the process. Again, I haven't done any of this forever, so I can't provide exact steps and it will be slightly different on whether you are installing from a LiveCD or directly from a bootable ISO. I suggest using Fedora Media Writer or Balena Etcher for loading the ISO to a USB as those two are the easiest to use and most reliable.

If it were my computer and I was attempting to just learn Linux for cloud use and expand knowledge, I would use Fedora as it is the most flexible. If you are studying for an exam, I would use RHEL and the exact version or RHEL you will be testing and certifying on. As I mentioned earlier, Fedora and CentOS Stream are "ahead" of the currently released RHEL so commands will be newer and support more features and may have some new commands that aren't available in the older RHEL release.