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Dual booting Windows 10 and 7

Anonymous
2021-03-27T07:23:13+00:00

Hi, how do I dual boot Windows 7 if I have Windows 10 installed. I figured that it would be nice to have 2 windows versions in my computer and others have been also doing it.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-27T07:53:04+00:00

    Two options...

    1) Create a new Partition on your HDD\SSD for Win7.

    1. Install Win7 on another HDD\SSD, but this method requires a reboot into BIOS to swap between OS's. Having Win7 on a secondary drive

    does get around a few issues that come with having two OS partitions on one drive though.

    • Note that you also need a valid activation key, so it's not free (unless you never activate, which technically = pirate)

    "I figured that it would be nice to have 2 windows versions"

    • Unless you have a specific program (not all that common) that will not run on Win10, dual booting is pretty much pointless.

    I just removed the drive I had Win7 (I upgraded from 7>10) on for the past six years because, even though I did need it for one thing

    (Nvidia 3D Vision didn't work with a few games on Win10, but did with others), I ended up never using it after the first six months

    when I also used it to compare gaming performance with Win10 (insignificant difference at that time, btw).

    Also note that MS have stopped doing security updates for Win7, so if it becomes infected by a virus\malware\ransomeware

    your other drives may become infected as well.

    • Actually, if you want to experiment with different OS's it would probably be better to use a Linux distro.

    They are free, and use fewer system resources than Windows. Programs and games are more limited than Windows,

    but there are also many free programs for Linux

    [Many of which work on Windows as well, eg- The Gimp (photo editing) Blender (3D modeling),  OpenOffice.org and more].

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-03-27T13:51:31+00:00

    Thank you for the advice but I just decided to install a Linux mint OS that I found and it's apparently very lightweight or some sort.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-03-27T08:57:45+00:00

    Hi MrVladistok,

    I am Aster, an Independent Advisor and I'm here to help you with your problem.

    You can try out the detailed guide provided in the following thread:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

    Thank you.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-03-27T08:54:40+00:00

    There should be no problem with Windows. It's not difficult to create a partition if you have space available on your HDD\SSD.

    You need to be careful during the process of creating a new partition for Linux. A PC version of 'measure twice, cut once'.

    In normal circumstances you cannot delete the C:\ drive while running Windows, but make sure C:\ does not get touched in the process anyway.

    I've never used Linux myself, and have never dual booted from two partitions on one drive, but there should

    be some good tutorials on the www. 

    Both of these sites would be a good start.

    Windows 10 Tutorials

    windows10 Articles - How-To Geek

    Here's one tutorial .... https://www.howtogeek.com/214571/how-to-dual-boot-linux-on-your-pc/

    [EDIT: The tutorial linked by Aster looks very compressive.]

    .

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-03-27T08:16:21+00:00

    Can I also have the Linux distro along without the windows 10 installation being deleted?

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