Windows 10: Possible to install Win10 along with Win7 for first time?

Hello,

I haven't installed Win 10 since it was introduced and from reading and hearing from others who have done it, it seems that there are still some issues that people are facing with this new OS, and I currently only want to install Win 10 so my laptop gets registered at Microsoft.

I am wondering whether it is possible to install Win 10 along with the existing Win 7 on my laptop, can Win 10 be for first time installed without removing the existing one? I have already seen your tutorial on dual installation, but my concern is will the license be registered?

I searched both Google and at your site but didn't found the answer I was looking for, I apologize if It has already been answered.

:)

 

Can we install Win 7 along wide Win 10 without uninstalling Win10

I've bought a laptop with Win10 (x64) pre-installed. Now due to some software compatibility, I need to install Win7.

Is it possible to install Win 7 along side Win 10 without uninstalling Win10? Dual-booting Win 10 and Win 7.

 

Installing Win7 Ultimate Over Win10 Home to get Pro

Hello,

I'm about to purchase a laptop that comes with the Win10 Home pre-installed.

I do, however still own a license of Win7 Ultimate, so I should be entitled to Win10 Pro after upgrading.

Is it therefore possible for me to over-write the pre-installed Win10 Home with my Win7 Ultimate first (clean install), and then perform an upgrade, which would grant me Win10 Pro?

Thank you for your answer.

 

Hi.... Welcome to Ten Forum .... What you're asking can't be done without first upgrading to 10. What I would do if I were you I would get a usb external hard drive. I would copy and paste everything you need from your laptop onto the external hard drive, once that is done I would do a Factory Restore of your laptop back to the way it was when you first got it. Afterwards, I would re load all the software and data back again onto the laptop, get all the windows updates. And remove all the garbages that the manufacturer put on your laptop that you don't need . So afterwards you have your self a CLEAN system . Once everything is loaded back again, I would download Macrium Reflect free version ( link below for it ) ... And make a full back up image of your laptop ( The whole drive must be selected ) Once that is done I would upgrade to windows 10. Once its been upgraded check to be sure its activated. Once windows 10 is activated you can either stay with windows 10 or go back to Windows 7. If you go back to 7 you can always go back to 10 whenever you want now, as long as the life of the laptop lives. Personally, I would stay with 10 and afterwards I would reformat the hard drive and do a clean installation of windows 10 . If you decide to do a clean install just make sure you still have your data stuff from your external usb hard drive intact to reload . Remember you can always go back to 7 with the back up image. I would even try to load the backup image unto a free cloud base service for safe keeping. ( You would need to zip the backup image for it )

Code: Macrium Software | 404

 

Thank you for the reply. It seems I need to do a clean installation of Win 10 for the first time.
One more question, will the new installation of Win 10 wipe the existing Win 7 back up installation files that already existed on the hard drive from the manufacturer?

 

It is possible and fairly easy to do, but it violates the EULA to do so because then you would have two activated Windows installations with only a single license and the End Users License Agreement (EULA) that you agree to states that you will only install and activate ONE instance of Windows per license.

I have a family pack Windows 7 license. According to the EULA for my family pack license, I can have up to 3 installs of my Windows 7 and it is with the same product key. I only have two computers now installed with the family pack license - the third computer has long since been replaced with a new retail computer that came with it's own license, so I have 1 extra Windows 7 license left over. So it is perfectly legal for me to shrink my existing Windows 7 partition to make room for a second partition. Copy my existing Windows 7 to the new partition and upgrade that Windows 7 partition to Windows 10, ending up with dual boot. Or I can retrieve the genuineticket.xml file from my existing Windows 7 and use that to activate a clean install of Windows 10 on the second partition using this method:
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

But, again, that is only legal for me to do because of my family pack 3-install Windows 7 license and product key.

The easiest method for you to legally try Windows 10 activated with your Windows 7 license would be to make a backup image of your Windows 7 onto an external hard drive using something like Macrium Reflect Free (highly recommended) or built-in Windows backup imaging (not so highly recommended). Also make sure you either have a Macrium Reflect Free rescue USB/DVD created or a Windows recovery disk created. After the image is created, then upgrade to Windows 10 using the standard in-place upgrade, or the genuineticket.xml method posted above. If you don't like Windows 10 then you simply boot from your rescue/recovery USB/DVD and restore the image of Windows 7 you created earlier - erasing the WIndows 10 install in the process. That way you only have 1 activated and installed Windows at a time, which is compliant with the EULA.

I hope that answered your question.

 

Thank you NavyLCDR, I'll see the point you mention, so I will need to install Win 10 to activate the existing license and can revert back at any time to Win 7 if I wish to with the same license.

Will the recovery partition (with Win 7 installation files) on my drive disappear after installing Win 10?

 

Normally it doesn't - but also normally it becomes pretty useless because Windows 10 will create it's own recovery partition. There are commands we can use (reagentc.exe) to almost 100% ensure that Windows 10 does the "reset this PC" from the factory recovery partition taking you back to the factory software. However, if you create the disk image with Macrium Reflect Free first, the recovery partition will also be included in the image and restored if you restore the image.

Also, doing the in place upgrade (not the genuineticket.xml method) creates a windows.old folder. Within 30 days of the upgrade you are supposed to be able to revert back to the OS and exact same state you had when you upgraded. I would say from my reading that it has about an 80% success rate.

 

How will you recommend to install Win 10, through windows update or burning the installation file on a disc?
Is it necessary to have full access to internet during installation through a cable?

 

You don't need internet access for installing.

What I would do is this:
You will need one USB flash drive of at least 8 GB in size. Highly recommended but optional is a second USB flash drive of at least 2 GB or a DVD or a CD and an external storage location such as hard drive with enough space to hold all your currently used space on your current hard drive (probably 500 GB would work).

1. Create the Windows 10 USB flash drive using Media Creation Tool. Scroll down to download tool now button:
Windows 10
You will want the create installation media for another PC option, and the USB flash drive option. It will download about 3.5 GB from the internet.

2. Optional (highly recommended): Install Macrium Reflect Free:
Macrium Reflect Free

Create a Macrium Reflect Free rescue disc on the second USB flash drive, DVD or CD. As an alternative to the Macrium Reflect Free rescue disc you can make a recovery disc with Kyhi's version here which also contains Macrium Reflect Free:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums
Make an image of your hard drive onto the external storage location using Macrium Reflect Free.

3. Optional (recommended): Capture the genuineticket.xml file and save it to either your Windows 10 USB flash drive or rescue USB flash drive. You can use the gatherosstate.exe file from the Windows 10 USB flash drive (don't need a separate ISO) and do not proceed to clean install - just go to the point of saving the genuineticket.xml file and stop:
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums

4. Do an in place upgrade to Windows 10. With your Windows 7 up and running, insert the USB flash drive. Run setup.exe from the flash drive from within Windows 7. (Do not boot the computer from the Windows 10 flash drive). This way will hopefully use any Windows 7 drivers needed and give you the option to revert back to Windows 7 if you choose to (and if it works).

5. If you find out that you are happy with Windows 10 and want to clean up your system you can do a clean install of Windows 10 with the USB flash drive you created at any point in time later. Once you do the upgrade to Windows 10, you can just select "I don't have a product key", "skip" or "do this later" when it asks you for a product key. Also once you do the upgrade to Windows 10 once, you will not need to copy the genuineticket.xml file into Windows 10 for it to activate. It will activate without it over the internet.

6. If you want to go back to Windows 7, you can try the revert option in Windows 10 within 30 days. OR you can restore your image if you created it in step 2 and there is no time limit on that.

 

Thank you so much for the help.

 

Oh - and if you don't have your current Windows 7 product key written down or on a sticker, you can use Showkeyplus from this forum to display it and write it down:
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums