Windows 10: Running two Windows 10

Thanks for your searching efforts. Be assured that I believe you, it's just that it's nice to have reference for those that don't. I'm sure it's covered in the EULA, but I don't want to call my lawyer to decipher it. *Wink

 

I'm already doing it, so I don't need anything more than that. Anyway, millions is unlikely. I am only doing it to maintian mainstream and Insider builds on the same computer. And that is more for my amusement than any real need. I have an Insider build running on another computer and in a vm on yet another. Otherwise there is little use for Windows 10 twice beyond the occaisional need to run a 32 bit program that has a 16bit installer, which is probably what you have run into. Even that is probably just an edit to an installer .cfg or .ini file to overcome.

The key change is that the device is activated (the mobo is the device; the license is written to the firmware on it). Any copy of the same edition should activate on it since a clean install checks for a license in the firmware. The ticket generated by the first upgrade writes the license to the firmware and there is no further checking for a qualifying OS. Also the resulting dummy product key is always the same, so there is no futher need to verify that either.

 

I've heard other folks say that MS writes NOTHING to the firmware on the motherboard -- and I tend to believe those folks.

Also, even if this DID happen, it would only be true of OEM preinstalled Win8.1 systems. My system, for example, is not UEFI and was not OEM preinstalled. So, I'm certain there's nothing in the BIOS firmware of this machine that MS can change.

What is recorded on the MS activation server is a hardware hash that MS generates -- which, together with your original OS product key, uniquely identifies your machine (or, so I've been told). The motherboard is the part of that hardware hash which, when changed, tends to indicate (to MS) that you're now using a different "device".

 

Very wrong information.

1. Read the EULA. The EULA definition of device includes partitions. Two partitions = two devices.
2. There is no license information written to a motherboard's firmware by any version of Windows. There is no "ticket" written to firmware. The manufacturer can put a product key in firmware for Windows 8/8.1/10 to read, but that is it. The hardware information and activation information ("license") is stored by Windows 10 on Microsoft activation servers, not motherboard firmware.

Every time Windows 10 starts it surveys the computer's hardware and runs a whole bunch of things through a formula resulting in a Hardware ID. The Hardware ID is stored in a file on the hard drive. As long as Windows 10 computes the same Hardware ID because no major hardware changes have been made, it stays activated. That has nothing to do with any "license" stored in firmware.

The initial upgrade to Windows 10 from a previous OS will create a ticket file stored on the hard drive and that ticket file allows Windows 10 to push a new activation and hardware ID to Microsoft activation servers during the upgrade activation process. The hardware ID is also stored in a file on the hard drive for future comparison.

When a major component, such as the motherboard, is changed, when Windows 10 does the hardware survey at startup it will create a Hardware ID that is different than what it has stored previously on the hard drive and will deactivate that installation of Windows. Then it will attempt to match the newly created Hardware ID with one stored on Microsoft activation servers - and finding no match, it will prompt the user that Windows 10 needs to be activated.

Bold part isn't quite correct. The original OS product key is not used in the creation of the hardware ID. During an upgrade, a program called gatherosstate.exe is run from the sources directory of the Windows 10 install media/file. That creates an .xml ticket file. During the first activation of Windows 10 on that computer it is that .xml ticket file based on the previous OS license that allows Windows 10 to activate and push the hardware ID to Microsoft activation servers. Once Windows 10 is activated that way, the .xml ticket file is deleted, and keys in the registry are changed to indicate that that process has been completed and futures activations should be based on the hardware ID alone. (well, there is one more step that creates an installation ID - which includes the current product key, usually the generic one that everyone with that version of Windows 10 gets).

The previous OS product key is stored in the Windows 10 registry if it is an upgrade - but that is only used for rollback back to that previous OS purposes.

 

One way is to fit a hard drive caddy into a 5 1/4 external bay and keep the drives outside the case. That way, only one runs at a time and you can have as many operating systems as you like without them interfering with each other.

 

Other than setting up dual boot in the boot files, two Windows 10 installations will not interfere with each other on separate partitions of the same hard drive.

 

All of this is just academic because it does not address the OP's original question, which I think was already solved for him. The question dealt with what he considered to be a corrupted system, which we explained to him was not corrupt. Because the OP is running two separate instances of Windows, he can not access the programs that are associated with one installation of Windows while he is running a different installation of Windows. As far as the whole question of licenses and dual booting on one license, there are plenty of threads here at the forum that already deal with which we can use to carry on this conversation.

 

Well.... there never was an answer to this question:

If the only issue is that the OP can't access the other installation's files - just needs to add drive letters to the partitions that can't be accessed.

 

Yes, you are absolutely correct, if I understand his problem correctly. Hopefully he'll come back in here and fully explain his situation.

 

So, when all is said and done: Possible yes, legal no is still the case:

 

Well....actually, now that I am home this is the exact wording of the EULA:

Device. In this agreement, “device” means a hardware system (whether physical or virtual) with an internal storage device capable of running the software. A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a device.

But....the restriction is:

License. The software is licensed, not sold. Under this agreement, we grant you the right to install and run one instance of the software on your device (the licensed device), for use by one person at a time, so long as you comply with all the terms of this agreement.

I would argue the key words being "and run". We aren't running two installs on different partitions at the same time, only one can be run at a time.

The erroneous statement made by cbarhorst was "(the mobo is the device; the license is written to the firmware on it)." The motherboard is neither "the device" nor is "the license written to the firmware on it"

 

Thanks for the update. Possible and Legal then, great.

 

Sorry for getting back late. Booting from one drive is was like the other was locked..Windows would see the drive but couldn't open any Dir's or run any files. I went back to Windows 7 64bit on one drive and stayed with Windows 10 32bit on the other...so far not problems.

 

Yes but you really have no reason to do that because 32 bit applications will run in 64 bit Windows.

 

You are two different users on a dual boot system. The username and password may be the samed but the SID is not. Did you try to take ownership of the files and folders you wanted to use? The file system is agnostic to bitness.