In short
- Linux Mint 22.3 is free, supported until April 2029, and runs well on 2013–2018 PCs. Pick the Cinnamon edition, or Xfce for machines with 4GB of memory or less.
- Back up first, then test Mint from the USB stick before installing. Ten minutes with Wi-Fi, sound and the printer tells you everything.
- The installer is seven screens. "Erase disk and install" is the right choice for a clean switch.
- Your Windows files copy straight across. Most printers need no driver at all. Microsoft 365 works in the browser; Office macros do not.
This is the practical companion to should you switch. It assumes you've read the list of people Linux is wrong for, decided you're not one of them, and now want the actual steps. Nothing here requires a command line.
Before you start: three things
- Back up your Windows files. The clean install below erases the drive. The 20-minute backup covers what to copy, including the browser passwords people forget. Do this even if you intend to keep Windows alongside.
- Run the hardware check. Four questions about your graphics chip, Wi-Fi card, BitLocker and printer. If it flags Wi-Fi, order a Linux-friendly USB adapter now so it's here on install day. If it flags an older NVIDIA card, read the note in step 8 below.
- Save your BitLocker recovery key from account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey, if the PC uses it. Once Windows is gone you won't be able to read that drive without it.
What you'll need
- SanDisk Ultra 32GB USB 3.0 flash driveFor installers and rescue sticks. Amazon
- WD Elements 2TB portable hard driveRoomy, simple backup storage. Amazon
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Step 1: pick an edition
Linux Mint comes in three flavors that differ only in the desktop layout. All three are the same system underneath.
| Edition | Choose it if |
|---|---|
| Cinnamon default | Your PC has 8GB of memory or more. The most polished and the most Windows-like. |
| Xfce | Your PC has 4GB or less, or is from before about 2013. Lightest and fastest; slightly plainer. |
| MATE | You want something in between. Fine, but if in doubt pick one of the other two. |
The current release is Linux Mint 22.3, based on Ubuntu 24.04 and supported with updates until April 2029. Download it from linuxmint.com. The file is a few gigabytes.
Step 2: check the download (optional but quick)
Mint publishes a checksum for every download so you can confirm the file arrived intact. On Windows, open PowerShell in your Downloads folder and run Get-FileHash .\linuxmint-22.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso, then compare the result with the sha256sum.txt file on the download page. If they match, carry on. If they don't, download again. Mint's guide also describes a signature check with GPG; it's good practice but not necessary for a home install.
Step 3: write the USB stick
You need a USB stick of 8GB or more. Everything on it will be erased.
- Download balenaEtcher, the tool Mint's own guide recommends. (Rufus also works; if you already have it, use it with the default settings.)
- Open Etcher, choose the Mint file you downloaded, choose the USB stick, and click Flash. It takes a few minutes.
- Leave the stick plugged in and restart the PC.
Step 4: boot from the stick
As the PC restarts, press the boot-menu key repeatedly. Mint's guide lists the possibilities as Escape, F1, F2, F8, F10, F11, F12 or Delete. In practice: F12 on most Dell and Lenovo machines, Esc then F9 on HP, F12 on Acer (you may need to enable the boot menu in the BIOS first), and Esc or F8 on ASUS. Pick the entry that names your USB stick.
If the stick doesn't appear, two settings in the BIOS usually explain it: Fast Boot (turn it off) and Secure Boot. Mint boots with Secure Boot on, so leave it enabled unless the machine refuses; if you do turn it off and you plan to keep Windows, be aware that BitLocker will demand its recovery key.
Step 5: try before you install
The stick boots to a complete Mint desktop that runs from the USB drive without touching your hard disk. Spend ten minutes here. It's the most valuable ten minutes in this guide.
- Click the network icon in the bottom-right corner and connect to Wi-Fi. If no networks appear, your Wi-Fi chip needs a driver or an adapter. Plug in an ethernet cable for now if you can.
- Play a YouTube video in Firefox. That tests sound, graphics and the internet at once.
- Print a test page from Settings → Printers. Since Mint 21, printers and scanners are detected automatically and most need no driver.
- Check the screen looks right and the webcam works (open the Cheese app or a video-call site).
Everything works? Double-click Install Linux Mint on the desktop. Something doesn't? Nothing has changed on your PC; shut down, remove the stick, and Windows is exactly as you left it.
Step 6: the installer, screen by screen
- Language. Pick yours.
- Connect to the internet. Optional, but connect if you can; the installer fetches updates and drivers as it goes.
- Multimedia codecs. Tick the box. It adds the bits needed for some video formats and websites.
- Installation type. For a clean switch choose Erase disk and install Linux Mint. This removes Windows and everything on the drive, which is why step 0 was the backup. If you must keep Windows, "Install alongside" exists, but read why dual-booting a BitLocker machine is a bad idea first.
- Time zone. Click your region on the map.
- Keyboard layout. Pick yours; there's a box to type in and check.
- Your details. Name, a name for the computer, a username and password. Leave "Encrypt my home folder" unticked unless you know you want it.
The copying takes ten to twenty minutes. When it finishes, click Restart Now, remove the USB stick when asked, and press Enter.
Step 7: first boot, in order
Mint opens a Welcome window with a "First Steps" tab. Work down it in this order:
- System Snapshots (Timeshift). Point it at your drive and let it take daily snapshots. This is the undo button for the whole system; if an update ever goes wrong, you roll back.
- Driver Manager. This is where an NVIDIA graphics driver or a Broadcom Wi-Fi driver gets installed if your machine needs one. If it shows a recommended driver, apply it and restart. If you have no internet because Wi-Fi isn't working yet, Driver Manager can read drivers from the install stick: plug it back in when prompted.
- Update Manager. Install everything it offers. The first batch is large.
- Software Manager. The app store. Search for what you need; see the table below for the Windows equivalents.
Step 8: your programs
| You used | On Mint | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome / Edge | Firefox (installed) or Chrome | Sign in and your bookmarks and passwords come back. Chrome is a download from Google's site; double-click the file to install. |
| Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint | LibreOffice (installed) or OnlyOffice | OnlyOffice matches Office's look and file formats more closely. Microsoft 365 also works in the browser. Macros don't transfer. |
| Outlook / Mail | Thunderbird (installed) | Or use webmail in the browser. |
| Photos, media players | VLC, Celluloid, the built-in image viewer | VLC plays everything. |
| Zoom, Teams, Spotify, Steam | Native apps in Software Manager | Zoom and Teams also work in the browser. |
| Photoshop, QuickBooks Desktop, Access | No Linux version | This is why the blockers list exists. |
Older NVIDIA cards. GTX 600 and 700 series cards need NVIDIA's 470 driver, and Mint's own release notes say that driver doesn't work with the kernel in Mint 22.3. Mint's advice for those machines is to install Mint 22.1 and upgrade from there without switching to the newer kernel. GTX 900 and 1000 series cards use a newer driver branch that Driver Manager offers normally. If this sounds like more than you want to deal with, the open-source driver that Mint uses by default is fine for a browser-and-documents machine.
Step 9: your files
Plug in the backup drive. Mint opens it in the file manager like any other drive. Copy Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music and Downloads into the matching folders in your home directory. Import browser bookmarks from the file you exported (Firefox: Bookmarks → Manage → Import). Old Outlook .pst archives can be imported into Thunderbird through its Tools → Import menu.
Linux reads the Windows-formatted external drive without complaint, so there's no need to reformat it. If you later want to use it for backups from Mint, the built-in Backups tool (Déjà Dup) will handle that too.
If you get stuck
The Linux Mint forums are unusually friendly to beginners and almost every question has been asked before. For in-person help, the End of 10 directory lists repair cafés and user groups that will sit with you through an install, usually free.
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