🐧 HOW TO INSTALL LINUX MINT ON ANY COMPUTER WITHOUT DELETING WINDOWS — 2026 GUIDE
Want to learn Linux without formatting your computer or losing your Windows installation? In this step-by-step tutorial, I'll show you how to install Linux Mint inside Oracle VirtualBox and run it as a virtual machine on your Windows computer.
💻 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
✅ What VirtualBox is and how it works
✅ Where to download Linux Mint and VirtualBox
✅ How to create and configure a virtual machine
✅ How to allocate RAM, CPU cores, and virtual storage
✅ How to install Linux Mint step by step
✅ How to run Linux Mint alongside Windows
✅ How to get started with Linux for programming, ICT, and cybersecurity
🔥 WHO SHOULD WATCH?
Linux beginners
ICT and computer science students
Programmers and software developers
Cybersecurity and ethical hacking learners
Anyone who wants to explore Linux without replacing Windows
⚠️ IMPORTANT: VirtualBox runs Linux in a virtual machine, so you do not need to replace Windows or repartition your physical drive. However, you should download installation files from official sources and ensure your computer has enough RAM and storage.
💬 QUESTION: Which Linux distribution should I cover next — Kali Linux, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint?
👍 Like the video, share it with someone learning Linux, and follow for more practical ICT, Linux, programming, and cybersecurity tutorials.
#LinuxMint #VirtualBox #LinuxTutorial #Windows #LinuxForBeginners #CyberSecurity #LearnLinux #VirtualMachine #TechTutorial
Want to learn Linux without formatting your computer or losing your Windows installation? In this step-by-step tutorial, I'll show you how to install Linux Mint inside Oracle VirtualBox and run it as a virtual machine on your Windows computer.
💻 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:
✅ What VirtualBox is and how it works
✅ Where to download Linux Mint and VirtualBox
✅ How to create and configure a virtual machine
✅ How to allocate RAM, CPU cores, and virtual storage
✅ How to install Linux Mint step by step
✅ How to run Linux Mint alongside Windows
✅ How to get started with Linux for programming, ICT, and cybersecurity
🔥 WHO SHOULD WATCH?
Linux beginners
ICT and computer science students
Programmers and software developers
Cybersecurity and ethical hacking learners
Anyone who wants to explore Linux without replacing Windows
⚠️ IMPORTANT: VirtualBox runs Linux in a virtual machine, so you do not need to replace Windows or repartition your physical drive. However, you should download installation files from official sources and ensure your computer has enough RAM and storage.
💬 QUESTION: Which Linux distribution should I cover next — Kali Linux, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint?
👍 Like the video, share it with someone learning Linux, and follow for more practical ICT, Linux, programming, and cybersecurity tutorials.
#LinuxMint #VirtualBox #LinuxTutorial #Windows #LinuxForBeginners #CyberSecurity #LearnLinux #VirtualMachine #TechTutorial
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00hello guys welcome back to this channel if this is your first time my name is Moses
00:07i do teach cyber security and programming languages in the last video i talked about
00:15what unix and linux are now it's time to actually get linux running on your machine
00:24and don't worry because i'm not going to wipe your computer so i'm going to use what is called
00:36virtual machine which is basically a computer inside your computer what do you need before
00:44you start so you need at least 4 gb of ram and about 20 gb of free disk space you
00:54can just press
00:56windows key plus e it will bring about file explorer you'll come to this pc section so
01:09right click on this pc section here come and click on properties so once you do that it will expose
01:21some of the properties that your laptop has so you can see yourself this this laptop i'm using it has
01:3116 gb of ram so at least it meets the requirement for running virtual machines because i can assign
01:43at least 2 gb and i remain in substantial ram and also the storage you need at least 20 gb
01:52of free disk
01:53space when you look at this you realize i have 477 gb sort of this i can set aside 20
02:01gb for virtual machine so one thing you need to realize is that the more ram you have the better
02:10so there's some of the things i have so i'm running i5 eighth generation the amount of ram is 16
02:17i can get
02:21up to 2 gb and i remain with substantial storage or ram and also i have a storage capacity of
02:29132 gb which is free which i can set aside 20 gb for for virtual machine so make sure you
02:40have
02:40sufficient ram and hard disk to host virtual machine so we are going to use what is called a virtual
02:51box
02:53now where do we get this virtual box so you'll come to search bar again just look for any browser
03:04of
03:04your choice for me i'm using brave just type brave there this is my browser select it
03:14so when it opens i want to type virtual box that is the first software you have to download why
03:25am i
03:25using virtual box it is free there is no license that you're required to supply in order to use it
03:31and another good thing is that it runs on windows it runs on mac and it also runs on linux
03:38and so it will
03:41be very perfect for this uh setup day so i'll just type virtual box don't worry about full url just
03:53type
03:53virtual box now you can see we have a suggestion here just press enter
04:04you'll see there is an option here and we have a site it is called virtualbox.org and just click
04:14that one
04:17you'll see something like this so it's a powerful open source virtualization software so we'll just head
04:25straight to download click on download
04:35then we have options here so in these options you're being asked to download the appropriate
04:46virtualbox setup file so for example i have windows
04:51so depending with the type of operating system you have if you have linux you'll download for linux
04:56distributions if you have solaris you'll download for that if you have mac you download for mac but for us
05:04i have windows so i'll go to windows host click on it and let's wait for a minute it is
05:13telling me
05:13where do i want to save it i'll say on downloads and click save so as you do that downloads
05:23will begin and
05:24when you look at up there you realize that uh it is downloading so depending with how fast your internet
05:35speed is it should take at least less than five minutes when you're downloading this software
05:45so let's wait for it to download
05:50so we will not wait for it to we can go to something else
05:57so in order to to run a virtual machine in your laptop you need two software you need the virtual
06:05box
06:07which is like a computer inside your computer and you need an operating system
06:15and the operating system of choice we are going to use is called
06:24and the operating system of choice we are going to use it's called linux mint
06:28why do i choose linux mint for one it's very
06:35light on resource usage that means if you have an old laptop linux mint
06:42should be capable to run in your in the virtual machine and also it needs 4 gb it can run
06:51even with
06:521 gb of ram so if you have 8 gb a linux mint can be the best option for you
07:00that is the amount of
07:01ram you have so let's go ahead and download linux mint so i'm seeing virtual box it's almost done
07:08let me come and download linux mint come to search bar type linux mint
07:22first option you get click on it
07:30you will be presented with a download button just click on download so the site is linux mint dot com
07:41so
07:42click download you see we have options here so for example first of all we have a cinnamon edition this
07:50is the most popular one used
07:55but uh for us we will go for light simple and efficient one which is a xf
08:03ce edition this is very light on resource usage even they are saying it here
08:10it's lightweight desktop environment it doesn't support as many features as cinema but it's lighter
08:16for resource you said so this is the one you want to start with remember we want to learn linux
08:23administration
08:24first of all we want to see how do you how the commands work in linux so it's good we
08:31start from the
08:31beginning we see how to set up we also see how to run linux commands so for for this just
08:39click on
08:41downloads and uh will be presented with the the size so you can see it is uh 2.8 gb
08:52so this is very very light
08:55operating system so downloads mirrors are always down there just pick the first choice
09:03and we wait for download to begin wait for download to begin so as we're waiting for downloads to begin
09:13remember we downloaded virtual box virtual box is very important why it enables you to test out
09:22and also to set up your pen testing environment or linux pen testing and cyber security environment in your
09:29one machine because let's face it you might not have the resources to have physical setup where you can
09:42set up a perfect lab so this virtual machine is there to assist you so that at least you can
09:50get
09:50to practice these things comfortably in your laptop now my linux mint is ready to download
09:59uh just save it in the download section click save
10:05we wait for download to begin
10:09so depending on how fast your machine is it can take up to
10:16let's say 10 minutes but i had already downloaded this file so i'll just pause it
10:25but for you make sure you download it pause the video download finish and then you can continue
10:31you come to virtualbox you need to install the setup remember when you are installing virtualbox the first
10:39time in your machine you need to enable virtualization in the bios setup i'll create another video for that
10:49but in order for virtualbox to work properly in your machine or laptop or desktop you need to enable
10:59virtualization on the bios very very important
11:04so for this i had already downloaded and installed virtualbox so i'll just come and search so we need to
11:13install linux mint in our local machine so i'll just come and search virtualbox because i already have
11:21it so i just said virtualbox so this is visit oracle virtualbox click on it let's wait for read to
11:31come
11:32so i already have another version of uh linux mint but for this i will start a new so how
11:41do you go about
11:43it first of all you will come to new there is this icon here for new left click on it
11:50pop up will appear
11:52like this so in this section you need to specify the name of the virtualbox in this case i will
11:57say
11:58it is called mint then you will come and choose the iso image now what is an iso image remember
12:13when you download
12:16linux mint let me go to downloads already having this already have the software just scroll down to where i
12:24downloaded it this is just search linux mint let's say linux
12:36this is it linux mint so
12:43when i right click on it point right click pop up will appear choose properties you will see it has
12:52a
12:52file extension of dot iso why is that so and first of all what is an iso
13:03extension supposed to mean when it comes to installing software so an iso file is a single
13:10file that contain an exact copy of an entire operating system so when you have an iso file
13:17in other words you have the operating system so the only thing remaining it is installing it in your
13:25machine so that is it so we'll come back to our virtualbox we said the name is mint
13:34and then i'll select the iso file this case it is in i'll come to other
13:42section there and then i'll choose linux mint i'll select open i'll uncheck
13:52this button that says proceeded unattended installation that means just leave everything
13:58as default so we don't want to leave everything as different because you have to make sure you specify
14:04the amount of ram you have what you want to use here based on the total amount you have for
14:10example
14:10you cannot specify 16 gb and you have 16 gb as the total or 8 gb and you have 8
14:17gb as the total so
14:18you need to specify at least 2 gb from 8 gb and also the space is it 25 gb or
14:28something like that under
14:29the hardware section so we'll come here specify the amount of ram you want or the base memory and
14:34thus you specify the amount of hard disk space or ssd space you want the virtual machine to have so
14:43after you've specified these two things you can click finish
14:51and then you start the operating system so you want to do the installation now so click on start
15:03it will start powering up it's telling me here telling me here this side so you wait for some
15:11second so remember in order to run virtual machine in your laptop you need to enable virtualization on
15:18the bios so it has started waiting for it right you expand the window it's telling me welcome to linux
15:29min
15:2922.3 it is a 64 bit operating system by default just picks the first option if you don't
15:40select and then installation starts let's wait for some second
15:56so installation process has started
16:02so let's wait for some second
16:28this is live operating system we have not yet installed it in our the space we allocated that is 25
16:39gb when you look at this location here we are located 25 gb here so it is still empty so
16:51right now
16:53the operating system it is still on optical drive so we need to install the operating system so you can
16:59see
17:00we have here 2gb we have here 2gb so how do we install you just come to your
17:10linux mint you'll see a disk like icon up there so just
17:20double left click the icon so let's wait for some second
17:30second so you can see here we have the languages so once you click on that disk like icon
17:39there it will bring about this install window select the language which is english then click on continue
17:53then it will ask you
17:57which keyboard layout do you want so for us just want the default keyboard which is us keyboard
18:05let's click continue
18:10then it will ask you
18:14install multimedia codecs so multimedia codecs are required to play some video formats
18:21and properly render some websites so you can choose to skip this part
18:27which you can install later during updates installation so for this we can just
18:38skip and say continue
18:45then it will ask you which installation type do you want so currently there's no any other operating system
18:56so if there is no any other operating system or if you want just to install
19:00the operating system in the allocated the entire allocated space just say erase and install linux mint
19:11so click install now
19:20then it will ask you
19:23to select the menu to select the region to select the region so by default you just leave at nairobi
19:30next or you can select any
19:33region of your choice so my region is nairobi so i'll just leave it
19:38at nairobi
19:42then it will ask you
19:44it will ask you to specify your username for your machine so i'll just say administration
19:58that is
20:00administration
20:02administration
20:05or let's say admin
20:07i don't want to write something big just admin
20:12computer name
20:16and just say admin lab
20:21and then the password
20:24so always it's good practice you choose a very strong password
20:29when you are setting up
20:33your operating system
20:35password
20:36you can always change
20:38selling me this is one of the weak passwords
20:45just leave it
20:46require my password to login
20:50yes and continue
20:52so it is telling me i have to select
20:55another name
20:57because this one is reserved for
21:00let's say i'll just add one there
21:04you mean one
21:06and then click continue
21:09you can encrypt
21:10here you can encrypt home folder
21:15for security purposes but for us
21:19you just want to see how do you install a virtual machine
21:23for a virtual operating system in a virtual box
21:29so wait for some
21:35minutes
21:37and then
21:38you'll see installation kicking in
21:42so it is progressing
21:44as you can see
21:46so you have to give this process
21:48let's say 30 minutes maximum
21:52depending on how fast your computer is
21:59otherwise it should be done
22:02let's say if your laptop is very fast
22:07so we wait for it to install
22:10and then after installation
22:13we will continue
22:16we have a welcome screen
22:19we have a file explorer
22:22like windows
22:24so similarities are there
22:26so in our next video
22:27we will
22:30look at commands in linux
22:33this is the terminal here
22:39so we will be looking at commands
22:44that are used in linux
22:48in our next video
22:50so from here
22:51what you can just do
22:52you can just pause the machine
22:55and we will continue in the next video
22:58where we will be looking at linux commands
23:00so you've seen how to install
23:02you need two softwares
23:03you need to have virtual box
23:06and you need to have linux mint
23:10iso file
23:11so from there you can install in a virtual box
23:14in the minimum amount of ram you need
23:16it is 2 gb
23:17and 20 gb
23:20space storage space
23:22so once you do that
23:24you'll be ready to go
23:25so from here
23:25we'll continue in the next video
23:27where we'll be looking at linux commands
23:31so those commands we will be
23:35running them
23:37in this terminal
23:39this is our terminal
23:40we'll be running here
23:43linux commands
23:45so what you do
23:46is just come to machine
23:47to pause
23:48you say pause
23:51then you come up here
23:52you close
23:54it will tell you
23:55what do you want to do
23:56save the machine state
23:58for power of the machine
23:59just say save the machine state
24:01click ok
24:03and you wait for it to
24:05stop
24:09so it's done
24:10so we will continue
24:13in the next video
24:14we will be looking
24:15at commands
24:17so to begin again
24:18you just come and click on
24:20start
24:22so that is it
24:25about linux
24:26need installation
24:26in the virtual box
24:28so see you in the next video
24:30where we'll be talking about
24:33linux commands