In the previous post, we installed Kali Linux on VMware and VirtualBox and also we reset forgotten Kali Linux password. The installation is easy and quick on a virtual machine and in some cases, it’s also easy to install on PC. Now Kali Linux installed on virtual machine is fine but it won’t work as nice as actually installed on PC. Including that, there are a bunch of features which either don’t work or don’t work well as it should. With those things lacking, it’s probably not the perfect idea to use Kali Linux on VMware or VirtualBox. Here’s how to dual boot Kali Linux with Windows 10.
The next option which most thinks about is installing Kali Linux on PC. Suppose we install Kali Linux on PC but what happens when we are in need of Windows. The solid solution for this is probably dual boot which lets us work with Kali Linux and Windows that will let them perform perfectly at a time. In this post, I’ll show how to dual Boot Kali Linux with Windows 10.
Support Channel here: following this video you can dual boot your pc and you only need 30gb for installing kali 1). How to install Kali Linux 2020.2 with full disk encryption by manually creating the partitions during installation. So I am trying to dual boot alongside Windows 10 and I freed up about 35gb of unallocated space with windows disk manager. When i try to install Kali it is not picking up ANY of my drives, it only picks up the USB.
- Related: How to Install Kali Linux on VMware, VirtualBox on Windows
What is Kali Linux
Kali Linux is Debian-based Linux distribution at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. Kali Linux is one of the stablest platforms for testing and penetration testing. For those who see Kali Linux as illegal, I’d say that if you use it for the purpose of hacking, so it will be illegal. Otherwise, it is not made for illegal purposes instead it is used only for installing for teaching, learning and studying. Else, it is not created for hacking or penetrating into someone else Wi-fi, online accounts or other. For how to dual Boot Kali Linux with Windows 10., follow the steps below carefully.
- Related:How to Reset Forgotten Password of Kali Linux
Before going any step forward, backup your files and document beforehand. The risk of losing your files is pretty high so it’s better to take the backup of your files so if something bad happens also you don’t regret it. Don’t worry, it isn’t really risky or complicated as we’ll cover from A to Z with shots.
How to Dual Boot Kali Linux with Windows 10
While Windows 10 is probably pretty useful and is also Kali Linux. Whether you’re a developer, a student or any other computer guy who would like to test, penetrate and learn, you’d certainly need to access Kali Linux, but also Windows 10 since you’re a beginner or would like t access for some other reasons. In this case, dual boot is the best option. Let’s head to how to dual Boot Kali Linux with Windows 10.
Download Kali Linux ISO
The first thing you have to do is to Download Kali Linux ISO. Doesn’t matter whether you choose x32-bit or x64-bit.
In this page, you will see all the Kali Linux Versions so you can choose any of them. If you have an updated operating system so the old versions will not work in your PC. You can choose it according to your computer processor. If your computer is 64 bit so download 64 bit ISO of Kali Linux. If you have a Mac so I recommend you download the Kali Linux 64 bit Mate because it works quite easy with this. There is the Kali Linux Torrent and ISO so click on the ISO file then save it. So here’s how to dual Boot Kali Linux with Windows 10.
Create a Bootable USB
The next thing you’d need to do is to create a bootable USB. To create a Bootable USB installer for Kali Linux, install Rufus first. This is used to create a new bootable USB.
When the option comes to your screen ” Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device?” Click Yes. Now choose your device, partition and other settings like the shot and click on Start. When it’s done, your bootable USB is done you have created that now you can close that.
Free up Space For Installing Kali Linux
Now open up Start Menu and type in there “diskmgmt.msc” then enter.
When the Disk Management opened, find an empty, unused or a drive which has some free space drive. Right-click on the drive and from the options, click “Shrink volume”. You’ll be promoted how much our new partition will have disk space. In the field enter the amount of space in MB to shrink.
Once you’ve shrinked, the specific amount will now be shrinked and will be available to create a new drive. Right-click on the drive and select Simple Volume. Proceed with the wizard and the drive will be live. The partition is now created for Kali Linux and it’s ready for installation.
Note: Make sure the Secure Boot and Fast Boot options are disabled.
Dual Boot Kali Linux with Windows PC
After it’s done, reboot your computer. When reboot, select the USB Drive for boot and it will show up the installation screen.
In the Boot Menu move down to “Graphical Install” and hit Enter. Now comes to how to dual Boot Kali Linux with Windows 10.
Once the Graphical Install loaded, select your language then click Continue.
On the next window, choose your country then click Continue.
Now choose your keyboard layout then click Continue.
Now the load installer component from CD which will take some time to load. Configure the network option by entering a hostname for the system. Then click Continue.
Now enter a domain name for the network then Continue.
On the setup users and password, type in a password then re-enter your password for verifying then click Continue.
For the accurate time zone, select the appropriate one and click Continue.
For this part, they will ask for the partition method so choose Manual and click Continue.
Click on Free Space option then click Continue.
Create a new partition then click Continue.
Put a new partition size. If you have more space, increase the disk size to more than 21.5 but if you don’t, let it the same as 21.5 then click Continue.
Now choose Logical as it’s easy and simple than Continue this.
You will be asked about the created partition to whether space it at the beginning or at the end of the available space. I recommend you choose beginning then Continue.
Opt in “Use as Ext4 journaling file system ” then click Continue.
Select the “Use as: swap area” then click Continue.
Click again the Free Space option then Continue.
Select Automatically partition the free space then click Continue.
Next let the setting by default then click Continue.
Now select Finish Partitioning and write changes to disk then click Continue.
Accept the changes to the disk by selecting the disk then click Continue.
The GRUP boot loader can be installed. I’ll choose Yes.
Now installing GRUB boot loader will be finished so it will take up some time.
Then choose the second one which is Hard Disk then click Continue.
Now the installation will be finished. The Kali Linux is now installed completely. When rebooting, remove the USB installer and restart the PC. After restarting, you’ll see the window where you can choose Windows 10 or Kali Linux. Choose the first option Kali Linux.
What comes up next is the login screen, type root in the username and also password blank and Continue.
The Kali Linux should now have been successfully installed and eventually you should be in.
The Kali Linux is a perfect penetrating and testing tool for a professional and a beginner. In terms of security, Kali Linux is the fantastic point to learn about which has the required useful tools integrated in it. What’s prohibited is, when you’ve enough knowledge and enough information and trick to penetrate or hack into, you shouldn’t. That’s where you’ll enter into the black area.
With this step, you’ve no more steps left. That was how to Dual Boot Kali Linux Windows 10. I have tried to provide every single steps and I hope it’s complete. If you’ve some questions, suggestions or ideas for improvement, we’re happy to hear.
Summary :
How to install Kali Linux on VirtualBox? How to install Kali Linux on Windows 10 (in dual boot)? How to install Kali Linux on USB? How to install Kali Linux on VMware? In this post, MiniTool Partition Wizard shows you detailed steps.
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Things You Must Know Before You Start Using Kali Linux
What Is Kali Linux?
Maintained and funded by Offensive Security Ltd., Kali Linux is a Linux distribution based on Debian and it is designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. Kali Linux is the industry's leading Linux distribution in penetration testing and white hat. It is widely recognized all over the world.
Further Reading:
What is digital forensics? https://everythingclever745.weebly.com/attt-internet-free-installation-coupon.html.
Digital forensics is a branch of forensic science encompassing the recovery and investigation of material found in digital devices, often in relation to computer crime.
Digital forensics investigations have a variety of applications, for example, the digital forensics result can be used to support or refute a hypothesis before criminal or civil courts; of course, this technology can be also used in the private sector such as internal corporate investigations or intrusion investigation.
What is penetration testing?
Penetration testing is an assessment method that evaluates the security of computer network systems by simulating the attack methods of malicious hackers. This process includes active analysis of any weaknesses, technical defects or vulnerabilities of the system.
This technology can uncover system vulnerabilities and propose improvement methods for employers without affecting the normal operation of business systems.
What Is Kali Linux Commonly Used for?
By default, Kali Linux comes with a large number of intrusion and penetration tools and software (approximately more than 600), including Armitage, Nmap, Wireshark, John the Ripper password cracker, Aircrack-ng, Burp Suite, etc.
With these tools, Kali Linux is commonly used to do the following jobs:
- Information forensics (including disk recovery, memory analysis, PDF audit, registry audit, and so on).
- Penetration testing (most white hat hackers learn this technology and use it to assess network system security).
- Attack wireless network protected by WPA/WPA2 (to get Wi-Fi password or sniff network).
- Crack the password (cracking the hashed password offline or cracking the website login password online).
- Reverse engineering (decompiling programs written in android, Java, and C++ into code).
- Social engineering (black hat hacker's favorite).
Tips on How to Use Kali Linux
If you want to install and use Kali Linux, there is some advice for you:
- Kali Linux is not suitable for beginners: If you just started using Linux a few months ago, or if you think your level of Linux knowledge is below average, then Kali Linux is not for you. Kali Linux is mainly for experts who want to run penetration test suites or those who want to learn to become white hats and digital forensics.
- Don't use Kali Linux as your main system: Kali Linux uses the root account by default and does not provide ordinary user accounts. It is designed this way to avoid you being required to enter the root password every minute, because almost all security tools available in Kali require root privileges. But this design will also make your computer vulnerable to hackers.
- Hold the bottom line: Do not use Kali Linux system to invade other people's equipment or network, otherwise you may face jail.
- Do not add any other third-party software repositories: Kali Linux is a rolling distro and depends on the Debian test branch. It is very likely to crash due to dependency conflicts and package hooks after you add a new repository source.
This post explains difference between lightweight distros and heavyweight distros and introduces 7 best lightweight Linux distros to you.
How to Install Kali Linux
In this part, I will tell you the requirements for installing Kali Linux, and shows you how to install Kali Linux on VirtualBox, VMware, USB, and Windows 10.
Kali Linux Installation Requirement
Installing Kali Linux needs your computer to meet the following requirements:
- At least 3.8 GB of hard disk space.
- At least 512 MB of memory if your computer is using i386 or AMD64 architectures.
- CD-DVD drive or U disk support.
The recommended configuration for installing Kali Linux is as follows:
- At least 10 GB of hard disk space, preferably SSD.
- At least 2048 MB RAM.
How to Install Kali Linux on a Virtual Machine
Installing Kali Linux on a virtual machine can protect your computer from being affected with virus or being attacked by hacker. If you are not familiar with Kali Linux, this Kali Linux install method is recommended. As for the virtualization software, you can use VitualBox or VMware.
Deleting Free Space Partition On Kali Install Vmware
But before you install Kali Linux, I recommend you to make a separate partition for the virtual machine and Kali Linux. You can do that by shrinking partition in Disk Management or using MiniTool Partition Wizard. Here I pick MiniTool Partition Wizard, because it's more convenient.
Step 1: Click the above button to download MiniTool Partition Wizard. Launch this software and go to its main interface. Then, right-click the partition you want to shrink and choose Move/Resize from the context menu.
Step 2: In the popup window, drag the slider to choose how much size you want to shrink and click OK to continue. The number in the box following Unallocated Space After is the space size you reserve for the new partition. Please note that the larger the space for the virtual machine, the better.
Step 3: Right-click the gray unallocated space and choose Create from the context menu.
Step 4: In the popup window, keep the default settings or make your own choices on partition properties like file system, partition label, drive letter and so on. Then, click OK to continue.
Step 5: Preview the changes and click Apply to confirm the changes.
After making a separate partition, you can start install Kali Linux on virtual machines.
Here is the on how to install Kali Linux on VirtualBox:
Step 1: Download VirtualBox from its official website and install it on your computer. As for the install location, you can choose the partition you created just now.
Step 2: Download Kali Linux from Offensive Security official website. From this page, choose a proper Kali Linux VirtualBox image to download. Then, extract the file.
Step 3: Start VirtualBox and you will notice that there is an 'Import' button. Click on this button to open Import Virtual Appliance window. On this window, browse to find the Kali Linux VirtualBox image you just downloaded and select it to import (The file name should start with 'kali linux' and end with the extension '.ova'). Then, click Next.
Step 4: Now, you will see the settings of this virtual machine to be imported. You can customize them or use the default settings. Then, choose a path to host the virtual machine. The partition you created just now may be suitable. Then, check Import hard drives as VDI option and click Import.
Step 5: Kali Linux will be listed as a bootable virtual machine. You can now start it.
This post shows you how to make VirtualBox boot from USB drive.
Here is the tutorial on how to install Kali Linux on VMware:
Step 1: Download VMware and install it. Then, download a proper Kali Linux VMware image from Offensive Security website and extract it.
Step 2: Open VMware Workstation and click File > Open at the upper left corner. Then, find the extracted folder. Under this folder, there is only one file, whose extension is '.vmx'. Choose this file to open.
Step 3: Click Edit virtual machine settings to change the settings of Kali Linux. In this way, you can make sure the system sources Kali Linux requires can be met by the system sources you configured for the VMware. In addition, choose NAT network. After that, you can boot this virtual machine.
Note: These images that you downloaded from Offensive Security have a default login/password of “kali/kali”.
This post shows you how to create a VM with Hyper-V, which can be viewed as Virtual PC Windows 10.
How to Install Kali Linux on USB
Some people may like to install Kali Linux on USB, because this Kali Linux install makes a portable Kali. Here is the tutorial on how to install Kali Linux on USB:
Deleting Free Space Partition On Kali Installation
Step 1: Plug your USB drive into an available USB port on your Windows PC, note which drive designator (e.g. “F:“) it uses once it mounts.
Step 2: Download a Kali Linux image file. Then, download USB burning software like Etcher, Universal USB Installer, UNetbootin, etc. Use this software to burn the image ISO file into the USB drive. Kali Linux official website recommends users to use Etcher. Launch Etcher, select Kali Linux image, verify USB drive, and then click the “Flash!” button.
Step 3: Once Etcher alerts you that the image has been flashed, you can safely remove the USB drive and proceed to boot into Kali with it. But this Kali Linux bootable USB is just a live USB (you can't save any changes you made on this drive). If you want to have a persistent storage, you should follow the next steps.
Step 4: Download MiniTool Partition Wizard and use it to move/resize the USB drive. In this way, you can make an unallocated space. Then, use the unallocated space to create a partition, whose file system is Ext4, and partition label is persistence.
Step 5: Restart your computer to make it boot from the USB drive. Then, in Kali Linux Boot menu, choose Live USB Persistence boot option.
Step 6: After the installation process (I will show it later), enter Kali Linux desktop. You should first use fdisk -l command to check the current hard disk device to find the identifier (it equals to driver letter) of the U disk persistence partition. After that run the following command lines:
Step 7: Through the above operations, a Kali Linux bootable USB with persistence storage is completed. After that, restart your computer, boot it from USB, and choose Live USB Persistence again. Then, you can save all the changes you made on Kali forever.
How to Install Kali Linux on Windows 10
Some people would like to dual boot Kali Linux and Windows 10. If so, please refer to the following tutorial on how to install Kali Linux on Windows 10:
Check out how to install Linux on Windows. Here are detailed steps to install Ubuntu along with Windows 10 and then dual boot Windows 10 and Linux.
Step 1: Back up important data to an external hard drive. If necessary, I recommend you to clone the whole disk to an external hard drive. This can help you recover your computer when something goes wrong.
Step 2: Use MiniTool Partition Wizard to make a separate unformatted partition for Kali Linux. Download Kali Linux and burn the ISO to a USB stick as the installation medium. Restart the computer and make it boot from the installation medium.
Step 3: Once the computer boots from USB, choose Graphical install under Kali Linux Boot menu. Then, select language, location, and keyboard, configure network, and set root user and password.
Step 4: Configure partitions for Kali Linux. In this step, you need to create 4 partitions: '/boot' partition for storing system boot loader, '/' partition for storing system files, 'swap area' partition used as virtual memory, and '/home' partition for storing user files.
Deleting Free Space Partition On Kali Installer
To create 'swap area' partition, please follow the steps below:
Choose Manual as partitioning method and click Continue. Then, choose the free space you created before and click Continue.
Deleting Free Space Partition On Kali Installers
Choose Create a new partition and then click Continue. Then, set partition size and set this partition as primary or logical partition. You can set all of the 4 partitions as logical partition, but many people would like to set '/boot' partition as primary partition.
Then, choose location of this new partition and configure partition settings. Click Use as and change it from Ext4 journaling file system to swap area.
To create '/boot', '/', and '/home' partitions, follow the steps below:
Click the free space again and choose Create a new partition. Set partition size and set these partitions as primary or logical. Set the location of these partitions and then configure them. Please note that the 3 partitions use Ext4 journaling file system but their mount points are different.
Step 5: After creating partitions for Kali Linux, click Finish partitioning and write changes to disk. Then, click Continue. Click Yes to accept changes. Then, you can choose whether to install GRUB boot loader. After that, you can boot into Kali Linux.
Have met error no such partition grub rescue in Windows 10 after deleting Ubuntu partition? Now, full solutions to fix Ubuntu grub rescue are here.
Bottom Line
Is this post helpful? Have you encountered problems when following the tutorials mentioned in this post to install Kali Linux? Please leave a comment in the following zone. Besides, if you encounter problems when moving/resizing partition, or backing up computer, please contact us via [email protected]. We will get back to you as soon as possible.