Reluctantly embracing Windows 10

[mangocrazy]

I've been putting it off for as long as I can, but the recent end of support for Win 7 has forced my hand and I need to upgrade to Win 10. My PC is pretty new and is an AMD Ryzen 5 1600 machine, with Windows 7 Pro and Kubuntu Linux 18.04 in a dual-boot setup (using GRUB as boot manager). The motherboard is an Biostar X370GT5 which supports both Win 7 and Win 10.

My cunning plan is to buy an M2 SSD and install Win 10 on there, while still retaining my Win 7 and Kubuntu installs. All my 'data' drives are completely separate from my OS drives (data on traditional HDD, OS's on SSD). I'd also like to keep GRUB as my Boot manager. What could possibly go wrong?

Is it just as simple as buying a Win 10 DVD and product key for £20 off ebay? Will Win 10 play nicely (or at all) with other operating systems? Should I backup everything in sight before even thinking about this?

All suggestions gratefully received...

 

[gaz1]

do some checking up many have lost there dual boot and also grub from my reading on the subject

i prefer windows 7 weather it has no support or not for it

however i prefer some of my machines off line not been online at all

if you are thinking of updating do a fresh install but beaware it writes somethin gin bios it may not like the change of hard drives on your machine

 

[Kayos]

I dont get the windows 10 hatred, I was on pre release testing and found it very good. I run 2 businesses from 1 laptop, it's never decided to just delete all my data (but its backed up, just in case) and according to my hardware firewall it doesn't phone home every 5 minutes, or at all actually

I'm not a windows slave either, I use linux when I can, with an unhealthy preference for Slackware and gentoo

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

I dont get the windows 10 hatred, I was on pre release testing and found it very good. I run 2 businesses from 1 laptop, it's never decided to just delete all my data (but its backed up, just in case) and according to my hardware firewall it doesn't phone home every 5 minutes, or at all actually

I'm not a windows slave either, I use linux when I can, with an unhealthy preference for Slackware and gentoo

I can't fault it. Still running music software from the mid 90s and not hit a issue yet

 

[Parm]

I’m an IT numpty

Have win 10 on my work and personal computers. It works a treat

But I probably don’t stretch it’s legs like some of you folk

 

[indy4x]

Been using it on my PC and home laptops since early days, no problems and its older hardware.

We have also been moving our work devices over from Win 7 to Win 10, approx 9,000 devices that are anywhere between 1 and 7 years old, 100's different applications and we have about 5 applications that do not work on Win10, still got a few to do but looking good (plus we have extended support for security updates for Win 7 until Jan 2021)

 

[mangocrazy]

Has anyone installed Win 10 on a machine that has other operating systems already installed?

And wants to keep them installed and unmolested?

 

[Kayos]

Has anyone installed Win 10 on a machine that has other operating systems already installed?

And wants to keep them installed and unmolested?

I tend to do windows first or use another hard drive, windows does like to take over the mbr

 

[qwakers]

install win10 over win7 in the same partition (or upgrade from within windows 7) then use a bootloader to rewrite the mbr.

simples.

 

[mangocrazy]

install win10 over win7 in the same partition (or upgrade from within windows 7) then use a bootloader to rewrite the mbr.

simples.

I want to retain my existing Win 7 and Linux installs, as mentioned earlier. It would be needlessly disruptive to overwrite an OS that I use a lot.

 

[mangocrazy]

I tend to do windows first or use another hard drive, windows does like to take over the mbr

Yes, that's my experience. Which is why I was thinking of using a brand new, unused SSD for the Win 10 install. I guess I'll give that a go, and if it blocks access to all other OSes during the install, it's only a month or so until (K)ubuntu 20.04 LTS is released and that should re-install GRUB and (hopefully) order will be restored.

 

[pedrobedro]

I bought a cheap Coda laptop on ebuyer with windows 10 on a built in 32 gig drive. I bought a cheap USB housing and a 240 gig M2 ssd and cloned the windows installation using minitool partition maker free version. I installed the M2 drive and set it as boot drive and I have bought a 120 gig ssd and fitted it into the housing to use as a portable drive. You could use windows 10 from a USB drive then remove it to boot from your usual drive.

 

[mtt.tr]

Cant complain about windows 10 much better than 7 and overall better than previous o/s

I actually reinstalled mine to remove the apps i dont use was faultess didn't lose anything

 

[mangocrazy]

OK, simple question. Does anyone have Win 7 and Win 10 co-existing on the same machine, but in different partitions? If so, how did you do it?

 

[gaz1]

the thing is it wouldnt be in my case

windows 10 its own hard drive
windows 7 on its own drive with another type of operating system then use dual boot

but yes you can but its advised not to do or make sure you have a back up of it

 

[mangocrazy]

the thing is it wouldnt be in my case

windows 10 its own hard drive
windows 7 on its own drive with another type of operating system then use dual boot

but yes you can but its advised not to do or make sure you have a back up of it

That's pretty much what I'm intending to do. Win 7 and Kubuntu are on an existing SSD, data is on large spinning HDD. I plan to add another (M2) SSD and put Win 10 on that. I think that I'll clone my Win 7 install prior to doing anything.

 

[MBB]

I have windows pro 10 and 7 on the same pc but on separate hard drives. to switch from one to another I have to switch the power input from one hard drive to another. I prefer windows 10, the only thing I miss is the solitaire on win 7.

 

[mangocrazy]

I have windows pro 10 and 7 on the same pc but on separate hard drives. to switch from one to another I have to switch the power input from one hard drive to another. I prefer windows 10, the only thing I miss is the solitaire on win 7.

That's one way of doing it. Not sure if I'd want to go that far. And all the Win 7 games you know and love can be ported to Win 10. Majorgeeks has a script to do it. Here:

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/windows_7_games_for_windows_10.html

There's also a way of completely getting rid of the naff Win 10 bundled games (which I would need to research as it's not particularly intuitive).

 

[gaz1]

untested but check before you do

i found win 7 games to play on for daughter she didnt have it but my pc did have them

had to keep kicking her off my pc

so downloaded them for free and installed them

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/get-classic-solitaire-minesweeper-windows-10

 

[aguycalledsteve]

If it were me. I'd image the windows 7 installation and run it from Virtual Box on Windows 10.

No need to faff then with dual booting anything then. Best of both worlds.