Windows 7 & 10 on one machine?

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for that, and for the suggestions.

[Bert Coules]

Thanks.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

As long as you do not want the data and programs shared I'd imagine so, I also know you can run other versions of windows inside 10, but not tried it. I'm happy with 7, mainly due to legacy software that 10 can be configured for but often gets trashed on major updates so I'm not bothering, though it might be good to get access to the new improved Narrator Need an email and news group program with the same shortcut keys as outlook express. Brian

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

The Natural Philosopher used his keyboard to write :

I used to run two Win versions, on two partitions selected via a bootloader app.

[John Rumm]

Something like virtualbox will run on most platforms and let you install most guest OSes as well.

There is a fairly straightforward guide here:

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for that, John. I'll take a look.

[Dave Plowman (News]

But have you tried this on a modern PC?

The app I used was EasyBCD. It will run OK on Win10, but not allow you to boot a Win7 HD. If you go to their site, it explains why.

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for that info. If it can't handle Windows 7, then EasyBCD clearly isn't a workable solution for me. The experiments continue...

[No Name]

If you happen to be running Windows 10 PROFESSIONAL, you will have Hypervisor installed.

Go to Type here to seach box in bottom left hand corner and type in:

Hyper-v quick create

click yes to do you allow winodws to make changes to this device

A window pops up and you have 4 available by default options of MSIX, Ubuntu 18.04.3, Ubuntu 20.04.1 or Windows 10 dev environment

You also have the local installation source option button below that and you can use a windows 7 install disc on your win 10 box.

Its been a while since I last used windows 7, I am not sure if (a) you can run Hyper-v or even if Win 10 will actually run within a Win 7 host machine.

[Dave Plowman (News]

It can handle Win7. I used it successfully with Win7 and XP for ages. When I was forced to upgrade that machine to Win10 (used an additional SSD and clean Win10 Pro), the MB wouldn't work. So I bought a new MB. The BIOS boot structure on that - although having a legacy option - won't work with the old Win7 which is on a separate SSD.

If you need the proper explanation, EasyBCD gave one. Although I didn't understand it fully.

On Win10, Easy BCD does load - and shows all the OS choices on that machine at boot. But only Win10 works.

[Martin Brown]

That's a bit worrying. Are you sure they haven't hidden this option in "expert mode" behind multiple "here be dragons" warnings? Or F8?

How are you supposed to boot a failed PC from a USB stick or CD/DVD if you cannot alter the boot order of the system drives? It is my standard line of attack for getting into seemingly unbootable corrupted PCs.

(most have screwed up their OS binaries to an unbootable state - Win10 on portables after patch Tuesday seem extremely prone to doing this)

[RJH]

uk.comp.homebuilt tend to be pretty good at this sort of stuff.

[John Rumm]

Since he has win 7 and wants to try 10, it would seem like running a virtualised win 10 on the 7 platform would be easier than the other way around.

(also he can install 10 without providing a key, and without activating, and it will continue to work, whereas 7 would only run for a few days without activation)

[Dave Plowman (News]

You can set it to boot from any drive as normal. But Win10 uses EFI boot mode. Win7, not. And if I've read things correctly you can't have BIOS that does both at will. Or at least not on this recent and very expensive MB.

I can physically remove all the HDs and SSDs except the Win7 one. And regardless of BIOS settings, it won't boot.

[Andrew]

Hmm, I upgraded from Win 7/32 PRO OEM to Win 10 and I can see that Hyper-v is in the list of features and not enabled.

Will it run on a 4Gbyte 32 bit installation ?. Although I'm not sure if it would be of any use to me.

[No Name]

You will also have Windows 10 Sandbox open to you. This is really useful for visiting websites of uncertain provenance or if you want to download soemthing and virus check it.

If it goes t*ts up, just close the Sandbox....

[Bert Coules]

Another feature I'd not heard of. I really should get myself a decent manual and give the software a proper chance. Any recommendations?

[No Name]

I don't bother with manuals. its all self taught knowledge from reading reputable websites liek bleepingcomputer.com, or

and also read PC Pro.

Heres some useful links for Sandbox...

[Bert Coules]

I prefer a printed book but the problem is that so many of them are really poorly written.

I don't have Sandbox on my (non-pro) version of Win10.

[No Name]

You might find this useful :-)