One of the big barriers to upgrading to Windows 8 is that Windows 7 is so good. For keyboard-and-mouse users, Windows 8 isnt a hugely compelling upgrade and without judicious use of third-party apps to bring back the Start menu and other core Windows 7 features, Windows 8 can actually make the desktop experience worse.But what if you want to try out Windows 8? What if you want to take the Metro Start screen for a spin? (Who knows, maybe youll like it.) What if you want to give Windows 8 a chance?One method you could use is virtualization, where you quite literally have Windows 8 open in a window on your Windows 7 PC. Virtualization isnt really viable if youre looking to truly experience Windows 8 and everything that it entails, though. For that, you need to dual-boot.How to dual-boot/multi-boot Windows 8 with Windows 7This guide assumes that you already have Windows 7 (or XP or Vista) installed. If youve already got Windows 8 installed, and you want to install Windows 7 as an additional OS, this guide might still work but no guarantees.First things first, you should backup any important documents. You shouldnt lose any files during this process, but its better to be safe than sorry. See our Backup Masterclass for tips on how to backup your data efficiently and securely.With that out of the way, hit Start, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter. This will open the Disk Management console. You should see a big (or small) list of all the drives currently attached to your computer.Find the drive that Windows 7 is installed on (it should be marked as Boot or System), right click it, and click Shrink Volume. In the window that pops up, you ideally need a figure thats around 50,000MB (50GB). If your hard drive is very full, this might not be possible. In theory the minimum install size for Windows 8 is around 20GB, but I really wouldnt proceed without at least 30-50GB. If Disk Management refuses to shrink your volumes, you may need to try a third-party tool such as Paragons Hard Disk Manager.Once the volume has been shrunk, a black, Unallocated region will appear at the end of the drive. Right click this and select New Simple Volume. Click through the dialog windows and give the new volume a memorable name such as Windows 8. Dont change any other settings. This process will format the new partition, which may take a little while.Installing Windows 8At this point, all you really need to do is install Windows 8. You might opt to install a full version of Windows 8, or you can grab a 90-day evaluation copy. Either way, you want to slot the DVD (or USB stick) into your computer, reboot, and begin the installation process. (You may need to change the boot priority of your DVD drive/USB stick, which can be done in the BIOS).When given the option, select a Custom install (not Upgrade). On the next screen youll be shown a bunch of partitions/volumes. Select the one thats labeled Windows 8 (or whatever you called it). Be absolutely certain that youve selected the right volume, then click Next.The slick Windows 8 installer will now do its thing. It will reboot once or twice, but eventually youll be greeted with a multi-boot menu that allows you to select which OS you want to load (Windows 8, Windows 7, or any other OSes thatre installed). Windows 8 will load by default after a few seconds, but you can change it back to Windows 7 by clicking Change defaults or choose other options at the bottom of the screen. Voil: You now have a PC that dual-boots Windows 8 and Windows 7

minutes, Windows will assist you in burning that file to a DVD. 10. Open DVD Birner

Click Open DVD Burner and place a blank DVD in the drive. 11. Burn, Baby

This window will appear. Click Burn, and soon you'll have Windows 8 on DVD. 12. Create a Partition

Next, let's create a separate area on your hard drive, called a partition, where Windows 8 can exist without bumping into Windows 7. You'll be able to choose which one you'd like to use when you boot your PC. To do this, click the Start menu, right-click Computer, and select Manage. Click Storage, and then Disk Management, and after a few seconds you'll see this screen. It shows you the drives available on your PC. 13. Shrink That Volume

Right-click the hard disk where you'd like to install Windows 8, then select Shrink Volume. It will determine how much space you have. 14. Give It Some Space

Decide how much space you would like to dedicate to Windows 8. Remember, you must have at least 20GB. 15. Allocate

You'll end up with a disk with a black bar on top, labeled "unallocated." Click on that. Keep clicking Next until you see "Format Partition." Do that, using the defaults. 16. Name It Something Meaningful

Give your new drive a recognizable name -- I chose "Windows8". You are now ready to install Windows 8 Pro, without affecting your Windows 7 installation. 17. Press Any Key

With your DVD in the drive, reboot your computer. When it's booting, you'll see a notification like this, asking you to press any key to boot from CD or DVD. And no, there is no such thing as the "any" key. 18. Off and Running!

Choose your language, click "Install Now" and the installation is about to begin! 19. Enter Product Key

You did write down that product key, didn't you? Here's where you'll be asked to enter it. Do so, and then click Next. 20. Careful! Choose Custom

On this screen, be sure to click the second choice, "Custom." This is the choice that lets you do a clean install of Windows 8, rather than an upgrade. Click Next. 21. Carefully Choose the New Partition You Created

Here's where that recognizable name of the hard drive comes in handy. Be sure you click on the partition you created, and then click Next. Now you can sit back and relax for a while as Windows 8 installs. 22. Dual Boot Success!

22. Dual Boot Success!

Once the installation is done, here's the screen you'll see after your computer boots. You can choose either Windows 7 or Windows 8. If you don't select one of them in 30 seconds (and that time is adjustable), the default is Windows 8. Click "change defaults or choose other options" and you can designate your comfy old Windows 7 as the default.

How to Dual Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8By Anna Washenko October 28, 2012

Windows 8 has gotten lots of buzz, and plenty of criticism, for its attempt to shake up your PCs operating system. With so many big changes, you may want to keep your old Windows 7 OS on your machine, just so you have something familiar to ease the transition. Fortunately, you can work a little hard drive wizardry to make space for both the old and the new. Heres how you can dual boot Windows 8 on a computer that already runs Windows 7.Step 1: Back up your current systemThis is always a good practice when you are tweaking an operating system. The risk of losing data is usually pretty low, but you dont want files to disappear the one and only time you didnt back up. Make sure you save a copy of your entire hard drive in addition to your regular backups. (You are backing up your files, right?)Step 2: Create a new partition on your hard drive

Youll need to set aside a separate chunk of your hard drive to house the new OS and everything youll run on it. Windows 8 on its own will take about 20GB of space, but youll also need room for all your programs and files, so you may want to allot as much space as you can take from your existing hard drive.From the Start menu, right-click on the Computer option. Select Manage from the drop-down menu, then double-click on Disk Management.The top of the Disk Management window displays a list of any existing partitions in your hard drive. Right-click on the entry for your main hard drive, which is C: for most machines, and select Shrink volume. Minimize the hard drive until you have the desired amount of free space. Once you have made the room for Windows 8, click the empty block and select New Simple Volume. This will launch a wizard to walk you through the final steps.You wont have to change anything until you reach the Format Partition window. The settings you will need for formatting are NTFS for File System and the default for Allocation Unit Size. Be sure to give the new partition a name under Volume label. Titling it Windows 8 will ensure that you can find it in the next step. After youve named the new space in the hard drive, click Next and your computer will complete the formatting.Step 3: Obtain your copy of Windows 8Depending on how you want to purchase the new OS, you can install it either by DVD or by USB drive. If you purchase a copy in your friendly local computer store, youll be using the DVD and DVD drive approach in the next step. If you prefer to download it directly from Microsoft, put the files on a large thumb drive and use the USB approach in the next step.Step 4: Install Windows 8 in the new partition

This is the most complicated step. Depending on your computers settings, you may need to change your computers BIOS settings so that it will boot from the drive with Windows 8 installation files on it. To do that, restart your computer and mash a hot key as the machine wakes up; the Delete key will accomplish this on most PCs. Go to the boot menu and switch the settings so that the first choice for booting up is the DVD or USB drive, depending on where youve stored your Windows 8 files, instead of the hard drive. Then go ahead and start up your computer.Youll first have to accept the installers software license, and the next screen will ask which type of installation you want. Choose the Custom option, then select your newly created hard drive partition, the one you probably named Windows 8, for its location. The installer will probably take about 20 minutes to complete the task.Step 5: Enjoy playing with your new OSYoull now see a screen asking which operating system you want to use when you boot up your computer. It will default to launching Windows 8 if you dont make a selection within 30 seconds, but you can change that setting under the Change defaults link on the launch page.Dual booting on a MacIf you have a Mac computer that also runs Windows 7, the process for adding Windows 8 is the same as for its predecessor. Apples Boot Camp can help you perform similar hard drive partitioning to make space for the new Microsoft OS. Parallels Desktop 8 and VMware Fusion 5 are other popular virtualization programs that allow you to switch between Mac and Windows without needing to reboot your computer. Both products should support the new Microsoft offering as well as Apples latest OS, Mountain Lion.For those of you who still arent sure if you want to make the leap to the new OS, check out our guide to Microsofts Windows 8 for more insights about whether the OS is a good fit for you.DT

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How to Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 On the Same PC

If you want to try out the new Windows 8 but dont have a CPU that supports virtualization, check out our guide on how to get all the goodness of Windows 8 along side Windows 7 by dual booting.The scenario: you are in a situation where you have Windows 7 installed and you really want to try out Windows 8, but your PC does not support virtualization and you dont want to have to format since Windows 8 is still in pre-beta and the chances are that there are some things that are broken. The only option you have here is to dual boot. The only thing that is required in order to dual boot is a hard drive with at least 20 Gigs of free space, it will work with a bit less but this is the minimum we recommend.Dual Booting Windows 7 and Windows 8To get started we need to logically separate those 20 Gigs from the space that Windows 7 is currently using, to do this we need to create a new partition. You can do this in the disk management MMC snap-in, to launch the snap-in press the Windows Key + R to launch a run box, type diskmgmt.msc into the run box.

Once you press enter or click the ok button, a MMC will load with the disk management snap-in pre-loaded. From here you can get a nice overview of your hard drives.

You are now going to need to shrink the C: drive by the capacity that you wish your Windows 8 drive should be. To shrink the drive right click on the C: drive and select shrink volume

A dialog box will appear asking you how much you want to shrink the drive by. It asks you how much you would like to shrink in megabytes, so remember that there is 1024 megabytes in a gig so in our example we shrink 20 gigs which is20480 megabytes because 20*1024=20480.

Once you click the shrink button Windows will shrink your drive. Once it has completed shrinking your partition, the Disk Manager will display this new space with a black header meaning it is an empty partition, you now need to give it a file system. To format the drive with a file system right click on the black space and select New Simple Volume.

A wizard will launch this is going to take us through all the steps we need to format the drive. On the welcome screen you can just select next to be asked how much of the unallocated space you want to use, we recommend you leave the default which will use all the space you set aside if you alter this it may result in some space going to waste.

In the next dialog it asks you to assign it a drive letter, you can accept the defaults and click next.

On the format partition step of the wizard you can leave everything at defaults accept for the Volume Label which you should change to something memorable for example Windows 8 this is important as this is the partition you will have to select at install time.

Click next and finish to initiate the format. Once the format is finished the once black header will now be blue and you are ready to install Windows 8.

InstallationIf you havent yet downloaded a copy of the Windows 8 Developers Preview you should head over here and grab yourself a copy. Once you have either burned the ISO to a DVD or used the USB Download Tool to make a bootable USB you are ready to go, simply insert you DVD or plug in your USB and boot from the device. You might have to into the BIOS and change the boot order but since you dual booting pre-beta software well assume you capable of that much. If you see the words press any key to boot from CD or DVD quickly press any key on your keyboard to begin configuring the installation.

Once you have selected your languages the your are ready to install Windows 8. So click the install button to get started.

After setup has completed you will be asked to accept the license agreement, after you have read it, fill the check box and click next to move on to the installation type. You should choose the custom installation option.

The next decision you will have to make is a critical one. Choosing the wrong partition to install on will result in data loss so make sure to choose the one that we created earlier.

Once you have selected the partition and clicked next. The installation will start.

Once the installation in complete you will be asked to give your PC a name, then click on the next button.

The settings page that you will see next has two options, Use express settings and Customize, well choose use express settings but feel free to choose custom option and specify your own settings.

The next decision you will have to make is whether you want to log into your computer using a Windows Live ID, or create a local account. We want a local account so well click the link that says Dont want to log in with a Windows Live ID.

Then well choose local account on the next page.

Type the name that you want to use as a log on name, also choose a strong password and a hint just incase your forget your password. When you done click next, your account will be created and you will be logged in.

Once it has logged you in you can restart your PC to see the new OS Selection screen. By default it will boot into Windows 8 after 30 seconds of inactivity, you probably dont want this. To change the default back to Windows 7 click the Change defaults or choose other options link at the bottom of the screen.

Now choose the change default operating system link.

And finally select Windows 7.

Thats all you have to do to reap the benefits of both worlds. To get started with Windows 8, you should probably check out our guide to all the new awesomeness it brings.