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We've previously outlined the steps for installing a dual boot for Windows 8 with Windows 7 and the process essentially hasn't changed for Windows 10. Briefly, start the setup from your installation media, install Windows 10 on the partition you designated for it, and choose which operating system you'd like to launch the next time you're booting your computer. If you have a newer computer with the product key embedded on the UEFI BIOS, you can run your old Windows version and Windows 10 next to each other, and Windows 10 should activate automatically.Ĭreating a dual boot on a Windows machine is straightforward. Although we've previously shown you how to fix that, we'd recommend you to go the virtual machine route (see below).Īs mentioned previously, to use installation media created with the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool, you will need a Windows 7 or Windows 8 product key to activate Windows 10. Installing a Windows dual boot on a Linux machine can be complicated, since Windows overwrites the Linux boot loader (GRUB) with its own. If your system barely meets the minimum requirements of running Windows 10, you're better off with a dual boot.ĭual booting the Windows 10 Enterprise Evaluation copy will work on any Windows system and on your Mac. The latter is less tricky to set up, but since virtual machines require extra resources, they can be buggy and thus won't give you a smooth Windows 10 experience. You can either dual boot the OS or run it inside a virtual machine. With the installation files prepared, you can proceed with installing Windows 10.
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Install Windows 10 on Windows, Linux, or OS X It's highly recommended that you prepare a backup of your data before you do this.įinally, you might need a USB flash drive with at least 3 GB of space. The tool will guide you through the steps needed to slice off available space from a drive in use, which you can then allocate to a new drive partition. For the dual boot option, we recommend at least 30 GB of space, especially if you would like to test software under Windows 10.įor managing Windows partitions, we recommend EaseUS Partition Master. If you would like to dual boot Windows 10 next to your current operating system, you will need a separate partition on your system drive or a separate drive to install the new OS on - this can be an external drive.
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