How to Dual Boot Windows 10 and Windows 11 [Stepwise]

Can we dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11 on the same PC?

The newest Windows operating system - Windows 11 has been released for a long time, coming with new UI and many other new features. It absorbs more and more users to install and experience this newest system, however, at the same time, they don't want to upgrade to Windows 11 to totally replace their old Windows editions like Windows 10. Thus, a question comes to their mind: "Can I dual boot Win 10 and Win 11 on the same computer?". It is certainly "Yes".

Dual booting lets you experience Windows 11 without deleting your old Windows 10 or other versions. You can keep your installation of previous Windows as usual and reboot into it at any time as you like. In the following content, we will show you how to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11 step by step.

Before you dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11

Any time when you have to make great changes to your computer, you should be well prepared in advance. To make sure successfully dual boot Windows 10 and 11, please check the following points have been done:

★ Confirm that your computer has met the minimum system requirements for Windows 11, which are stricter according to Microsoft’s official statement, to ensure Windows 11 can run normally and smoothly after dual booting.
★ Make a complete backup of your system in case of unexpected system problems caused by improper operations during the process. This can guarantee you to restore your OS to its original state easily and quickly.
★ Please prepare an external USB flash drive which is at least 16GB in size as an installation media to download Windows 11.

Full guide with pictures: How to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11

After everything is well done, let's move to the specific steps to figure out how to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11. There are four parts you need to finish.

• Part 1. Create Windows 11 installation media
• Part 2. Create a new partition to dual boot Windows 10 and 11
• Part 3. Install Windows 11 on the new partition for dual-booting
• Part 4. Set default operating system

▶ Part 1. Create Windows 11 installation media

The first thing you need to do is to download Windows 11, here we recommend you to use the Media creation tool. The steps are below.

Step 1. Connect the prepared USB with the PC. Go to the Microsoft official website to download the Windows 11 media creation tool to make a bootable USB.

Step 2. Run the tool, select the language and Windows 11 edition and click "Next".

Step 3. Choose USB flash drive option and select "Next".

Step 5. Install Windows 11 on the USB and remove your USB. Now, you have the Windows 11 OS on your USB.

▶ Part 2. Create a new partition to dual boot Windows 10 and 11

When you have downloaded Windows 11 files, you need to consider where you will install it. Obviously, you can't install two different systems on the same partition. Therefore, it is indispensable to create a new partition for Win 11 installation on your current Windows 10 computer. This can be done via Windows built-in feature Disk Management, and meanwhile a versatile partition manager with easy steps will be introduced to you.

Way 1. Create a new partition via Disk Management

Using Disk Management to create a partition requires there is unallocated space on your disk, if not, you should shrink the existing partitions to get unallocated space first and then create a new partition, the specific steps are:

Step 1. Right-click the partition you need to shrink and select "Shrink Volume".

Step 2. In the pop-out window, enter the amount of the space to shrink and click on "Shrink". When it is done, you will get the unallocated space.

Step 3. Right-click the unallocated space, select "New Simple Volume" and click "Next" to continue.

Step 4. Follow the wizard to set volume size, drive letter and file system as you like. Then you will get a new partition on your disk.

Way 2. Create a new partition via third-party software

As a professional partition manager, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional can be regarded as an alternative of Disk Management. This software supports more powerful functions than Disk Management can do, such as merging partition, copying partition, allocate free space from one partition to another and so on.

Moreover, it not only enables you to create partitions from unallocated space, but also allows you to create a new partition on the existing partition without shrinking a partition beforehand, which is more convenient than that in Disk Management. Let's see how to create partition on an existing partition in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, or Vista so that you can quick know how to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11:

Step 1. Install and open AOMEI Partition Assistant professional. Right-click any partition which has enough unused space and choose "Split Partition".

Step 2. Move the slider bar in the middle to decide the size of new partition you want to create. Then click "OK".

Step 3. Click "Apply" and "Proceed" to commit the changes.

▶ Part 3. Install Windows 11 on the new partition for dual-booting

After the Windows 11 and new partition get done, the most important step comes: install Windows 11 on the new partition so that you can dual boot Win 10 and Win 11. The detailed steps are as follows:

Step 1. Insert the USB with Win 11 OS on to your current Win 10 computer and restart it. When entering the BIOS/UEFI interface, set the USB to the first in the boot sequence list.

Step 2. Restart the computer again and boot from the USB.

Step 3. Then you will see the Windows Setup interface. Select the correct parameters and click "Next".

Step 4. Click "Install now" button .

Step 5. Now, please enter your product key. If not, please click "I don't have a product key" to skip it.

Step 6. In the new window, select "Custom: Install Windows only(advanced)".

Step 7: Select the new partition you plan to install Windows on, click "New" and then "Next".

Step 8: Set some necessary settings and wait patiently.

After a while, Windows 11 will be successfully installed on your Win 10 computer and now you can switch between the two Windows as you like.

▶ Part 4. Set default operating system

After you finish setting dual boot Windows 10 and 11, each time you boot your PC, the boot menu appears, giving you the choice between Windows 10 and Windows 11. You can click and load into any one according to your current need. If you don't make a choice at once, you will automatically load into your previous Windows 10. However, if you decide to use Windows 11 frequently, you can click "Change Defaults or Choose Other Options" on the bottom and follow the prompts to set it as the default system. Then, you are able to boot into Windows 11 by default.

Summary

How to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 11? From this passage, you have learned a step-by-step guide to make it. When creating a new partition for installing Windows 11, AOMEI Partition Assistant is simpler for you to operate. In addition, the "Windows To Go Creator" feature in this software enables you to create a bootable Windows 11 USB, which allows you to carry it with you so that you can enjoy Windows 11 at any time and anywhere as you like.