Booting Windows from Linux

mintishhippo

Hi I am new to linux and I have sort of an advanced sounding question.

Is it possable to boot linux and then from there boot windows. The reason I ask is because my plan was for my computer to boot directly into linux quickly so i could access files quickly if i needed to. Then if i wanted windows i could click an icon and it would unload linux and boot windows. Kind of like an advanced multi-functional and graphcal boot manager.

Any help would be apreciated

mfillpot

I am unaware of anything that can do that because the kernels are seperate and would compete for hardware. But you can access your windows files from within Linux to access or modify them. Have you tried setting up a virtualization software such as virtualbox with one of the OSs installed within it so you can work on both at once?

mintishhippo

I have used virtualization before however, that somewhat defeats the purpose of what im trying to do. I basicly want to use linux as a boot manager that could also quickly access files or the internet without waiting for windows or a nicer version of linux to boot. Then if i wanted to boot windows or another distro of linux i could click an icon and that linux would unload and the other OS would begin to boot.

mfillpot

I can't think of anything that can work as I understand you inquiry. however standard dual-booting is still an option, the load time for each OS will still be the same and essentially you have to reboot your computer to switch OSs. Some Windows managers if configured correctly can read from your boot-loader file and give you the OS options in the restart menu of the system. I currently have 7 OSs setup as dual boot on my system and another 4 within virtual machines.