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How to dual-boot or virtualise Windows 7

techradar.com — Both approaches have their own quirks and problems, though, so it pays to understand them properly before trying to install Windows 7 on your system. Here's everything that you need to know.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jul 19, 2009

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  • hardeep1singh, on 07/19/2009, -0/+44is it any different from how you dual boot or virtualize other operating systems?
  • scy1192, on 07/19/2009, -2/+28VirtualBox is better than Virtual PC.
  • Clodhopper, on 07/19/2009, -5/+30Windows 7 is the *****. I dual-booted it up with XP and literally haven't logged into Windows using XP in weeks.
  • Sakumi, on 07/19/2009, -0/+22Not really, no.
  • scy1192, on 07/20/2009, -0/+17open Task Manager and close out of explorer.exe
  • Mankind121, on 07/20/2009, -1/+17TechRadar: Home of extremely lackluster articles
  • indiepenguins, on 07/20/2009, -1/+14Do we really need a guide for this?
  • schoate09, on 07/20/2009, -0/+11VirtualPC is free, too.
  • inactive, on 07/20/2009, -0/+11And delete system32 while you're at it.
  • schoate09, on 07/20/2009, -1/+12VMWare is better than both of them. VirtualBox's 3D acceleration is piss poor compared to VMWare. And until VirtualBox can clean up it's horrendous I/O performance to at least close to VMWare, I can't even contemplate the switch.
  • JoeHague, on 07/20/2009, -1/+10A quick note to anyone who is thinking of Dual-booting Vista and 7. Vista has a tool to partition your hard drive (as per the article)- but it does not work well. Sometimes windows will put unmovable files towards the end of your hard drive. In this case, Vista's disk management tool will only allow yo to create a new disk up until that spot. So even if you have enough space to create a 60 gig disk, Vista may only allow you to create a 3 gig disk, which is obviously not enough space to run another OS.
    I used the third party program- Easeus Partition Manager. It worked fine for me. It's free(or free enough since I only used it once). It didn't screw up my Vista disk and it gave me 100gb disk to install 7. I used Vista's disk manager to format the new disk.

    Just thought I'd share because it took me a good long while to gather that information and find a tool that worked well. Make sure you back up your files before screwing around with your disks.

    Also I had to mount my copy of 7 to a DVD not a CD/
  • sageerrant, on 07/20/2009, -0/+9Easeus Partition Master Home.

    Free to use, as much as you like.
  • roxgod666, on 07/20/2009, -2/+10You do know you're in the Microsoft section of Digg?
  • doshindude, on 07/20/2009, -2/+9Same here, I just installed 7 alongside my existing XP installation on my laptop (was debating it for a while), but since then I've never wanted to reboot back into XP.
  • JoeHague, on 07/20/2009, -0/+6Thanks for clearing that up- I thought it was free - but I wasn't 100% sure/
  • Sakumi, on 07/19/2009, -8/+13I am unsure what is so special or newsworthy about this that it deserves front page with 60 diggs and 1 comment.
  • HappyScrappy, on 07/20/2009, -0/+4Anyone who talks about dual booting and ignores that you can run Windows 7 from a .VHD file is an idiot.

    http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/117544 ...
  • TrevorPace, on 07/19/2009, -1/+5Yeah I'm running it on Ubuntu 9.04 and it's flawless. The performance is really good.
  • Myztry, on 07/20/2009, -1/+5Buy Windows 7 OEM from a computer store. With the price difference from retail you can buy a hard drive while fulfilling the OEM "with hardware" requirement. THIS (free) drive become the destination for your new version of Windows allowing you to keep your original intact.
    Use either the "File and Settings transfer Wizard" via alternating boots, and/or copy them across the drives the old fashioned way. Do not enter any serials (if possible) or allow any activations until say a week after everything has been working fine. The activations can be used to artifically remove your right of use as per the retail sales agreement. This include software such as Microsoft Office, etc.
    You can then revert to the old OS still on the original drive, store it for backup purposes or format it for the extra storage. Which ever way you go, you can got maximum value for money with added benefits like backups, fall backs, or just a free drive to use as you will.
  • doshindude, on 07/20/2009, -1/+4Dugg for GParted, it is the only partitioning software I trust (don't EVER use software that you have to install inside Windows, because it doesn't always work and can screw stuff up)
  • Sakumi, on 07/20/2009, -2/+5Well.. it does include a VirtualPC style application just for this. This is no excuse, of course, but at least the OS can support your older tools with a little configuration, and no third party programs or utilities.

    I am also going to assume a lot of the Vista utilities will work on 7. I may be totally incorrect, but I would think they would work out of the box, or with very little modification by MS.
  • suprememilo, on 07/20/2009, -1/+4I have been running Beta then RC1 since they came out, this is no risker buisness than running XP or Vista....
  • Samueul, on 07/19/2009, -2/+5No, it's painless and straight forward and I've had no problems dual booting or running in a vm...
  • rydawg09, on 07/20/2009, -2/+5Ditto
  • LoneWolf01, on 07/20/2009, -1/+4I actually virtualised W7 on one PC, it was surprisingly easy, no hacks or other software needed. I assumed that it was designed with this in mind, seeing as it was a beta, people are usually a bit iffy about installing beta software. Then after seeing that, I installed it as my main on my laptop.

    The only issue I still have is something to do with my university's Wi-Fi and password protected access points. There are some access points I just can't get into despite the password being completely correct. I found it strange because they all worked fine in Vista.
  • TekTrixter, on 07/20/2009, -0/+3The gParted live CD also works well.
  • Kajaah117, on 07/20/2009, -1/+3I created a 20 gig partition using Easeus to try to create a dual-boot, but upon installation I got a BlackSOD. Is it just a bad copy of the RC or did I do something wrong?

    I'm passed the 30 days anyway, and there's no way I'm spending another 9 hours downloading the RC again. I just want to know what happened.
  • doshindude, on 07/20/2009, -3/+5and VMWare outdoes them both.
  • Elranzer, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2XP wasn't *****, though. Vista, however, was.
  • QubitTarutaru, on 07/20/2009, -0/+2I think you forgot a "/S" after your post.

    VirtualBox has better support for 3D than VMWare. VMWare Player, the free one, doesn't have any 3D support that I'm aware of. You'd have to buy the VMWare with DirectX support. But last I tried it, it does not include 3D acceleration for linux operating systems like VirtualBox (OpenGL 2.0 w/ shaders).

    I could be wrong. Seriously though, do they have a new version I can try that is better than VirtualBox?
  • austang, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Agreed with Happyscrappy

    Don't use dual boot without using a VHD.
    Easy step-by-step how to do it below.
    http://www.groovypost.com/howto/microsoft/windows- ...
  • luchid, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1WTF does the PCI bus have to do with the experience you get using a VM? I'd argue with speed, USB or 3D support, but the PCI bus?
  • Elranzer, on 07/20/2009, -2/+3I've noticed no one is saying good things about Vista lately.

    Now that Windows 7 is out, are all the Vista "fans" now accepting that the OS was *****?
  • Kajaah117, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1Alright, I'll try that next time. How about another slightly off-topic question, after reformatting the Windows 7 partition, Windows 7 still shows up in the boot manager. How do I completely remove it?
  • doshindude, on 07/20/2009, -1/+2Don't use partition tools that are run while the OS is still running. Run something like GParted so you can ensure you won't ***** up your OS. I was considering using Easeus (and/or PartitionMagic) until both programs were prompting me to reboot in order to complete the operation after I set up the partition, and that sounded really fishy to me. I backed the hell out of that and decided to get a Live CD of GParted, which did the job perfectly.
  • KibibyteBrain, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1@Qubit Actually, DirectX support is more critical for a VM. If you wish to get full 3D accleration for a Linux guest OS your VM software doesn't matter you can just run the program on the host's X display and therefore get the host's video acceleration. I've done this for almost a decade. Its Windows that is difficult. Also, VirtualBox's acceleration barely seems to do anything.
  • QubitTarutaru, on 07/22/2009, -0/+1@schoate09 I've had better luck with VirtualBox's OpenGL in Ubuntu than I have VMWare workstation's DirectX in Windows. I'm not saying you are wrong (ignore my last post), but that has been my experience. It could be hardware related, who knows. Unlike you though, I use VirtualBox for running Linux guests, as opposed to Windows guests.

    @KibibyteBrain I have a Windows host with Linux guests, and I don't know of any x servers for windows capable of 3d acceleration. Running with the host's X display is not an option (I would be interested to know if someone knows of a x server to use). I've been doing OpenGL programming, using shaders, acculmulation buffer, various extensions, etc, in Ubuntu, at about 80-90% of the speed my host Windows system renders. So I know it does something.
  • doshindude, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1@Kajaah117:
    there's something you need to do off of the windows 7 install DVD to remove that, follow this guide:
    http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/17/how-to-un ...
  • LoneWolf01, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1I assumed that too, I never bothered to get to the root of the problem because the uni has an unprotected one that still accesses the net when you put your details in.

    Which makes me remember another problem. With that unprotected access point, I can use Firefox's settings to use the uni's proxy, but not with IE/MSN.
  • mrBitch, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1@ HappyScrappy, RE: " .. Anyone who talks about dual booting and ignores that you can run Windows 7 from a .VHD file is an idiot :
    http://forums.techarena.in/guides-tutorials/117544 ...


    Ok, +1 to you, that is a really nice way of creating a Win7 test boot without having to worry about partitions or issues with performance due to virtualisation...
  • mrBitch, on 07/20/2009, -0/+1RE: " .. only issue I still have is something to do with my university's Wi-Fi and password protected access points. There are some access points I just can't get into despite the password being completely correct. I found it strange because they all worked fine in Vista."


    This is strange, since most have found the opposite happens, where Win7 picked up hardware that Vista didn't (see scanner post a few posts up).

    What's really strange here is that your Win7 install is able to use your wireless hardware for OTHER access points perfectly fine.

    This has to be some sort of setup issue at your client login end.
  • KMartSheriff, on 07/20/2009, -2/+3Now that Windows 7 is out, are all the XP"fans" now accepting that the OS was *****?

    See what I did there?
  • tdcrooks, on 07/24/2009, -0/+1Neither. Run Linux.
  • AdmiralAcbar, on 07/20/2009, -2/+2VirtualBox is open source. And until VMWare stops eating all of my RAM, I'll stick with VirtualBox.
  • specialK16, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1Um they are pretty much doing the same. The utility just needs to unlock the partition drive in order to work on it. Hence it needs to restart.
  • mrBitch, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1RE: " .. Easeus Partition Master Home. free to use.. "
    Nice tip.

    RE: " .. A quick note to anyone who is thinking of Dual-booting Vista and 7. Vista has a tool to partition your hard drive (as per the article)- but it does not work well."


    To be fair, Windows Vista's "non-destructible" partition tools were Microsoft's first bash at doing this, although this SHOULD have been addressed by now (given all of the Vista updates to date).
  • schoate09, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1@AdmiralAcbar, if price is important to you, that VirtualBox is the way to go. I have a powerful desktop and laptop with tons of resources. Honestly, if resource limitations are even possibly a limitiation, you're probably not the best candidate for VMs.

    @Qubit:
    More support over quality of support =/= better. I use VMWare workstation, and it's accelerated DirectX is far better than VirtualBox's next to unusable accelerated OpenGL/DX. Maybe VirtualBox will improve, then the linux 3D support will be nice, but since any 3D software I need runs on Windows, I'm only interested in Windows support, my linux support can be without 3D for now.
  • roebeet, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1PROGMAN.EXE FTW
  • inactive, on 07/20/2009, -2/+2Yeah, you could just install the utilities on Windows 7; even if the installer doesn't like it you can always open it up in Orca and bash some sense into it, or at least just copy the install folder from XP. Assuming you don't just install the XP Mode beta, which is there for exactly this scenario.
  • freezerburn666, on 07/20/2009, -1/+1what i want to know is how i can access and run my physical win 7 partition in virtualbox while i'm logged in to ubuntu 9.04
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