As you may know wubi has become thing of the past and will not work any more.
I tried to use it to reinstall Ubuntu on my Windows machine and it went thru the very 1st phase of install but gave an error which meant something like "the files are not on the ftp site"...and then quit.

I found out that there is no more WUBI support for UB 14.4 so now my question is:
Is there anyway I could install an Older version of Ubuntu (or even the new version)on my Windows machine without risk of destroying my partitions or Win OS?

I did search the site before posting this but most related subjects were from 2007 and so unrelated.
in a way I wished the heck it was 2007, life was much easier then! heh
Thanks!

P.S Frankly I am not impressed by discontinuation of WUBI and dont care for newer versions of Ubuntu. Seems like they did a lot of fixing on the things which were not broken in the 1st place!? Tell me if I am wrong...what's so good about newer versions except a lot more restrictions?

Virtual Box

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I think that Windows Secure Market Share--er, Secure Boot rang the death knell for Wubi.

Wubi was designed for people to test Ubuntu and was never meant to be used similar to an actual install according to the Ubuntu site. VirtualBox or similar software will basically enable a user to do the same thing. With Secure Boot, I imagine the Ubuntu developers didn't feel it was worth the effort.

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Thanks guys for the info. I'll try vbox and see.
meanwhile I keep my ubuntu 12.4 on this machine and wont upgrade cuz it still works great with my windows7. (I dont recommend windows 8 either it was designed for touch-pads or tablets really. Only few good things I noticed like when you are in a folder you can pull cmd and it will open in that folder (and not in c:\windows\system32\...) for instance. but no start no run, etc. none of that)....

by the way whatever happened to the old timers and hackers? did they all quit? lol
I am not talking hacking a site or something ugly, but making a program work or correcting the problems with programs.

You can easily create a "real" install to a usb if your system is even somewhat new. I tend to create usb flash drives and usb hard drives from within a virtual machine to be safe. I do that to protect my internal drive from my mistakes. You can easily remove the internal drive connector and then install to a usb device and then boot from F key or bios choice in future. I have many many usb flash and hard drive installs and they tend to work great on fast usb devices. A 16G would set you back only $12 or so. $60 for a 500G usb hard drive. Most distro's have fixed any usb3 issues but can easily install on usb 2.

I had to give a point for a virtual machine. While it isn't exactly a dual boot it is a good way to test on supported hardware. Wubi would install to lesser hardware.

It should be possible to still use wubi. It wasn't really magic and all the things needed are still there I believe to install and older version and then update it.

I was never a fan of wubi myself but I still thought it was a good way to go.

One of the primary reasons wubi was dis-continued after 12.04 is because the developers didn't feel it was worth the effort to deal with the added complexities with UEFI and Secure Boot. The Ubuntu Wubi site specifically states that it will NOT work with windows8 although I read at least one thread at their forums from someone saying he got it to work. Of course, he gave no explanation. Never used it myself but VBox should do what you want.