Hey guys,
I use my laptop with a Windows 11 / Linux Mint dual-boot system.
Since I actually use Linux Mint 98% of the time, I wanted to ask if it is still necessary to do the system and security updates for Windows 11 as long as Windows is not needed?
If you are asking if not updating Windows will make your Mint system insecure, the answer is no. At least to me an exploit leveraging an unmounted Windows partition is unheard of. It will of course make your Windows system less secure for the 2% of the time you do use it. Another side effect of updating it is that it may break your dual booting.
Thanks for the answer. I was unsure whether it could be dangerous to the PC itself if you ignore the updates for both operating systems.
Yes, I’ve also read about problems with dual-boot systems after Windows updates, which is why I’ve refused to use Windows too often to make the updates worthwhile.
Yes, I’ve also read about problems with dual-boot systems after Windows updates, which is why I’ve refused to use Windows too often to make the updates worthwhile.
Sometimes Windows just overwrites GRUB (or whatever you use on your system) bootloader. But it’s relatively easy to fix using your distro’s installation media. Just in case this happens you need to refer to your distro’s documentation or community forums to fix it.
I do recommend however in the future to not put Windows and Linux on the same disk, but have 2, each for respective OS. That way, there’s no way Windows will ever touch your Linux bootloader, and you can still allow GRUB (or other bootloader) to chain-load Windows boot manager from the other disk.
I’m not sure if I had two separate boot partitions (on separate drives), but I know for certain that windows will try to fuck with bootloaders on other drives during install and certain updates. Has happened to me enough times over the decades to realize the only safe way to keep windows away is an air-gap
The PC itself as in hardware? Hardly… Your data is at risk. So ignoring updates for both Mint and Windows will put you at a more vulnerable position from a security standpoint.
Put it in a VM, more flexible than dual boot. You can even just make a image of the partitions
cp /dev/nvmexx /path/to/part.imgand add it to the VM.What about those 2% days when you do need windows? Every time you boot to it, you’ll have gigabytes of updates waiting for you, which is seriously annoying. In order to do “just one thing real quick”, you’ll end up wasting an hour each time. I propose you make those days less infuriating, by booting up windows a bit more frequently.
Ideally, you would just uninstall it entirely, and use the disk space for Linux. Unfortunately, many people still have some ties that are difficult to break, so I totally get it why dual booting exists. If that one thing you do in windows doesn’t require much performance, you could also dedicate some old heap of junk laptop for it.
Just be aware that updating windows can cause your bootloader to change, so booting back into Linux might be a challenge. Note that I said might.
One thing to note, if you are using UEFI this is very unlikely to happen. It was designed from the start to have multiple boot options and Windows itself often has multiple entries. It is very rare for a Windows update to mess with any other boot options in UEFI.
It seems the other answers already covered what you needed to know, so I won’t be redundant here. Pro tip: if you rarely use your Windows installation, you might consider moving it into a virtual machine that you can conveniently boot from within your running Linux system. This way you wouldn’t need the dual boot anymore, which might be desirable for various reasons.
But if the Windows has an OEM license, it can’t be used inside a VM, as far as I understand.
You can just use an activation script. Even though technically Windows won’t be activated using the OEM license in a VM, the license is still present on the machine. So legally Windows is still licensed. To get around the thing not automatically activating, an activation script is an easy fix.
This is a good activation script:
Legally, it’s probably not. The OEM desktop license probably doesn’t cover virtualization.
Legally it is. On their piracy audits Microsoft only counts the amount of licenses bought and the amount of computers using Windows. They do not care about how it is activated per each computer. They even offer big companies a way to host their own key management system to keep track of licenses they need to buy easier internally.
During those rare times that you boot into Windows 11, go ahead and update it.
I wouldn’t go out of your way and boot into it for the sole purpose of keeping it updated tho.
Thanks, I’ll update it from time to time when I need it.
