I note that most responses above seem to have missed that you have moved the Windows NVMe from your laptop to your desktop machine.
This is generally the safest method of multibooting; with each OS on a separate disk, largely (but not completely) isolated from the affects of another OS.
So, to be clear, you have Windows installed on a removable USB, which you plugged into your desktop machine, is that right? Or, did you physically connect the NVMe module to your mainboard?
Although, the question remains; why have you done that, in any case?
This would be expected, as os-prober
(when installed) automatically detects any viable bootloaders and allows Grub2 to list it; so, that includes Windows.
Yes, it can, potentially.
Although, Windows is typically able to recover after many driver changes and reboots.
The problem is that you installed Windows on your laptop – completely different hardware than your desktop – while Windows can recover from this, it’s not always a smooth process.
However, if you then wish to place Windows back in your laptop you may face additional complication as Windows (again) has to reconfigure for the previous hardware.
Basically, yes you can do it, but expect problems.
Manjaro, however, should be largely unaffected; as long as the usual prerequisites are attended to:
SecureBoot
SecureBoot must be disabled – Manjaro does not support it, and cannot easily co-exist with Windows when it’s enabled. Now, as you have Manjaro installed already, that’s probably not an issue, although Windows will likely complain.
UTC vs. Local Time
Linux (and macOS) default to setting a computer BIOS clock to UTC, the primary global time standard, whereas Windows (unsurprisingly) did not adopt UTC by default and uses the Local Time standard instead; similar to Standard Time.
This inconsistency causes particular annoyance in a multiboot scenario, as each OS defaults to a different time standard, resulting in the BIOS clock being reset on every boot/reboot.
The lack of UTC support in Windows (by default) is a fundamental design flaw, or at the very least, an embarrassing oversight. Linux already handles UTC with superior grace - let Windows in turn assume the ‘burden of repair’.
An elegant solution is to create a Windows registry file with the following content;
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\TimeZoneInformation]
"RealTimeIsUniversal"=dword:00000001
Create and save this file as RealTimeIsUniversal.reg
.
After merging this registry entry, Windows will set the BIOS clock to UTC, and each OS will use the UTC time standard on subsequent reboots. This modification doesn’t affect your date/time display in Windows. Configure it as you would normally.
Fast Startup (Windows)
A hibernation variant known as Fast Startup may be enabled on Windows computers.
With Fast Startup enabled, Windows does not actually shut down; instead, it sleeps. When the computer subsequently wakes from the hibernation state, this gives the illusion of a faster startup and shutdown experience.
When multibooting, this can cause havoc with GRUB 2 and related boot processes, as well as NTFS mounting functionality, in Linux. To better understand these issues, and their consequences, please see the related article [Primer] NTFS on Linux.
Fast Startup must be disabled in a multiboot scenario.
There are many documented ways to turn off fast startup in both Windows 10 and 11, however, the easiest is to use this command from an administrative command prompt to disable all hibernation (other sleep states will not be affected):
powercfg /h off
Create an Administrative Command Shortcut:
If you cannot seem to find how to access an Administrative Command Prompt in Windows, you can instead create a shortcut to cmd.exe
:
- Right-click your desktop and choose New → Shortcut
- In the Create Shortcut dialog, input the location:
cmd.exe
is all that is needed. - Click Next and input a name for the shortcut:
Admin Prompt
for example. - Click Finish to finish creating the shortcut.
- Right-click the shortcut and select Properties.
- Click Advanced and click Run as Administrator (checkbox).
- Click OK, and then OK again.
I hope this information has been helpful.
Cheers.