Windows 10: Dual boot after final release

True. I base my replies solely on the facts told by Microsoft: Any clean installed and activated Windows 10 will remain valid and activated after the 29th as long as the user does not opt out. Simple, logical, not possible to misunderstand.

I don't know what your replies are based on.

 

To clarify my previous posts in this thread, here's the same from the official source:

(From Upcoming changes to Windows 10 Insider Preview builds [UPDATED 6/22] | Blogging Windows )

Absolutely clear text, no room for interpretations.

 

The "for what" was myself talking to myself about how much need I would have for the dual boot.

Then what I said in my earlier post applies:

"So I could just keep using my Insider Windows 10 Pro dual booted with my 7 SP1 or 8.1."

 

Yes. Absolutely sure, subject to them being activated. They are activated if you have gradually upgraded from earlier Insider Preview builds to current one.

 

I though MS said we can do a clean install after upgrade to Win 10. So if I not wrong, I can restore the backup of the old system to another partition after I do a clean install of Win 10? In this way, I may dual boot Win 10 and the old Win7?

 

Yes, MS has stated that an ISO will be available after you upgrade and you will be able to do a clean install using that source. The Win10 FAQs add this " a clean install on the same device"

Multi-booting: Possibly ... that's one of the outstanding questions. This is a long post - but the short answer is maybe. It really comes down to will both OSes activate.

You can skip the rest if you just want to read the EULA on your machine.
Settings > System > About > Read the Microsoft License Terms

The End User License Agreement that governs the use of Windows has always stated that you can only run one install of Windows on one machine at one time. Retail licenses allow you to transfer the OS to a new machine if you remove the OS from the original machine, OEM licenses do NOT allow transferal-the OS is bound to the machine by the EULA. That's the legalese of Windows.

Since the 1 year offer is an upgrade, some members feel that the original license (Win7 or Win8.1) is upgraded to grant you the right to run Win10 and cannot be used when that license is activated for Win10. The license is still valid for the previous OS, but it can only be used for one of the OSes at any given time. This line of thinking basically rules out multi-booting the original OS and the upgraded Win10 OS. The device description in the EULA supports that because it defines a separate partition is a device. No matter how you slice it, you cannot run the licensed OS (original & upgraded license) on two devices at the same time.

The other school of thought is that when you multi-boot, you cannot possibly run the two OSes at the same time ... but that partition as a device clause throws a wrench into that. One member did chat with MS online (Contact support app) and he asked that question "Can I dual boot the original OS and the upgraded Win10?", the agent said yes but one of the OSes might require phone activation. If you add that the EULA states the OS (singular) and Win7, Win8.1, and Win10 are separate OSes (multiple), I think it might still be legally possible to multi-boot.

Win10 should follow the same rules.

Notable EULA section:

I'm not exactly sure what clause d.v. Remote access means
or what a licensed user is *Huh

Thanks for asking the question, it made me look at the most recent EULA in 10.0.240 - it's interesting that a partition is considered a device in the EULA.

 

Just chipping in with my own experience of dual booting W8.1 and W10 Preview latest two versions on two separate SSD,s both connected in the computer.

Each update messed up the MBR on both systems.

Have overcome the problem by hot swopping, one in one out.

 

Yeah, I'm working up a procedure to grow the System Reserve partition on MBR initialized disks from what Win7 and Win8.1 create when they are installed 100 MB (steal 350 MB from C:, move C: to the right, then add the 350 MB to SysReserve = 450 MB).

It's fairly easy to do, not so easy to document *Wink

I had issues and a few other members got past install issues by doing this.

My 450 MB System Reserve only has 28% free space now - the contents are definitely larger than 100 MB




The size returned by dir /a /s doesn't match the above usage. There's a Recovery and the the System Volume Information folders that don't seem to be included in the dir count though

Total Files Listed:
93 File(s) 19,064,138 bytes
137 Dir(s) 133,562,368 bytes free
GPT initialized disks are not affected, one member reported that a new 450 MB System Reserve was created to the right of their C: drive. I suppose MS determined it was too difficult to affect MBR disks at install time due to the 4 partition limitation - most OEMs use all four (System Reserve, Windows, Recovery, Utility???).

The Technet MBR disk schema recommends 350 MB for a combined System Reserved / Recovery partition, so I just used that as a base and added 100 MB for good measure.

 

I just got this back from Microsoft Insider: (Interesting that you can type with an accent.)

4kays,
There seems to be not clear somewhere.
How did you install Windows 10, wiht dual-booting Windows 7 SP1 (laptop dual-booting?) and Windows 8.1 (Desktop dual-booting ?)?
If you have Windows 10 both clean installed on your machines, then you will get newer builds only if you stay as the Insider, for free. Otherwise, you could just get the free from upgrading Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1.
If your current Windows 10 is upgraded from an earlier operating system (not include Enterprise), then there is not so much aspects to worry about.
We may make bootable media for recovery after the official release of Windows 10.
Then clean install would be OK on your verified machines, with your registered Microsoft Account.
Any further concerns, please feel free to post back.
Regards