Install 2 systems on a laptop. Installing a second copy of Windows on a PC

This happens for various reasons: the specifics of the work, the desire to learn about new developments, and a wide variety of other options. Therefore, in this article we will talk about how to correctly install more than one operating system on a computer.

Perhaps we will look at a couple of the most popular OS combinations. Let me note right away that I will only give general description installation without delving into its routine details. So, let's go...

Installing Windows Xp + Windows 7

To install such a combination of operating systems we need special software represented by EasyBCD. If you just install these two operating systems, then the one you installed last will be loaded. This happens due to the fact that Windows simply “overwrites” the loaders of all operating systems that peacefully “lived” before it and leaves only one for “its beloved one.” Therefore, first we download the Easy BCD program (download ) and leave the installer on some neutral file disk, or you can download it after installing one of the versions of Windows. So, let's start installing the first version of Windows (7 or XP, no matter in what order). When is the first Windows version installed, feel free to install the second one. But it is advisable to install it on a separate partition. After installing the second Windows OS, we boot up and install the previously downloaded EasyBCD program into the system.

The program interface is quite simple and understandable. A man who knows the basics English language, can easily understand this program.

When you launch the EasyBCD program, you will see this window in front of you (Fig. 1):

Fig.1

As you can see, we have a bootloader Windows 7, which was defined as the default, since this system was installed second and is the current one. Now we need to add new entry into the bootloader so that when you turn on the computer, we can see the line with Windows XP and, accordingly, we can boot from it. To do this, click on the panel on the left "Add New Entry", then select in the item "Type" the required operating system (in in this case this is Windows XP), and click on the right, Add Entry.

Fig.2

That's it, an entry has been added to the bootloader, and when you click on the item View Settings, you will see that you already have two entries in the bootloader: Windows 7 and Windows XP. (Fig.3)

Fig.3

Now you can safely restart your computer and boot from the desired operating system.

Alternative when installing Linux + Windows (Xp, 7)

This “combination” occurs quite often, since many people want to break away from the “windows” and feel the taste of a self-confident “penguin”. With this installation option, you can do without a third-party software, but take advantage standard means namely Linux. To do this, we first install Windows, the good old fashioned way and without any tricks. Then, it’s Linux’s turn, we install it second, again due to Windows removing all “foreign” bootloaders. I would like to immediately note the fact that in the process Linux installations, you will be prompted to “use the entire disk”; you DO NOT need to do this, unless of course you value your data. It is necessary to “bite off” a separate section. After installation is complete, Linux will create boot menu, where you can select any of the operating systems to boot. But no one deprives you of the right to install these two operating systems using EasyBCD.

Installation Linux + Windows + Win 7 + Other systems

With this option, the most convenient method will be, again, EasyBCD. Only in this case, we need to create an entry in Add New Entry for each operating system, following the example of creating an entry for Windows XP. On the various tabs of the program you can proceed to creating bootloader entries for Linux and Mac Os. (Fig. 4). Also, if desired, you can add older Windows operating systems: 95,98,NT, etc.

Fig.4

Basic principles

The principle of operation is always the same, regardless of the selected operating systems:

1. Install the first version of Windows. It's good if it's already installed. If not, install Windows in the usual way, only when setting up partitions, leave free space on the disk for the second operating system.

2. Free up space for the second version of Windows. To install a second operating system, you need free disk space. If you already have one version of Windows installed, you can simply resize the partition. Is it possible to equip a computer second hard disk (if it is a desktop PC) and install the second Windows there.

3. Install the second version of Windows. During the process, be sure to select the “Custom Install” option and not the “Upgrade” option. Install the second operating system next to the first - on a different partition on the same disk or on a second physical disk.

After this, you can select during the download process the required version Windows, and files saved in one will be available in the other.

Installing the first version of Windows

First you need to install the first operating system, if it is not already installed. If you already have one version of Windows on your computer, you can skip this step. If you are installing Windows from scratch, you should select the Custom installation option during the process and create a smaller disk partition for the operating system so that there is enough space for the second version of Windows. Then you won't have to mess with the partitions in the next step.

Reducing the system partition

To make room for the second version of Windows, you need to reduce the size of the partition in which the first is installed. If free space Is that enough or are you planning to install a second system on another hard drive, you can skip this step.

To reduce the partition size you need to run current version Windows and open Disk Management ( Disk Management). To do this, press +[R], enter “diskmgmt.msc” (without quotes) in the dialog box and press . Right click on the current system partition and select the Shrink Volume option. Reduce the partition size so that there is enough space for the second version of Windows.

If used on Windows BitLocker encryption, you first need to open the BitLocker control panel and click the “Suspend Protection” link next to the partition you want to shrink. Then encryption will be disabled until the next reboot and you can resize the partition. Otherwise, the defense simply will not allow you to do this.

Installing the second version of Windows

Now paste installation disk with the second version of Windows and restart your computer. Start installation in normal mode. When you come to the choice between upgrading and custom installation, be sure to choose the second option. If you choose to upgrade, the second version of Windows will simply install instead of the first.

Select unallocated space and create a new section and select it to install the second version of Windows. Be careful not to mistakenly specify the partition in which the first version of Windows is installed - two operating systems cannot be installed on one partition.

After this, the installation will complete as usual, only the second version of Windows will stand next to the first. Each will be installed in a separate partition.

Selecting an operating system and setting up a bootloader

After installing the second operating system, every time you turn it on, a menu will appear from which you can select the desired version of Windows to boot.

Depending on installed versions Windows menu may look different. Starting with Windows 8 this blue screen with tiles and the heading “Choose an operating system”. In Windows 7, this is a black screen with a list of operating systems and the title "Windows Boot Manager" ( Windows Boot manager).

In any case, the boot menu can be configured directly from Windows. Open Control Panel, click the “System and Security” link, and then click “System”. On the left side of the window, click the link “ Additional options systems" (Advanced System Settings). Select the Advanced tab and click the Settings button under Startup & Recovery. Choose which operating system will boot automatically by default and after how long.

If you want to install more than two operating systems, follow the same principle, just create your own partition for each of them.

Hello! Finally I found the time to install Windows 8 and of course write detailed article with pictures for readers of your blog. I haven’t decided to completely abandon Windows 7 yet; I wanted to check Windows 8 first, to understand whether what they write about it on the Internet is true and to draw my own conclusions. So I decided install Windows 8 as a second system next to Windows 7, which is already installed on my computer.

I will now try to describe the entire installation process in detail and supplement my words with photographs. I would like to immediately apologize for the quality of the photo, since I installed Windows 8 not on a virtual machine, but on regular computer, then I didn’t have the opportunity to take beautiful screenshots. I photographed the whole process on my phone, but photographing the monitor is not very convenient, and therefore the photo is not very good :).

But that won't stop me from showing you the Windows 8 installation process.

To install Windows 8, I created another partition on the hard drive, I wrote about how to do this in the article, if you also want to install eight as a second system, then I advise you to create the same additional section. I allocated almost 20 GB for it (I wanted more, but I don’t have that much free memory on the hard drive), for 32 bit Windows 8 is enough; for 64-bit it is better to make a larger partition.

Preparing to install Windows 8

• Of course we will need boot disk with Windows 8. If you don’t have it, you’ll have to do it; read more about this in the article.
• If you install Windows 8 next to an already installed Windows 7, then it’s enough to simply create an additional section, as described in the article linked above.
• If you install Windows 8 as the only system, you will need to format drive C, when formatting, all information on it will be deleted. Therefore, you need to make a copy in advance necessary files and save them, for example, to drive D.
• Installation on a new computer differs only in the breakdown hard drive on partitions during the installation process, I will write about this in more detail.

Let's start installing Windows 8

Attention!

The installation process may differ from the one I show. This depends on the build of the system you are installing. Just follow the instructions and you will succeed.

We take our boot disk, put it in the CD/DVD drive and restart the computer. If you see the inscription, quickly press any key and you can skip the next paragraph.

If loading from the disk has not started, then you need to set the boot from CD/DVD disks. Read more about how to do this in the article. If you did everything correctly, then when you restart your computer you will see the message, continue.

Then a blue window will appear with the inscription “Start installation”, wait again until the window with the choice of language appears. Select the language and click “Next”.

We accept license agreement and click “Next”.

The next point is probably the most difficult in the Windows 8 installation process. We need to select the partition in which we will install the system. When I created a partition for Windows 8, I called it that way, so select the partition we need and click “Disk Settings” then "Format". A message will appear that formatting will destroy all data on the partition. Click “Ok”.

After formatting is complete, select the section we need and click “Next”.

We observe the process of copying and preparing files. The hardest part is over, you can rest a little, after completing preparations for installation, the computer will reboot itself. When the inscription appears, do not touch anything.

After the reboot, Windows 8 will start up immediately. But if you are installing the system next to Windows 7, then don’t be alarmed, the seven has not disappeared anywhere. After the next demonstration of the beautiful logo, a window will appear with a choice of operating system. As you can see, Windows 7 remains, but we have not yet finished installing Windows 8, which is why we select it.

If you install Windows 8 as the only system, then such a window will not appear.

We continue with the installation. On the page Enter the computer name and select a color to your liking. Click “Next”.

The next installation page is, I think you can configure the computer later, but for now I advise you to select “Use standard settings”.

You probably already know that Windows 8 has a strong connection to all sorts of online services from Microsoft. Therefore, even during the installation process, we are asked to log in or create a new account. Of course you need an Internet connection. I recommend logging in with your account if you need to after installation, but for now just click “Entry without account Microsoft".

Select.

Enter your username, password (if necessary) and click on the “Done” button.

You need to wait a little while the computer gets ready for use.

That's it, here it is a desktop with tiles.

Click on the “Desktop” tile, and almost the same desktop as in Windows 7 will appear in front of you.

That's it, Windows 8 installation is complete! You can start studying the system.

If you installed Windows 8 as a second system next to Windows 7

As I already wrote, there are no problems with the operation of two systems on one computer. But, I didn’t like one thing about loading and selecting the operating system.

Windows 8 has taken over the function of managing the choice of operating system; when you turn on the computer, a beautiful window appears in which you can choose which system to boot, and there is also the ability to configure the time and default system. Everything would be fine, but it's too long.

For me, Windows 8 first starts to load, then a window appears with the choice of OS.

I select Windows 7 (and most often I need to load it) and then the computer reboots again and only then does it start Windows boot 7. This is very long. So I decided to fix the problem, and now I will share it with you.

I simply made it so that the choice of OS to boot was controlled by Windows 7. Its window with the choice of operating system is not so beautiful, but it is fast.

Boot into Windows 7. Click “Start” and in the search write “ cmd“, in the search results we launch the utility cmd.exe.

A window will open in which we write the command msconfig and press “Enter”.

In the window that opens, go to the tab, select Windows 7, press the button “Use as default”. Click “Apply” and “Ok”. We agree to a reboot.

Now loading and selecting the operating system will be controlled by Windows 7.

Conclusion

I would also like to write about my impressions of the installation and of Windows 8 itself. I won’t write much, to be honest, I’m already a little tired, it’s not a small article :).

I liked it. The installation process is not very different from installing Windows 7, but there is still a twist. I really like these colorful pages with large minimalist elements. In terms of installation speed, Windows 8 installs faster than Windows 7, I didn’t measure it, but it seemed so to me. I also liked that there were no problems with Windows installation 8 as a second system on one computer.

As for the system itself and the interface, I also liked it. I won’t say that I’m delighted, but it’s cool. And when you switch to a regular desktop, it’s almost the same Windows 7, only something newer. I won’t write about the speed of work, everything is individual here, but according to my observations, Windows 8 works no faster than seven.

That's all, if you have any questions, ask them in the comments. Good luck friends!

Also on the site:

Installing Windows 8 as a second system next to Windows 7 on the same computer updated: February 7, 2018 by: admin

Sooner or later, you may need to install a second (or third) operating system on your computer. In order for several operating systems to coexist peacefully on your computer, you need to know a few simple rules.

I will not describe the OS installation process in this article. Since it doesn’t matter what operating system is installed, the process itself always remains the same. Instead, I'll focus above on the important details you need to know when installing multiple OSes on one computer.

First, decide whether you really need a second operating system? For example, if you want to install another OS just for the sake of curiosity or pampering (for example, many are interested in finding out what Linux is), then in this case you should not bother with full installation OS. For these purposes, a Live CD (for Linux) is quite suitable, or a more universal tool is to use (you can install Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, and other operating systems).

If your decision to install another OS has good reasons, then you need to resolve the following issues:

Where to install the OS?

Ideally, each operating system needs a separate hard drive. In practice, this is quite problematic to accomplish (after all, HDDs cost money, and a lot of it). There is another option, more rational, which is to use one hard drive divided into partitions.

It’s good if you once split the disk into several partitions. But as usually happens, you don’t have a free partition. In this case, you need to create a new partition; this can be done using Windows tools:

1) Press “Win” + “R”, write “diskmgmt.msc”, and click Ok.

2) Select a partition (preferably not a system one) from which you plan to “select” part free space, to create a new partition. Right-click on this section and select “Shrink Volume...”.

Then enter the size of the space to be compressed, and click the “Shrink” button.

3) After the operation is completed, you will have unallocated space that can be used to install a new operating system.

Installation sequence

It's pretty important point, on which many “stumble”. The fact is that the installation of operating systems must proceed in a certain sequence. Let's say you want to install three operating systems on one computer: XP, Seven and Linux. In this case the sequence will be as follows:

• XP is installed first.
• The second one is installed by Windows 7.
• Then Linux is installed.

This is due to the fact that each OS installs its own bootloader. If you install Seven first and then XP, or Linux first and then Windows, you will lose access to previously installed systems.

Remembering the installation sequence is quite simple, Windows is installed by release date, first old version(95, XP) and then new version(Windows 7, 8, etc.) Linux is always installed after Windows.

Thus, if you have the required number of free partitions and the correct installation sequence, you will not have problems installing several operating systems on one computer.

In conclusion, I would like to say about safety. The most crucial moment when installing an OS, in my opinion, is preparation of hard disk. It is easy for a novice user, with no experience, to make a mistake like: “accidentally installed it on the wrong partition.” So be extremely careful when installing, and take care of backup copy files that are important to you.

Dear friends, today I want to tell you about one computer. No, this time virtual machine we won't need it. In one of the articles on this site I wrote how to create additional logical drives on the computer, that is. For those who haven’t read it yet, take a look at this article, it will come in handy today. Of course, we will install additional operating systems, each on its own disk (partition, new volume).

And so you can immediately create, for example, on drive “D”, three more additional partitions. This is exactly what I did so as not to get confused during the installation of operating systems. I allocated 35 GB for one additional partition, 30 GB for another, and 25 GB for a third. Why different volume? I assigned a planned role to each system, let’s say a system on a 25 GB disk is intended only for games, I even deleted almost everything on it system programs, the drivers installed on it are only those that are used by games, there are a minimum of programs in startup. You can create sections and read how exactly to do this on this site - the admin explained everything clearly.

There are no tricks to installing multiple operating systems. Everything is done in the same way as when installing one system, that is, when installing the OS, select a partition, format it (or not format it). Enter the computer name (I gave each system different names). The system is installed. It remains only to add a few little things... You can switch from system to system only by turning it off and on, or rebooting the computer. When you turn on your computer, you will see a black screen with your installed systems Windows 7 or windows XP or other versions.

Likewise, in addition to various Windows options 7, you can install on others Windows partitions XP (if you install XP, you need to install XP first, and then Win 7), Mac OS, OS/2 Warp, Linux, etc...

The system that you installed first in this list will be the last one, the one that was installed last in the list will be first. You can navigate through these labels using the arrow keys. Which system do you need now, highlight it, press "Enter". If you want the boot to always occur from the operating system you have chosen, do the following.

Open the Start menu --> Computer --> Properties --> Advanced system settings, select the "Advanced" tab. Click on the "Options" button.

In the “Boot and Recovery” window, click on the arrow and select the operating system that will boot by default, that is, the boot will always occur from the system that you have chosen.

Naturally, each system will have its own registry. On each system you need to configure your own system recovery, on each you need to install drivers and antivirus, each you need to activate, install the updates you need.

Which system are you on? at the moment, it will call itself drive “C” by changing the letters of other drives, except for drive “D”, its letter will remain unchanged. Probably there is no point in installing on all systems identical programs. I have 80% of the programs installed on drive “D”, so that if necessary, I could use one or another program without switching between systems, I copied shortcuts from the desktop to other systems.

I just opened the disks with other systems, users -> administrator -> desktop and dragged the shortcuts there with the mouse. Almost all programs began to work on other systems after that. Well, that's all, now you know how to install two, three, or four operating systems on one computer. Good luck everyone!

Well, that’s all, now you know, it’s easy and simple. Good luck everyone!!!