You can download the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft for free. There’s a gajillon different ways to activate it for free, too. Most likely it will just activate itself, unless you built the PC.
But if you only need it to run some software, you don’t even need to activate it.
If whatever programs you need don’t require internet access and you aren’t at risk of evil maid attacks then it hardly matters if win10 isn’t secure. It definitely isn’t ideal, but if the options are:
A) Do all your personal stuff on linux and only boot w10 when you have to, offline.
What am I dual booting if I can’t use win10 because it’s not secure, and I’m not paying for win11?
You can download the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft for free. There’s a gajillon different ways to activate it for free, too. Most likely it will just activate itself, unless you built the PC.
But if you only need it to run some software, you don’t even need to activate it.
If whatever programs you need don’t require internet access and you aren’t at risk of evil maid attacks then it hardly matters if win10 isn’t secure. It definitely isn’t ideal, but if the options are:
A) Do all your personal stuff on linux and only boot w10 when you have to, offline.
B) Only have w10 and run hope.exe for security.
I’d choose A.
Fuck dual booting. Virtualize that shit.
Or that, but I’m told some things don’t play well in VMs like arcane peripherals.
A pirated copy of Win 10 LTSC, since it’s the only version you should a been tunning any who.