Question Can you dual boot two versions of Windows 10?

[xsoxau]

Hello,

I have a question about dual booting. Is it possible to have a dual boot between 2 versions of Windows 10? It might come off as a silly question to a person who knows about dual booting but I am new to this stuff so I don't really know that much.

I also have 2 more questions, how can I isolate these 2 "machines" so the programs on one of them can't read what's on the other hard drive where the other version of Windows is, and vice versa. And is the HWID different on these two boots? Thank you!

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

technically yes, as long as you install a custom boot manager like GRUB or BURG (which is just GRUB backwards but it's a fork, there are other boot managers out there, just take a look around and find one that you like the looks of.)

however, the real question is why you want to boot two different versions of Windows 10, are you talking about actual version numbers like 1803 and 1809 or Home vs Pro?

As for not allowing either one to see programs and files from each other, when you dual boot, you create two partitions on one drive, or have two drives each with an installation on them, and they will both be the same file system of NTFS and all the contents will be readable by the other, but each one will show up in THIS PC as another hard drive with it's own drive letter.

If you really want them to be invisible from each other, then the only way to do that without a bunch of hard work in making things hidden is to just run one version normal, and run the other version in a virtual machine.

 

[xsoxau]

Thank you for your response. I was referring to using the same version of Windows 10, like Home with the same updated version. I am not good with words but I meant having two boots both using Windows 10. But isn't there a built in Windows 10 Boot Manager that I can use since I am only using Windows? And if you know about HWID's can you then answer my last question if you are so kind.

Thank you very much!

 

[karenjoly]

The best way to dual boot is with separate drives. Each may have a different or the same OS, no matter. Issue, as with all installs, is to ensure that only the drive where the install will go is attached .Then detach it and install on the second disk.
Do not put both OS on the same disk.
Some boards like ASUS have a boot menu to select the boot drive so one need not go into UEFI to select boot drive on each reboot.
You do not want to have the files invisible between drives. If that scares you, forget the whole thing.
The IDs will be different. To my computer mind the only time the IDs end up identical, resulting in one being put off-line, is when samsung data migration tool is used to clone a drive and the user leaves the origin and clone in the system at the same time. Samsung hasn't figured that out yet.

 

[geofelt]

I do this on a laptop with a 32 bit windows and a 64 bit windows.
Install the os on a single drive with no other drives connected.
Rename the volume to something unique identifying what it represents.

Ditto for the other.

On booting, most bios will have an option like F12 to select the boot device.

If the other drive initially shows up, I think you can make it invisible by using storage management services to delete it.

 

[winlog666]

Yes you can, the best way to do it is with 2 drives. I would not recommend dual boot from 1 drive cause it might mess up some things. Also before you try to dual boot make sure you dont mess up the boot manager. In my opinion tho, I think using a vm is better and more convenient.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Yes you can do this, no you don't need a custom boot manager like GRUB.