Traces of Windows remaining after installing Ubuntu

[coffeecat]

Perhaps I'm still not understanding something....

Is not FAT32 a Windows thing?

FAT32 is a filesystem developed by Microsoft, but hasn't been used for Windows installations for almost a quarter of a century. Although it has its imitations, fat32 is useful for such things as SD cards, USB pendrives, and - as has already been explained - EFI partitions. Heck - even Apple has been using fat32 for its EFI partitions on its Mac computers for donkeys years, and it would be misguided to think that the EFI partition on an Apple Mac is a "trace of Windows". As it would be just as misguided to think of all the USB pendrives and SD cards as having a "trace of Windows"

I re-iterate: do not delete your EFI partition. If you do, you will have a severe emotional reaction when next you try to boot your machine.

Also, when I boot up I get a screen offering a choice to boot Ubuntu or "Advanced options for Ubuntu", as if I'm dual booting - which of course I'm not.

That's normal - nothing to do with dual booting. The advanced options choice is - well - advanced options for Ubuntu. The hint is in the text. You'll find the opportunity there to boot with the previous kernel and a memtest - at least last time I looked.

My brother has 22.04 and he doesn't see that.

Without more information on his system, I doubt anyone could do more than guess.

This makes me wonder if there is Windows stuff wandering around.

One last comment: the output of the ls command in an earlier post of yours showed only BOOT and ubuntu folders, not the Microsoft folder than yancek thought might have survived. I hate to disappoint you, but even there, there is no trace of Windows that I can see.

[cbiweb]

...I hate to disappoint you, but even there, there is no trace of Windows that I can see.

That's a good disappointment to have.

Thank you for explaining things more clearly.

[MAFoElffen]

Perhaps I'm still not understanding something....

Is FAT32 not a Windows thing?

Yes. You were not understanding something.

FAT32 is a filesystem. FAT32 filesystem format is widely used for USB drives, flash memory cards and external hard drives for compatibility between all platforms. It is used by UEFI for it's EFI partition... Which a UEFI partition is required to be:

• Formatted as FAT32
• Marked with ESP & Bootable flags

So is it "a Windows thing"? Sort of yes, and no. That filesystem is more a Universal thing, not specifically just Windows.