Migrating from Windows 11 to Ubuntu 26.04: Dual-Boot Installation and Experience

Introduction

Recently I got the itch to migrate my daily driver from Windows 11 to Ubuntu. 🤔

To be honest, this idea had been brewing for quite a while. Windows 11 isn’t bad per se, but it feels increasingly bloated. Every major update requires hours of fiddling. On top of that, Docker Desktop keeps getting heavier, WSL 2 has noticeable performance overhead, and the occasional blue screen kept fueling my urge to make the switch.

With the release of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and a spare SATA SSD lying around, I decided to set up a dual-boot system to test the waters. If Ubuntu 26.04 can handle my daily work and entertainment needs, I’ll say goodbye to Windows 11 for good.

Here’s my hardware configuration for reference:

Hardware	Model
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5
GPU	NVIDIA RTX 2060
Disk 1 (existing OS)	NVMe SSD - Windows 11
Disk 2 (empty)	SATA SSD - Ubuntu 26.04

This article covers the entire installation process, driver configuration, software ecosystem testing, and my honest impressions. Hopefully it helps others considering the same migration. Let’s go~

Pre-Installation Preparation

1. Back Up Windows 11

I won’t belabor this point. Just make sure you have a fallback in case things go south.

│ 📝Notes: For a dual-disk dual-boot setup, you can use Windows 11’s built-in “System Image Backup” feature or third-party tools like AOMEI Backupper. My NVMe SSD is 1TB; I backed it up directly to an external NAS, which took about 30 minutes.

2. Disable Secure Boot

This is mandatory. Ubuntu 26.04’s default kernel and NVIDIA drivers will throw signature errors with Secure Boot enabled, causing installation failure or boot issues.

Enter BIOS (on my MSI motherboard, press Del at boot), navigate to Security -> Secure Boot, and set it to Disabled.

3. Confirm UEFI Mode

Modern computers are almost always in UEFI mode. To verify: in the BIOS Boot tab, check that the boot mode is set to UEFI. If it’s Legacy, you’ll need to switch. Newer machines are basically all UEFI, so this should be straightforward.

4. Create a Ventoy Boot Drive

Ventoy is fantastic — no need to repeatedly format your USB drive, just copy ISO files and boot directly. I used an old 32GB USB drive, downloaded the Ubuntu 26.04 LTS image, and dragged it onto the drive.

plaintext

Download Ventoy from the official site

https://github.com/ventoy/ventoy/releases">https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/releases

Install Ventoy to USB drive (Linux version example)

Extract, then run VentoyGUI.x86_64

Select the USB drive and click Install

Then simply copy the Ubuntu 26.04 ISO file to the USB drive root

│ 📝Notes: Ventoy supports GPT/UEFI booting and automatically detects the boot mode. After setup, the USB drive can still store other files without affecting boot functionality.

Manual Partitioning: Getting It Right the First Time

Reboot, select USB boot, and enter the Ubuntu installer. Follow the defaults until you reach the partitioning step.

Here I chose “Manual partitioning” because with two disks, you must explicitly specify which disk Ubuntu should be installed on.

Target disk: SATA SSD (in my case /dev/sda; the NVMe SSD is /dev/nvme0n1).

My partition scheme:

Partition	Size	Filesystem	Mount Point	Notes
EFI System Partition	1024 MB	FAT32	/boot/efi	Required. Needed for dual-boot.
Root Partition	200 GB	Ext4	/	System files, applications, etc. Leave plenty of space.
Swap Partition	64 GB	swap	N/A	Sized based on RAM. I have 64GB RAM; swap is configured at 1–1.5x memory size.
/home Partition	Remaining space	Ext4	/home	User data, config files, etc.

Steps:

1. Select /dev/sda (SATA SSD) and click “New Partition Table”.
2. Create the four partitions listed above in order.
3. For “Device for boot loader installation”, make sure to select /dev/sda rather than /dev/sda1.

│ 📝Notes: The boot loader should point to the entire disk, not the EFI partition. Otherwise, dual-boot may not work correctly.

After partitioning, click “Install Now” to begin the actual installation. Wait about 20 minutes for the system installation to complete, then reboot.

Entering Ubuntu 26.04: Drivers and Configuration

After rebooting, the system automatically enters the GRUB boot menu. Select Ubuntu 26.04. First boot — everything works. 🎉

But don’t celebrate too early — drivers and software still need manual configuration.

1. NVIDIA GPU Driver

The RTX 2060 was correctly detected; the official driver needs to be installed.
Ubuntu 26.04 no longer requires adding extra repos, which is very convenient:

# Install the recommended driver (nvidia-driver-535 in my case)
sudo ubuntu-drivers install

# Reboot
sudo reboot

After rebooting, verify with ubuntu-drivers devices and nvidia-smi:

casey in 🌐 casey-MS-7B89 in ~
❯ ubuntu-drivers devices
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/0000:26:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001F08sv000010DEsd000012FDbc03sc00i00
vendor   : NVIDIA Corporation
model    : TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A]
driver   : nvidia-driver-595-server - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-595 - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-580-open - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-580 - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-595-open - distro non-free recommended
driver   : nvidia-driver-580-server-open - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-580-server - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-595-server-open - distro non-free
driver   : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

casey in 🌐 casey-MS-7B89 in ewhisperCN master* 3s
❯ nvidia-smi
Fri May  8 11:21:12 2026
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 595.58.03              Driver Version: 595.58.03      CUDA Version: 13.2     |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060        Off |   00000000:26:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| 37%   30C    P8              5W /  160W |     107MiB /   6144MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|    0   N/A  N/A            2907      G   /usr/bin/gnome-shell                     86MiB |
|    0   N/A  N/A            4137      G   /usr/bin/Xwayland                         2MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Output looks good — driver installed successfully. 👍️

Dual monitors (one landscape, one portrait) also display correctly:

2. Network Adapter Driver

I’m using a TP-Link 2.5G wired NIC, which is already supported by the Ubuntu 26.04 kernel — no extra installation needed. The TP-Link WiFi adapter was also automatically detected and connected without issues.

3. Audio Driver

Audio worked out of the box — no fiddling required.

4. Fingerprint Reader

Unfortunately, the fingerprint reader doesn’t work. I bought a “Kensington Fingerprint Reader” from JD.com, and after checking, it only has Windows drivers — Ubuntu doesn’t support this hardware for fingerprint authentication. I gave up on this feature.

Software Ecosystem: Daily Work and Entertainment Testing

To test whether Ubuntu 26.04 can replace Windows 11, I compiled a list of commonly used software and tested each one. (Snap is too slow — I used AppImage or Flatpak instead.)

Software	Installation Method	Status	Notes
WeChat	Deb	✅ Working	The Deb version of WeChat works well with full functionality.
QQ	Flatpak	✅ Working	Same as above.
Feishu (Lark)	Flatpak	✅ Working	Essential for work.
Obsidian	Flatpak	✅ Working	Primary note-taking tool.
VS Code	.deb	✅ Working	Development tool.
Edge	.deb	✅ Working	Secondary browser.
Chrome	.deb	✅ Working	Primary browser.
Warp Terminal	.deb	✅ Working	This terminal is amazing.
Steam	.deb	✅ Working	Steam games all playable.
War3 + 11 Platform	Wine + Lutris	✅ Playable	Some errors on launch, but gameplay works fine.
Tianyi Cloud Drive	Wine	✅ Working	Requires CJK font installation for Chinese display.
Sunlogin	.deb	❌ Not working	Incompatible with Wayland.
RustDesk	.deb	✅ Working	Wayland-compatible, replaces Sunlogin.

A Few Notes:

• WeChat/QQ/Feishu: The Flatpak versions provide a native experience with full functionality — perfectly adequate for daily communication.
• Obsidian/VS Code: These cross-platform powerhouses work just as well on Ubuntu as on Windows.
• Edge/Chrome: Install directly from .deb packages; just as smooth as the Windows versions.
• Warp Terminal: This terminal is leagues better than Windows CMD and PowerShell.
• Steam: The Steam experience on Linux is quite mature now, especially with the Proton compatibility layer enabling many Windows games to run.
• War3 + 11 Platform: Installed via Wine + Lutris. There are errors on launch and the 11 Platform UI flickers (likely related to Windows dependency libraries), but once in-game everything works fine. I even played 2 matches — won one with a lucky Centaur Warrunner random (burst + mobility FTW), lost another where I ganked all game but the enemy late-game was too strong, ended 10-4 KDA. Nostalgia gamers can rest easy. (I’ll write a dedicated article about this later.) The Chinese input method works smoothly in-game too — much more satisfying for trash talk.
• Tianyi Cloud Drive: After Wine installation, you need to install WenQuanYi or Noto Sans CJK fonts for the login screen and Chinese text to display properly.
• Sunlogin vs RustDesk: Sunlogin is incompatible with Wayland — a major pitfall. But RustDesk already perfectly (not quite perfect yet) supports Wayland with decent performance, making it a viable replacement.

│ 📝Notes: If you have strong remote desktop needs, RustDesk is the go-to alternative under Wayland. Enabling GNOME Remote Desktop (which uses the RDP protocol) is also recommended.

Usage Experience Summary

After a week of daily use, here’s my take on Ubuntu 26.04:

👍️Pros:

• Great hardware compatibility: Everything works except the fingerprint reader — GPU, NIC, audio, WiFi all function properly.
• Smooth system performance: Daily office work, coding, watching videos, playing DotA 1 — no lag whatsoever.
• Rich software ecosystem: Mainstream office, communication, development, and entertainment software all have native or compatible solutions.
• Native Docker support: Running Docker directly on Linux is much faster than WSL 2.
• Smooth system updates: No more half-day ordeals like Windows major version updates.

👎Cons:

• Fingerprint reader not working: A minor disappointment for users who rely on biometric authentication.
• Some software requires Wine: Tianyi Cloud Drive, War3, etc. need Wine, which adds configuration complexity.
• Limited remote desktop compatibility: Ubuntu 26.04 only supports Wayland with no X11 fallback, causing nearly all remote desktop tools to fail. Sunlogin is incompatible with Wayland, and while RustDesk works as an alternative, some features are still unsupported.

Honestly, Ubuntu 26.04 covers about 90% of my daily use cases. If it maintains this level of smoothness, I plan to ditch Windows 11 entirely. 🤪

Final Thoughts

The feasibility of migrating from Windows 11 to Ubuntu 26.04 has been validated. For ops engineers, developers, and SREs with similar needs, Ubuntu 26.04 is a very solid desktop system.

Technology evolves — it’s time to shed old habits. Time to embrace the Linux desktop ecosystem! 🎉

│ 📝Disclaimer: This article is entirely handwritten, 100% completed by me personally. Not AI-generated. If you have a similar setup or run into any issues, feel free to DM or leave a comment. Thanks~

📚️References

• Ubuntu 26.04 LTS Official Download
• Ventoy Official Documentation
• NVIDIA Driver Installation Guide - Ubuntu
• RustDesk Official Documentation