Windows 10 Technical Preview

[BobArch2]

Howdy, BobArch2!

With no intent of side tracking this thread, I am curious to know how much of the SSD is taken up by Win8. I'm still running Win 7 HPE but will upgrade at some future date; however, I am considering paying out for an SSD. The 120 GB sizes seem to be reasonably priced, but I don't know if they are large enough for a Windows install and programs library.

Any insight?

You should be fine with a 120GB SSD for Windows 8 and software apps. I originally had an Intel 120GB SSD a couple of years back. Had lots of room to spare. Earlier this year, there was a sale on the new Samsung EVO 250GB that was too good to pass up, so I switched.

Unfortunately the Intel unit is in spare parts inventory at the moment so I cannot check its properties. However, here is a snapshot of the Samsung unit. As can be seen, a 120GB would work fine.

SamsungEVO.gif

Of the 36.5GB used the breakdown is as follows:
1) Windows folder - 16.5GB (100,258 files)
2) Program Files - 4.09GB (9,553 files)
3) Program Files (x86) - 6.75GB (35,452 files)
4) remainder for miscellaneous files like pagefile, etc.

No personal data.

If you can find a sale on the Samsung EVO 250GB, I can highly recommend that device.

P.S. Hmmm, maybe I should reinstall the Intel SSD and use it for Win10TP!

[Edited to add storage used for Program Files (x86)]

[ChrisJakarta]

I have installed Win10 preview on a VMware VM on a Win7 32bit host with no problems. Set it with 1GB of RAM. Installed VMware Tools, again no problem, all periferals (mouse, display, Internet) work fine. Drag'n'Drop and Copy/Paste from host also fine. Have also copied VM from this host to Win7 64bit host without problems.

I did try VirtualBox a couple of years back, but found it less than ideal, particularly not communicating well with host. I've been very happy with VMware, regularly running PageMaker on a WinXP VM.

Chris

[BobArch2]

I have installed Win10 preview on a VMware VM on a Win7 32bit host with no problems...

Hi Chris, thanks for the suggestion. I have not given up on the dual boot option... yet. Going to give DB another whack and try to resolve the boot menu issue. If unsuccessful, I'll try VMware.

Thanks again,

[BobH]

Thanks for the info, BobA!

[viking33]

I have installed Win10 preview on a VMware VM on a Win7 32bit host with no problems...

Hi Chris, thanks for the suggestion. I have not given up on the dual boot option... yet. Going to give DB another whack and try to resolve the boot menu issue. If unsuccessful, I'll try VMware.

Thanks again,

Bob.
Have you gone very far on actually setting up another partition to dual boot to?
Microsoft has a couple of step by step tutorials on setting up DB.
Of course, Easy BCD is the management tool to let you determine which partition is your default boot OS, etc, after the second partition is up and running.
Just a note of interest. I booted up to XP the other day just to see what was happening. Wow!, talk about pending updates and newer versions!
I spent a good deal of time updating everything but for what, I don't know. I rarely use XP now. Just for old times sake, I suppose.

[BobArch2]

Executive Summary: Dual Boot is up and running on my PC without any issues.

...Have you gone very far on actually setting up another partition to dual boot to?

Yes. I have 3 internal drives, 1 SSD and 2 HDDs. Win8.1 resides on the SSD. Each of the 2 HDDs are 1TB WD units. The first of the WD units has four partitions. The third partition on that drive is 500GB and I allocated that partition (drive F:) for Win10TP.

...Of course, Easy BCD is the management tool to let you determine which partition is your default boot OS, etc, after the second partition is up and running.

I did download EasyBCD and played around with it after RTFM. As previously noted, The BCD record showed that Vista was the recorded name. I changed that to Windows 8.1. Since my original install and updates still resided on drive F:, I decided to employ the Add feature in EasyBCD to add drive F: with the appropriate name, wait for it... Windows 10 Technical Preview. It added the new record successfully. Saved all the changes and rebooted.

Immediately after the POST and before Windows appeared, the Windows Boot Manager popped up on the black and white screen and asked which O/S boot I wanted. I selected the Win10TP and a message came back that there was corruption in the required boot record for Win10TP.

Then selected the Win8.1 option and it booted fine to that O/S. I then reformatted drive F: and restarted the install of Win10TP using the bootable install DVD created from the downloaded ISO file. The install went fine and on the first restart, the appropriate boot menu options appeared.

DualBootOption.gif

Then proceeded to perform the updates. Throughout all the restarts, the above menu appeared. Then downloaded and installed build 9860. This time around the whole download and install process only took 35 minutes. Then performed the Windows Update for the build 9860 environment. With all the restarts, the proper optional boot menu appeared.

At that stage, I restarted and selected Win8.1 from the menu. Loaded EasyBCD Used the Windows Blue Option menu and changed the default timings to 5 seconds and made Win8.1 the default. Then restarted again.

This time the above boot menu did not appear. What did appeared, right after the POST was the black and white display asking which O/S I wanted. Regardless, I was able to select the desired O/S.

My next test will be to change the default O/S to Win10TP to see if the blue option screen comes back.

Anyway, as the Executive Summary showed... we are up and running, with a slight twist!

for your assistance.

[Edited to correct the app used to change the BCD settings from EasyBCD to Windows Option Menu]

[PaulB]

Good to see that you have succeeded in dual booting Win 8 and Win 10.

Following your instructions, I updated Win 10 to the latest build. When it re-booted, I had to reinstall my WiFi adapter drivers to get Internet connectivity. Apart from that, I think everything else is OK.

We would do well to remember JoeP's admonishment that Win 10 is pre-beta software and a continuing work-in-progress.

[Rudi]

Congrats Bob... (and good luck for the finer modifications...)

[BobArch2]

We would do well to remember JoeP's admonishment that Win 10 is pre-beta software and a continuing work-in-progress.

Quite agreed. And as also stated by JoeP, not much to look at yet. Still very close to Win8.1 with little change.

My dual boot menu is still via the immediate POST process (in black and white text) and does not come up with that nice blue option screen.

Since I still have loads of time on my retirement hands, I am going to blow out the existing DB environment and try to resurrect the nice blue option screen. Not sure if changing defaults via EasyBCD or the MS provided option screen is the culprit. Curiosity has been aroused. And yes, I am aware of what could happen to the

[viking33]

We would do well to remember JoeP's admonishment that Win 10 is pre-beta software and a continuing work-in-progress.

Quite agreed. And as also stated by JoeP, not much to look at yet. Still very close to Win8.1 with little change.

My dual boot menu is still via the immediate POST process (in black and white text) and does not come up with that nice blue option screen.

Since I still have loads of time on my retirement hands, I am going to blow out the existing DB environment and try to resurrect the nice blue option screen. Not sure if changing defaults via EasyBCD or the MS provided option screen is the culprit. Curiosity has been aroused. And yes, I am aware of what could happen to the

Good luck in your experiments. Any time BCD comes up in boot, It is a B&W screen option. I have Win 7 set as default boot with a 3 second delay before executing the bootup. Don't know where that little blue screen comes from?

[BobArch2]

Earlier this morning, I logged into Windows 10TP, performed various Window 10 updates and then noticed that my NVIDIA GeForce icon in the systray showed that an update for the driver was available. The update was for version 352.86 and as I read yesterday in a news article, is supposed to be WHQL certified for Windows 10.

So off to do that update. Big mistake! After the download and install the graphics were messed up and the new software would not recognize my second monitor. Tried a reboot which did not resolve the issue. Tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers... still no resolution.

After uninstalling the driver for a second time, I rebooted and let Windows 10TP try to resolve the issue. It did, but with a much older driver. But at least I was back up and running with proper displays on two monitors.

After more research, I found the reason why my video system went haywire. My graphics card is the GeForce GTX560. The new WHQL drivers are limited to the GeForce 900, 700 and 600 series graphic cards. There is nothing in all the media hoopla about graphic card limitations. The GTX560 is an excellent card and why it is excluded is a mystery. They are not even covering the 800 series cards.

So, be careful out there if running a NVIDIA GeForce card that is not in the 900, 700 or 600 series.

[HansV]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Rudi]

Agreed....that Bob for the info.
Have you dabbled around in Win10TP? What are your thought (just in short...no need for a full spec'ed review.)

[JoeP]

I'm using build 10074 as my everyday OS on 2 PCs. Be aware, even though this build has been quite stable for me this is not for everyone. Win10 has always been stable for me. There has been really good progress being made on usability. As with all big releases there will be a learning curve as we all become used to the Win10 universal apps. Stuff I use every day including Office 2013 works well. Still have problems with IE crashing but that is most likely never going away. I can't use Spartan/Edge as my primary browser because it does not generally support extensions and I use RoboForm.

Don't like the change to OneDrive to remove placeholders which causes all files in the selected folders to be synced across all devices. This may change in a subsequent update but is a big pain for limited storage systems.

I don't have a problem with the start menu (which will probably change more with subsequent releases) but I see lots of complaints about it particularly the all apps part.

Joe