Two windoes installs on one machine?

[RuKiddin06]

I was wondering, since I have a spare SSD, could I remove my other drives, install windows on it, activate it, and us it?

 

Then when I want to go back to my other install just put the other drives in? Or will there be activation issues?

 

I'm not changing the Motherboard so I cant see anything that would go wrong, but I thought I'd ask so I don't ruin my main install from inexperience.

 

Edit: Removed extraneous information.

[MatthewEnderle]

just dual boot linux

[RuKiddin06]

just dual boot linux

I want too. but I use the Office suite, and don't have time to familiarize my self with Linux ATM. I would be doing my school on the secondary install.

 

Edit: Eventually, I do plan on dual booting, or even switching to Linux, but right now I cannot.

[SpaceNugget]

I want too. but I use the Office suite, and don't have time to familiarize my self with Linux ATM. I would be doing my school on the secondary install.

 

Edit: Eventually, I do plan on dual booting, or even switching to Linux, but right now I cannot.

you can use libre office, or use office 365 from a web browser on linux.

[Arty]

you can use libre office, or use office 365 from a web browser on linux.

or google docs.

[RuKiddin06]

I don't have time to learn how to use Linux right now. I don't.

 

Is it possible to do, without damaging my other install's activation status?

[techguru]

its called will-power....just don't play the games!

[Blake]

Or, that the MS office suite is the defacto standard, and nothing else has the advanced features that it does (OK so LaTeX also has advanced features, but they are just different)?

 

Sure there are time when libre/open office works fine, but lets face it, it is a completely different game now days, and since office moved to the ribbon interface it isn't just a cut and paste job any longer. 

 

 

I don't have time to learn how to use Linux right now. I don't.

 

Is it possible to do, without damaging my other install's activation status?

 

You will be fine, just shrink your windows partition by the desired size you want the linux partition and then just go through the linux installer. You will need to use GRUB (or whatever it has been re-named/replaced with) to change which OS it boots to. Windows doesn't really care about the number or what is on the partitions so this shouldn't affect your activation status. You can always check by running slmgr.vbs /dlv from the command prompt.

[Azgoth 2]

(Post ammended after some quick googling) It looks like you can absolutely have two separate Windows installations on different partitions or diferent physical drives, but you would need to buy or have an unused installation license for the second installation.  Unless there's a way to make a full copy of your first installation, then do a factory image restore on it, or some other weird trickery like that to get effectively a fresh installation.

 

That said, I'm not sure I understand why you need/want two separate Windows installations, since it doesn't sound like you'd be using two different versions of Windows.  Most people dual boot operating systems from two different families--usually some combination of Linux/OSX/Windows--and I can imagine some people dual boot, say, Windows 10 and Windows XP for compatibility with older programs.

 

I'll also throw my hat in to the Linux discussion going on here and say that there isn't a whole lot to learn if you pick the right distribution.  Linux Mint (what I'm actually booted into right now as I write this) has a very fast and easy learning curve for Windows people.  The only major thing you strictly need to learn is the different programs you have access to, but Libre Office is similar enough to Microsoft Office that you can get at least basic stuff done in it very quickly (like writing essays, doing spreadsheet work, etc).  A lot of coding can also be done very productively in Linux.  Large media things like heavy photo editing, video editing, etc might not be as wel suppoted, but I honestly don't know.  There will be a learning cuve for Linux, don't get me wrong, but Mint (and to a marginally lesser extent, Ubuntu) really minimizes that if you're coming from Windows.

[RuKiddin06]

~snip

OK, what about a VM.

 

The reasoning behind my question is its a mental thing; being able to separate my work and play.

 

If I had a second computer I would use that, but I don't.

 

What about running a virtual machine in my current windows install? I don't know anything about how to set up a virtual machine, but I guess it would accomplish the same thing.

[RuKiddin06]

`snip

I could try Linux now, but I feel like I will just end up in windows when I cant figure out how to do something, because it wont be worth the time it takes to find a solution. By the time I find what I need, I could have been halfway through what I was working on. Sure if I learn it the first time, I wont need to search, but It will happen again when I need to do something else.

 

Linux is great and I want to use it in the future, but I don't want to mar my experience, because I wont have enough time to search for an answer. Ordinarily that wouldn't be an issue, I love to tinker and break things just to fix them (part of why I want to get into Linux later) but I'm on a time crunch.

[SpaceNugget]

Or, that the MS office suite is the defacto standard, and nothing else has the advanced features that it does (OK so LaTeX also has advanced features, but they are just different)?

 

Sure there are time when libre/open office works fine, but lets face it, it is a completely different game now days, and since office moved to the ribbon interface it isn't just a cut and paste job any longer. 

 

 

 

You will be fine, just shrink your windows partition by the desired size you want the linux partition and then just go through the linux installer. You will need to use GRUB (or whatever it has been re-named/replaced with) to change which OS it boots to. Windows doesn't really care about the number or what is on the partitions so this shouldn't affect your activation status. You can always check by running slmgr.vbs /dlv from the command prompt.

LaTeX has nothing to do with this, its not an editor, its a typesetting language.

 

Libre office is much more functional than open office and can easily complete any everyday task that you would encounter with MS office.

 

@OP, if you are just working, there is really nothing you need to learn to use linux. Get a simple distro like Xubuntu and you can barely tell it apart from windows XP by looking at it. The software center is like google play for linux, search for a program and click install. Very simple.

 

It would take you less than an hour to download VirtualBox and install a version of Linux to try out, If you don't like it then just delete the virtual machine.

[Blake]

LaTeX has nothing to do with this, its not an editor, its a typesetting language.

 

Libre office is much more functional than open office and can easily complete any everyday task that you would encounter with MS office.

You completely missed the point, and it appears you have never dealt with an end user. PowerPivot (as an example, there are many many other plugins that are just not available for Open/Libre office) is an application every accountant 'needs', and there is just no viable alternative available on other platforms that meets the requirements. Also latex does come into this, while it is not an editor it is an alternative to WYSIWYG editors like open/libre/MS office, that leaves everything else in the dust for it's scientific notation (and other things).

 

As office is the defacto standard, you also get issues like this: http://www.zdnet.com/article/huge-savings-prompt-italian-city-to-dump-openoffice-for-microsoft-after-four-years/

 

You are assuming that everyone's everyday task involves =SUM(A,B) being the most complicated thing they do, which is simply not the case. Sure for word you'd be fine to interchange, and power point, but excel is another kettle of fish.

[Azgoth 2]

-snip-

Ah.  Well, if it's a psychological thing, would two different user accounts work?  There's almost certainly a way (I wouldn't know if offhand) to uninstall programs for the specific user so that, say, your work account doesn't have Steam installed, but it's still there for your non-work account, which would help clean things up a bit and keep possible distractions minimized.  And you can set different OS settings like background, theme, etc to make it as visually different as you need.  A new user account would also mean you don't have to reboot to switch between them if/when you need to, so it's a bit faster, you don't have to worry about a second Windows install key or cloning your drive, and it's all pretty easy to configure from inside Windows itself.

 

As for virtual machines: I've never played with those, so I can't say.  I don't know if you can run a Windows VM session from inside Windows, using the same OS data for both sessions.  Someone more knowledgeable about VMs could probably say with more certainty.

 

And as for Linux: if you're in a big time crunch with your work, then yeah, Linux is probably a thing for later.  As I said, the learning curve is small, but you do still have to deal with the learning curve. 

[RuKiddin06]

-snip-

Duh! I had totally forgotten about user accounts. I remember now that I did that back a couple years for my sister. Windows 8 and 10 have led to me forgetting allot about windows... Thanks for reminding me.

 

Now I can just save that blank SSD for Linux in the *near* future.

[Azgoth 2]

Duh! I had totally forgotten about user accounts. I remember now that I did that back a couple years for my sister. Windows 8 and 10 have led to me forgetting allot about windows... Thanks for reminding me.

 

Now I can just save that blank SSD for Linux in the *near* future.

Well, we all forget about stuff like that from time to time

[SpaceNugget]

You completely missed the point, and it appears you have never dealt with an end user. PowerPivot (as an example, there are many many other plugins that are just not available for Open/Libre office) is an application every accountant 'needs', and there is just no viable alternative available on other platforms that meets the requirements. Also latex does come into this, while it is not an editor it is an alternative to WYSIWYG editors like open/libre/MS office, that leaves everything else in the dust for it's scientific notation (and other things).

 

As office is the defacto standard, you also get issues like this: http://www.zdnet.com/article/huge-savings-prompt-italian-city-to-dump-openoffice-for-microsoft-after-four-years/

 

You are assuming that everyone's everyday task involves =SUM(A, B) being the most complicated thing they do, which is simply not the case. Sure for word you'd be fine to interchange, and power point, but excel is another kettle of fish.

You must not have read anything in this thread. I already said that open office is depricated, so your link just kind of agrees with me. Libre office is not depricated, its actively developed and does fufill most daily needs. OP is not an accountant, OP is a student and sheets has plenty of functionality. And no, LaTeX does not have to do with this, It is a language, not an editor. I use it every day, so you really don't need to try to explain what it is. an alternative might be Gummi or Texstudio. Thats like saying BBCode or HTML is a competing product with MS word. The competing product is the other editor, not the language it uses.

[Blake]

-snip- I already said that open office is depricated, -snip-

I can understand you thinking the libre fork made open office depreciated, but there is something known as Apache open office

 

-snip- Libre office is not depricated, its actively developed and does fufill most daily needs. OP is not an accountant, OP is a student and sheets has plenty of functionality. -snip-

Good for you, tell that HR person you know libre calc, see them not give a damn as they throw you resume in the bin. there is a reason i called office the defacto standard. Because it is, and no amount you you claiming 'oh, you'll be fine with non-standard system' will change that.

 

 

-snip- And no, LaTeX does not have to do with this, It is a language, not an editor. I use it every day, so you really don't need to try to explain what it is. an alternative might be Gummi or Texstudio. Thats like saying BBCode or HTML is a competing product with MS word. The competing product is the other editor, not the language it uses. -snip-

learn to read, and then maybe re-read my last post, where i said latex isn't an editor. But, Latex Editors (where you use it like a word processor) do exist, you even pointed to a few. so seriously, no need to get so butthurt over semantics/syntax 

[SpaceNugget]

 

-snip- I already said that open office is depricated, -snip-

I can understand you thinking the libre fork made open office depreciated, but there is something known as Apache open office

 

-snip- Libre office is not depricated, its actively developed and does fufill most daily needs. OP is not an accountant, OP is a student and sheets has plenty of functionality. -snip-

Good for you, tell that HR person you know libre calc, see them not give a damn as they throw you resume in the bin. there is a reason i called office the defacto standard. Because it is, and no amount you you claiming 'oh, you'll be fine with non-standard system' will change that.

 

 

-snip- And no, LaTeX does not have to do with this, It is a language, not an editor. I use it every day, so you really don't need to try to explain what it is. an alternative might be Gummi or Texstudio. Thats like saying BBCode or HTML is a competing product with MS word. The competing product is the other editor, not the language it uses. -snip-

learn to read, and then maybe re-read my last post, where i said latex isn't an editor. But, Latex Editors (where you use it like a word processor) do exist, you even pointed to a few. so seriously, no need to get so butthurt over semantics/syntax 

 

 

Learn to quote.

 

Saying "semantics/syntax" is just a nice way of saying that you were wrong. For the overwhelming majority of students, Libre office can do everything you need. no amount of whining will change that.