MULTIBOOTING WINDOWS 10
One of the factors that
contributes to our pessimism
surrounding reinstalling
Windows is that we
desperately don’t want you
to lose anything. We’re kind
like that. But there is another,
slightly frivolous way to do
a reinstallation if you’ve got
working hardware to play with:
You can turn one Windows
installation into two. If you
have a second drive that is
able to support a Windows 10
installation, or enough access
to your current Windows 10
installation (and enough
free space) to be able to trim
down its drive using Disk
Management then create a
new clean partition, you can
install a second copy of the
operating system alongside
the first. Simply select a
custom install, and then point
Windows 10 at that spare diskspace—it should do the rest
for you.
It’s slightly questionable
whether you’d technically need
a second Windows license to do
this—you can only possibly use
one instance of Windows 10
at a time if installed this way,
so it shouldn’t be an issue,
but the Microsoft EULA does
suggest that only one instance
is allowed to exist, so take that
as you will. You’ll likely need
to switch off BitLocker before
partitioning your drive, and
if you use Windows in this way,
you’ll want to do this anyway,
since an unlocked filesystem
on your original install can be
easily accessed on your new
one. Copy everything to a safe
new location, make sure you’ve
got everything, and you can
ditch the original install—and
if you’re likely to use the new
installation as your maincopy of Windows, you’ll need
to make sure it’s first in the
boot order. It should be by
default, but you may need to
poke around in your BIOS/UEFIsettings to select the correct
drive, or set it through the
“A d v ance d ” s y s tem s e t tin g s
link from the Control Panel’s
“System” tab.Just select the correct partition and install away. But make sure
it definitely is the correct one before you start.thing. Backing up your hard drive using something like Macrium
Reflect might seem like a solid idea, and it’s the best way to make
sure you don’t miss anything, but a compressed copy won’t give
you access to the files you need once it’s made, and it’s pointless
if you’re reinstalling to fix a broken system—instead, consider
Windows File History to perform rolling backups of crucial folders
as you use your machine. It’s slow to star t, but if this is something
you set up to run invisibly as you use your PC (and, ideally, back
up to different hardware periodically), you always have a backup
ready when you need one. Try to include driver installation files in
your personal folders, to be caught by File History—and consider
creating a second, manual backup of all of your important files.
Check them both for integrity before you pull the trigger.
One last consideration: DRM. It’s a menace, but never more
so than when you have a bunch of DRMed files that are tied to an
a c c o u n t t h a t l i m i t s P C a u t h o r i z a t i o n s. K i l l y o u r c u r r e n t i n s t a l l , a n dEnsure your license key is proper ly linked to your Microsof t account
before you begin reinstalling Windows.File History isn’t just about keeping versions—it’s about keeping
everything, and can be a real lifesaver.
you might not be able to get that authorization back—you could
even lose access to all the things you’ve bought; DRM is cruel like
that. So, make sure any management app, such as iTunes, has
been de-authorized before you leave your current install behind.INSTALLATION ART
With all this done, go ahead and reinstall. You can create your
own installation media by heading to http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/software-download/windows10 and using the media creation
tool to put the latest update of Windows 10 on a USB stick ready
for installation. You don’t need us to walk you through a Windows
install by now (it’s not particularly difficult), but a couple of
notes: You’ll want to select “Install Windows Only,” because the
“Upgrade” option will leave your PC basically as it was; and you
can skip inserting a product key—you can do this later, or your
PC will activate itself when you sign in to your Microsoft account.Windows made fresh
26 MAXIMUM PC OCT 2019 maximumpc.com