SoftwareLinuxWindowsOpen Source
Hop turns space on your Windows drive into a Linux installer, skipping the USB stick
The free Windows app creates an internal installer partition and a one-time boot entry. Your backup still has a job.
The missing thumb drive has apparently been promoted from desk nuisance to software requirement. Hop works around it by putting the installer’s files onto a small partition inside the computer, then booting from there.
The maker’s instructions describe an ordinary sequence with an unusual location: download and check the ISO, make space, copy its files, register its bootloader for the next restart, and let the Linux installer finish. The README says checksums are verified where the distribution publishes one. Hop says, “The Linux installer opens,” and that installer finishes the job.
It needs Windows 10 version 1803 or newer, or Windows 11, with UEFI firmware and a GPT disk. This is a published project with documented restrictions, rather than a test of every supported distribution on real hardware.
The restrictions are unusually useful reading. Kubuntu isn’t supported because one ISO file exceeds FAT32’s file limit. Some distributions require Secure Boot off; Omarchy requires BitLocker fully off on its disk, and Hop refuses to do that for you. Several listed distributions can’t yet install to a second disk.
As more setup tools remove physical media from the process, their compatibility checks become the place a failed experiment can be stopped before the reboot. Hop’s next test is whether the chosen distribution, firmware and disk layout all agree on that restart.