Pros and cons of installing Ubuntu alongside Windows Boot Manager

On a personal note, I would recommend you to stick with the "Something else" option only. The reason is that I have personally created issues with 4 laptop hard disks simply because I failed to understand the right process.

Choosing "Install alongside Windows boot manager" is safe, but please do take note of everything to avoid creating issues with your hard disk. If you are in any doubt, stick with the "Something else" option only.

Refer to dual-boot Windows and Ubuntu if you want to perform every step with utmost caution.

Once you are done installing Ubuntu, perform the following steps to setup your grub menu:

• Boot into Windows OS
• Press Windows+R together to open the "Run" dialog.
• Type cmd and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to start the command prompt as Administrator. Select "Yes" to the UAC "Do you want to allow ..." dialog.
  • Alternatively, right-click on the Start Menu and select "Windows PowerShell (Admin)" (under Windows 10) or "Windows Terminal (Admin)" (under Windows 11).
• Type bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi and Enter.

Note: You do need to have Admin rights in the command prompt before you perform the above action. If bcdedit fails, please make sure you are running the prompt as Admin.

Sometimes the Install Ubuntu alongside Windows Boot Manager option in the Installation type screen of the Ubuntu installer is the way that the Ubuntu installer incorrectly identified Windows, because that is the way that the existing Windows OS is identified in the system's configuration.

Is it safe to choose that option?

It's not always safe to choose that option. If there is already a Windows EFI system partition, the Ubuntu installer will often detect it and use the existing Windows system partition instead of creating a new one, but if the Ubuntu installer did not correctly identify the existing Windows OS it's possible that it also did not identify the partition that is used by the computer to boot Windows, if such a partition exists. In such a case it's possible that Ubuntu will not install the grub bootloader because it doesn't know where to install grub, and the entire Ubuntu installation will abort. If this happens you can still install Ubuntu by choosing the Something else option at the Installation type screen of the Ubuntu installer.

The EFI System Partition (ESP) is a partition on a data storage device (usually an HDD or SSD) that is used by computers adhering to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). The EFI System Partition is an interface that's used by the computer to boot Windows. It's like a step that is taken before it runs the Windows partition. It's a small partition, but without that partition your computer wouldn't know how to boot Windows.

The EFI System Partition is a dedicated partition on GPT. It's usually a small one (100-500 MB) formatted as FAT located at the beginning of the disk, and its partition record is at the beginning of the GPT (GUID Partition Table).