How to preserve a Windows installation.

Are you willing to spend 40 bucks for a low-tech solution? Swap the SSD for a new one. This avoids ever having problems with bootloaders, OS coexistence and going back to Windows is probably guaranteed to work on the first attempt with the complete instructions being "Swap SSD again".
 
There is a process to radically shrink windows partitions with open source tools.

Disable the paging file entirely then disable system restore to allow MFT and locked restore files to be relocated.

Not doing the above only allows the Microsoft tool to do a modest shrink.
 
The rub comes from the system restore files and swap file, both of which are locked and cannot be moved by the partition API.

The downlevel version 6.4 is the last portable version.
The newer ones are setup and install (no thanks).
Freeware. I use the v6.4.
 
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