I helped another user get dual boot working right. see if that clears some stuff up for you.

There is ntfs support in the kernel, so there isn’t a distro that can’t touch windows partitions and in fact they have to at least link to them in order to install a dual boot bootloader. Just don’t mess with your windows partitions if you’re worried about it, but better option is to keep backups.

If you want to know how something works, ask and I’ll set it up and answer.

If this is your first time installing Linux, keep it simple.

what partitions do linux distros need to function ?

One is enough for Linux alone. Two if you want to dual boot (one for Windows, another for Linux). Everything else is optional.

what linux distros support secure boot with nvidia drivers ?

I don’t have a full list, but I’m reasonably certain that Linux Mint supports secure boot UEFI, and I’m sure that it supports NVidia drivers.

Note that you can disable secure boot to run other distros if necessary/desired.

is it bad idea to install linux on a single drive in its own partition ?

As in, single boot? It’s only a bad idea if you need Windows for some reason. But then you could run Windows from a virtual machine, as the other poster said.

I have heard some linux distros like linux mint and ubuntu have a habit of touching other efi partitions when being told not to, are there any other distros that do that ?

I’m really unsure if this actually happens; I’ve dual booted Windows with Ubuntu for years, and to my knowledge Ubuntu never touched the Windows partition without my permission.

Plus if this happened I bet that a lot of people would be raging.

Is there anything else I should be aware about ?

Don’t look for exact copies of the software that you typically use with Windows. Instead, look for software that fills the same purpose.

When possible, let your distribution install software for you, through its own package manager. Downloading and running random executables from the internet is a last resort.

The Arch wiki is a godsend even if you don’t use Arch. (I don’t use Arch BTW.)

When asking people out for help, make sure to include which distro you’re running, and which version.

Just out of curiosity, why not just go full Linux and use a Windows VM? Using a debloater (this is my favorite: https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat) makes the windows VM run very well. Plus you limit the extent Microsoft is able analyze and track you. Additionally, this also works around the VPN connection issue currently on going with Windows.