Has anyone dual booted Windows 10 from a VHD?

[bvone21]

Similar to this article:
http://www.wintellect.com/devcenter/paulballard/dual-boot-windows-10-technical-preview-from-a-vhd

I was playing around with Windows 10 last night. But I don't want to run it full-time, so I first tried it in a VM. I didn't have a good experience with it in Virtual Box, the touch controls didn't seem to work all that well.

Then I tried it in Hyper-V and could not for the life of me get the WiFi to work with the virtual switch created (if someone knows any tricks there, still open to hear them). It otherwise ran pretty well. I've since removed it though because the WiFi was frustrating me...and I think this next idea is a better one for my purposes...

So now I'm going to try to dual boot from a VHD...I think this sounds like a great option to test with and easily reversible.

Edit: Adding these links that I found helpful for researching the topic:
http://www.howtogeek.com/75286/how-to-dual-boot-windows-7-and-8-without-re-partitioning-using-vhd/
https://bsmadhu.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/simple-way-to-try-new-windows-os-using-boot-to-vhd/
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn858566.aspx
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...vhd-with-windows-10?forum=WinPreview2014Setup

 

[bvone21]

Spoke too soon maybe...folks are saying you don't get OS updates when booting from a VHD...that would be a bummer, but not awful if you don't mind refreshing the install every once in a while. In this case it's just for testing anyways...

 

[GreyFox7]

Hmm, that doesn't seem right and upon a cursory search I don't find anything to support that. I see there's an issue doing an upgrade like Win 8 to Win 8.1 and perhaps that might be an issue if you have to upgrade from one build to another. Is that what your is being referenced?

Is there a link to an article or discussion of the nature of the problem?

 

[bvone21]

If you search around I see things like the below quote. They're always in reference to running from windows update:

"Yes, I have Windows 10 TP booting from a VHD (triple boot: Win 7 Pro SSD, Win 8.1 VHD, Win 10 TP VHD).
The only problem is that cannot update to build 9860 (Message is: Cannot install to VHD)."
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-or-not/d104a479-431d-4c0f-a56f-a9a0df31a5a4

I guess I'll find out if it's true when I try it...

 

[bvone21]

Seems true....
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...ns-installed-on-vhd?forum=WinPreview2014Setup

 

[GreyFox7]

Seems true....
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...ns-installed-on-vhd?forum=WinPreview2014Setup

This confirms/clarifies it. At first I wasn't sure they were saying Windows Update didn't work or if Installing OS updates i.e. Upgrading the OS version was the issue. This seems to be an arbitrary limitation they have chosen to enforce.

 

[bvone21]

Don't believe everything you hear on the internet I guess!

Just closing off the thread with first hand experience. I am able to get updates with the Build 9926 installed to a VHD. At least it seems to be working hit or miss. The 1/27 firmware update keeps failing, but one of the KB's did just fine. So I think they must have changed something to allow VHD installs to run fine with update and I'm just encountering bugs otherwise.

 

[ynohtna]

Then I tried it in Hyper-V and could not for the life of me get the WiFi to work with the virtual switch created (if someone knows any tricks there, still open to hear them)

This is such a sore issue with me! Rather than rant about it, if you just need internet access, create an internal VM switch in hyper-v.

You will see this VM internal in View Network Connections of your SP3. On your wifi connection, enable internet connection sharing TO the VM Internal card.

Personally, I don't need just internet access for the VM, I need LAN access too. I've deleted, created my wifi VM switch so many times I actually kind of have it working now but for real reliability, I need to use my LAN virtual switch.

 

[bvone21]

Sorry, I didn't intend for it to read like a rant. Just sharing my thoughts and experience with the vhd install option.

Yeah I did try that as well, but I wasn't having any luck with that method as well. It could very well have been user error.

The install on a vhd is working just fine though, and better performance than in hyper-v. Just as safe to test with as well.