Confused about dual Win 10 installs on same PC

Puzzled · 26 Jul 2016 at 20:39

Hi

I've finally got round to updating my main PC to Windows 10 but a bit confused about the new activation methods / hardware lock.

If I upgrade my current 8.1 install to Win 10 and then upgrade my Win 7 OS drive (dual boot for work, keeps the gaming side clean and snappy) will they both end up with the same key due to being locked to the same hardware (bar HDD)?

In which case could I in theory clone the Win 7 disk, upgrade both to Win 10 and then have a third OS drive with the original Win 7 key?

My understanding is that Microsoft have done away with keys so how do you keep two licences separate on the same PC? :confused:

jpaul · 26 Jul 2016 at 21:27

This is discussed in other recent threads, but after ~30 day roll-back option from win10 has expired and after jul29, could find on day 31 that if you use win7 again the win10's will be de-activated (assumed roll-back) or if you did not use win7 for for a month it becomes de-activated.
No-one knows these are my hypothesis ... so film analogies of Sophie's choice or Highlander 'there can only be one' apply , suspect we need to choose before the choice is made for us.
The bigger question in the words of Laurence Olivier is - Windows 10 - 'Is it safe'

Skeeter · 26 Jul 2016 at 21:31

jpaul said:
This is discussed in other recent threads, but after ~30 day roll-back option from win10 has expired and after jul29, could find on day 31 that if you use win7 again the win10's will be de-activated (assumed roll-back) or if you did not use win7 for for a month it becomes de-activated.
No-one knows these are my hypothesis ... so film analogies of Sophie's choice or Highlander 'there can only be one' apply , suspect we need to choose before the choice is made for us.
The bigger question in the words of Laurence Olivier is - Windows 10 - 'Is it safe'

Puzzled · 26 Jul 2016 at 22:26

jpaul said:
This is discussed in other recent threads, but after ~30 day roll-back option from win10 has expired and after jul29, could find on day 31 that if you use win7 again the win10's will be de-activated (assumed roll-back) or if you did not use win7 for for a month it becomes de-activated.
No-one knows these are my hypothesis ... so film analogies of Sophie's choice or Highlander 'there can only be one' apply , suspect we need to choose before the choice is made for us.
The bigger question in the words of Laurence Olivier is - Windows 10 - 'Is it safe'

I take it Windows 10 does still actually have a key registered in the OS?

My main concern is that I end up wasting a licence if both end up with the same hardware key through separate upgrades.

PiKe · 26 Jul 2016 at 22:27

Are they both the Professional edition of Windows?

Puzzled · 26 Jul 2016 at 22:32

PiKe said:
Are they both the Professional edition of Windows?

Yep, 8.1 Pro & 7 Pro

The free Windows 10 license Microsoft is providing to upgraders works differently. Microsoft won’t issue you a Windows 10 product key. Instead, when you perform an upgrade from within Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1, the upgrade process registers a unique ID associated with your PC’s hardware on Microsoft’s Windows activation servers.

http://www.howtogeek.com/226510/how...10-license-after-changing-your-pc’s-hardware/

Would them being on a different HDD be enough to recognize a difference?

PiKe · 26 Jul 2016 at 22:55

No point using both the keys then, the hardware hash will be enough to activate both installs.

A different HDD isn't enough to alter the hash, it's tied to motherboard/CPU combo.

Puzzled · 26 Jul 2016 at 23:17

PiKe said:
No point using both the keys then, the hardware hash will be enough to activate both installs.

A different HDD isn't enough to alter the hash, it's tied to motherboard/CPU combo.

Will give it a try, I'll upgrade one and then do a clean Windows 10 install on the other drive and see if it activates ok. If not I'll do it again with the Win 7 key.

Probably should have done this earlier but hey I love a deadline.

jpaul · 27 Jul 2016 at 07:58

sorry, had misunderstood you had already had two licenses.
win7 licenses only allow you to have one activated copy on a system so strictly, even multi-booting the same license activated twice on one system is not allowed, which maybe true for win 10 too, 30 days grace if you are genuinely migrating from one hdd to another or recovering a system.

So I guess I would be wary but worst case will need to re-authorise by phone if your 10 migrated work disk became unactivated (due to multi-boot) , if you do like 10 may however need to upgrade both keys to be best positioned, since at least you can roll-back.

The windows 10 installs I have made all have a unique desktop hex id , I do not know its significance in potentially distinguishing multi-boot installs

[personally with single token am dual booting for now but will need to decide if I really want to stay with 10.
I also saw a comment that dual booting win 7 and win 10 may cause volume shadow copy on 10 and the recovery mechanism it supports not to work so I need to investigate more]

couple of refs one two

Puzzled · 27 Jul 2016 at 18:58

So probably better to do a clean install on main drive and then clone it to the second rather than trying a second install.

I'll give it a try, worst case scenario I'll just stick with Win 7 licence for my work system.

With the volume shadow copy issues, would having each OS on separate drives using the BIOS to select drives make any difference?
My bootloader was messed up by the Win 8.1 install and I never got round to fixing it as was easy enough to use the quick boot selector.

jpaul · 28 Jul 2016 at 17:54

about the volume shadow copy - I found today that for win 10 the system recovery mechanism was off by default (which is apparently not an uncommon experience, maybe in the win10 sticky somewhere ) I re-started it and saved a recovery.
I logged off win 10 on my multi boot drive, logged into 7, returned to 10 and the recovery was image was gone, so the comments in ref two above seem valid.
I can well imagine with multiple drives you will not be impacted.

[had much more fun than expected trying to give the folders in the user accounts on the original boot drive I used, permissions, so that when mounted in the new system as 2nd drive, could read/search these folders (administrator sid's incompatible) - icacls command gets caught in a loop on the \Users\admin\AppData\Local\Application Data recursive junction ]