Questions about dual booting Windows 8 and 9?

Hi

I'm planning to create a new 120 Gigabyte partition on the internal hard drive that doesn't have Windows 8 on it and then installing Windows 9 in it.

I've done this several times in the past, with XP and 7, then 7 and 8, but not since the change to the UEFI bios.

Does anyone here who's more technical oriented then I am, know if it will be just a simple to do it now.

In the past all you had to do was install the version of Windows where you wanted it and the boot menu and everything would appear automatically.

I know that it's more complicated installing things like Linux in a dual boot setup on computers now with Windows 8 and the new bios.

What about doing so with Windows 9?

Mike

First of all, there is no UEFI bios. It's EUFI firmware and BIOS firmware. These 2 are dfferent types of PC firmware. But to answer your question Mike, there shouldn't be any problem . Win 9 will surely come with native UEFI firmware support. It is more of a problem if you will be installing Win 7 on a system with UEFI firmware where you need to disable secure boot first and set CSM to launch all the time. Theog's setup above is most likely in CSM mode with the presence of the MBR partitions.
By disabling secure boot, you are like converting UEFI world to BIOS world where all legacy support will come into play (like booting up on external device). The big problem is if you have Windows 8 installed in UEFI and then you disabled secure boot to be able to install Win 7, the installed Win 8 will deactivate itself until you go back to secure boot. So dual booting Win 7 with Win 8 host installed in UEFI environment will not work. It's okay if Win 8 is installed with secure boot turned off.
This is how I understand how UEFI works. Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

theog said:

Disabling Secure Boot, will not converting UEFI to BIOS.

I said "like converting" but not actual converting. Just making UEFI do what BIOS does but it's actually more of setting up legacy options.

About "deactivation" upon disabling secure boot, yes it does deactivate (tested it on 2 PCs). The OS still works but you will see the "Build number" at the bottom right corner of the screen which tells you it's deactivated. This is true for PCs that were shipped with Win 8. Not sure if it's the same with user installed Win 8.

Yes 7 & 8 works in EUFI firmware but what I am trying to say is that the PC should be set to legacy boot options. Maybe yours was set already if it is not shipped with Win 8.

theog said:

Same rig with three HDD's two in GPT/UEFI, one MBR/Legacy.

What is the status of "secure boot" on this rig? Enabled? Disabled?
Also the CSM?

I am not saying I am 100% with what I said above that's why I asked to be corrected but some of what I said was clearly misunderstood. Everything I said was based on my hands-on experience tinkering with UEFI firmware and the options that come with it (i.e. Secure Boot, CSM, etc.). And the machine I was working on was shipped with Win 8 so secure boot was turned on by default. Maybe it's a different situation if the PC is user built (with user installed Win 8) and I would like to hear more about it.

Edit:
By the way, I forgot to add. I had no problem installing Win 8 on Win 7 machine as dual boot (but separate drives).

theog said:

That is a WARNING saying you have Secure Boot DISABLED, not Windows is deactivated.



Only if want both Windows 7 & 8 to be installed in Legacy mode.



Secure Boot DISABLED.

Not CSM options. Preset to boot UEFI & Legacy.




Bit more info in
Downgrade Windows 8 to Windows 7

Most OEM manufacturer's do not have a full UEFI firmware installed, the rig I have has a full OEM UEFI firmware which is in the tutorial above.

Okay. Thanks. More or less we are on the same page. We are just on different situations.
On deactivation issue, just a "half-full-half-empty" argument but more or less the same idea. The OS is not really deactivated per se. If you look at System Info, it clearly says there that "Windows is not activated". But when you enable secure boot back again, you don't have to activate your windows again.. It goes back to being activated. But still confirms my point about what happens when secure boot was disabled to an OS that was installed in native UEFI environment.