Dual boot windows 10 & 7

Weyland · 05 Jul 2016

ianmozzy said:

This is getting silly. I do not have the windows 7 EULA in front of me. I am not trying to encourage piracy. All I am doing is trying to find out how to upgrade my computer so I have valid licences. ... As far as I am aware I have legal software.

I'm in more or less a similar situation, except that I want to have both W7 and W10 installed on a big tower which also has two Linux distros installed alongside W7.

I've already upgraded W7 to W10 on a netbook, and the process destroyed the Linux partition. I don't want to risk that happening on the tower, so I'm going to disconnect the SSD and all the HDDs except one for a clean W10 install from ISO, and then reconnect the drives and repair Grub multiboot (which Windows always destroys).

That means I'll have two Windows versions installed with the same product key. Is it possible to deactivate one of them and use the other without uninstalling?

(I don't know much about Windows.)

I would like to buy windows 7 professional retail but cannot find a genuine one anywhere.

I can tell you where I got mine, but I'm not sure if that's allowed on this board.

NavyLCDR · 05 Jul 2016

Weyland said:

That means I'll have two Windows versions installed with the same product key. Is it possible to deactivate one of them and use the other without uninstalling?

Would you end up with two Windows with the same product key because you would use the Windows 7 product key to activate the Windows 10 with? If you are going to deactivate one install of Windows, why would you not remove it completely?

Weyland · 05 Jul 2016

NavyLCDR said:

Would you end up with two Windows with the same product key because you would use the Windows 7 product key to activate the Windows 10 with? If you are going to deactivate one install of Windows, why would you not remove it completely?

Yes.

Two reasons:

1. I want to see if I prefer W10 to W7 before getting rid of W7.

2. I'm afraid to upgrade the existing W7 because doing that destroyed the Linux partition on a netbook I updated. Once bitten, twice shy. W7 is on the same HDD as a Linux distro; I'm planning to put W10 on an empty HDD.

If having both active on the same machine is not allowed, can one be deactivated (and later reactivated if necessary)?

NavyLCDR · 05 Jul 2016

Weyland said:

Yes.
Two reasons:
1. I want to see if I prefer W10 to W7 before getting rid of W7.
2. I'm afraid to upgrade the existing W7 because doing that destroyed the Linux partition on a netbook I updated. Once bitten, twice shy. W7 is on the same HDD as a Linux distro; I'm planning to put W10 on an empty HDD.
If having both active on the same machine is not allowed, can one be deactivated (and later reactivated if necessary)?

Makes sense and is reasonable. The 100% legal way to do it would be to install an imaging program like Macrium Reflect Free, save a backup image of the partition that the Windows 7 is on, then either reformat or delete that partition. If you wanted to go back to Windows 7, then you would reformat or delete the Windows 10 partition and restore the Windows 7 partition.

Another way, which would be impractical for you at the moment because you have Linux and Windows 7 on the same hard drive, would be to have each version of Windows on swappable hard drives and have only one installed at a time. I've got a cheap hard drive docking rack in a 5.25" drive bay in my desktop that makes swapping hard drives/SSDs easy. But since mine is cheap, it is only SATA II so a little bit slower.

Weyland · 05 Jul 2016

NavyLCDR said:

Makes sense and is reasonable. The 100% legal way to do it would be to install an imaging program like Macrium Reflect Free, save a backup image of the partition that the Windows 7 is on, then either reformat or delete that partition. If you wanted to go back to Windows 7, then you would reformat or delete the Windows 10 partition and restore the Windows 7 partition.

Another way, which would be impractical for you at the moment because you have Linux and Windows 7 on the same hard drive, would be to have each version of Windows on swappable hard drives and have only one installed at a time. I've got a cheap hard drive docking rack in a 5.25" drive bay in my desktop that makes swapping hard drives/SSDs easy. But since mine is cheap, it is only SATA II so a little bit slower.

Thank you very much. I like the idea of the swappable drives, which I shall be looking into.

I wonder -- if I just go ahead and clean-install W10 on an empty HDD, at what point is Microsoft likely to react, and what would happen? I dare say that MS gets informed as soon as I connect to the web during or after the installation.

Would I in fact be able to use the W7 key to do a clean W10 ISO install without deactivating W7 first? Would MS disable my licence or just warn me? It's definitely a legal retail copy of W7.

NavyLCDR · 05 Jul 2016

If you were to remove the Windows 7 hard drive, and install Windows 10 on a clean hard drive and use the Windows 7 product key to activate it, nothing happens to the Windows 7 product key or previous installation. You could then remove the Windows 10 hard drive, and run the Windows 7 hard drive just like nothing had happened to it. Evidenced by the very last link on this webpage:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...covery-options
Go back to your previous version of Windows

Weyland · 05 Jul 2016

2016-07-06 15:33 (my son's birthday)

OK. The decision was taken out of my hands. W7 said it had installed 209 updates, and then never finished configuring them. At Stage 5. Left it overnight, and it was still at Stage 5, whatever that is.

So I clean-installed W10 from ISO on an empty HDD, repaired the Grub menu, and all is well so far.

I think W7 committed suicide when it heard that I had a) made a W10 ISO disc, and b) had consulted this fine forum.

~

Next task: Delete all traces of W7, and install Linux Mint 18 Mate (Sarah).

x509 · 05 Jul 2016

Chezler said:

Hey there ianmozzy,
Just wanted to pop in here after looking at your listed system setup. I don't know how you use your computer, but a word of caution:
If you do any banking, purchasing, or anything else where you give your personal information online, Windows Defender is not enough.
It started out life as "Big AS" which was for years the best antispyware program out there. Microsoft bought it and turned it into Windows Defender. Later they added a basic antivirus to it. On MS website, they even call it BASIC. It is so you can get your machine up and running, updated, and a proper Internet Security program installed.
I have used; Kaspersky (for the last 4 years, and my fav), Bit Defender (another top rated fav), AVAST, ESET NOD32, F-Secure, AVG, Norton, Trend Micro, McAfee. I hate Mcafee and would never recommend it to anyone. I listed them in the order of MY preference. Others will have their favorites.
The main thing, is to get a good Internet Security program and not just an antivirus program. ( Plus Malware protection.)
Since 1996 I have only been bitten by one virus, and I go a lot of places I shouldn't and do things I shouldn't. Nothing illegal, just high-risk surfing, But I know how to protect myself. Most people don't.

+1 to everything Chezler said, except maybe for his preference order for vendors.

A lot of threats today are at the browser level, and AV alone can't stop those.