savaytse66
Member
I've seen some mention of dual-booting this. Is there a guide on how to setup dual-boot on the SP3?
Windows 10 Preview on Surface Pro 3
- Thread starter sharpuser
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Hi
You just need to resize your partition an free up about 20 GB for a new partition on your ssd - via disk configuration (shrink your existing partition).
The hardest part for me was to get a bootable usb boot stick with the downloaded Windows 10 64 bit ISO, because you need to create a special uefi boot stick - which is quite easy, if i would have known it before - here is a guide for Windows 8.x - works also for Windows 10:
http://www.manjeetjakhar.com/2013/09/how-to-create-windows-81-installation.html
But be sure to format the correct drive letter (external USB stuck), if you use this guide - btw - you can just mount the Windows 10 64 bit ISO in Windows 8.1 with the context menu - so no external tools needed for this step.
Then just boot from this boot stick (eather with volume Down pressed while power on pc / or via charms -> recovery options -> boot froom usb stick)
The installation has to be done into the new created partition (ntfs) like every other installation. Be sure to download the Surface Pro 3 driver pack before and put it on another usb drive, since you will need these after reboot into Windows 10 (no wifi working without these) - you can find the download link in:
http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/windows-10-on-surface-pro-3-fail.11859/
Gkarg
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Something else to consider or explore: Dual Boot W10 from a VHD file
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/how-to-use-a-vhd-to-dual-boot-windows-8-on-a-windows-7-pc_p3/4847
The Z W10 Guide ... http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-with-windows-10-installing-the-windows-technical-preview-7000034267/
This should work for W10 and W8.1 just as it did with W8 & W7
I may give this one a try myself... and there should be a way to specify driver locations during setup...
Hmmm, with a VHD I should be able to either boot directly to it OR run it as a VM... the best of both worlds.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/how-to-use-a-vhd-to-dual-boot-windows-8-on-a-windows-7-pc_p3/4847
The Z W10 Guide ... http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-with-windows-10-installing-the-windows-technical-preview-7000034267/
This should work for W10 and W8.1 just as it did with W8 & W7
I may give this one a try myself... and there should be a way to specify driver locations during setup...
Hmmm, with a VHD I should be able to either boot directly to it OR run it as a VM... the best of both worlds.
OP
Not back to Windows 8.1. Back to a fresh Windows 10.
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Well, that's confusing, I thought you did a Reset back to the Win 10 Tech Preview from the Recovery Partition. He wants to get back to Win8.1
mitchellvii
Well-Known Member
The BEST part of W10 so far is the virtual desktops and the way you can switch between apps and/or desktops by swiping from the left. Also switching between desktops with the Ctrl WIN Arrow combination. Completely brilliant. It turns your SP3 into a multimonitor setup without the hardware. Crazy useful.
Also love how Windows apps (such as Netflix, Hulu, etc.) are now windowed and sizable.
Everything is very fast and smooth. Honestly excited about this. The combination of the W7 Start Menu and the W8 Start Menu into one super menu is awesome. And guess what, it ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE. The average non-technical user will "get this". Gone are the multiple hidden steps to do anything. One can literally learn to fly around on this OS will very little learning curve.
I think MS has a true winner on their hands here. Hard to believe this is only a preview build. Usually with a new MS release I have multiple, "What were you thinking?!!" moments. With Windows 10 so far I've had nothing but, "Damn MS, you nailed that!" moments.
SUGGESTIONS:
1) Allow me to make Start Menu semi-transparent.
2) Can't seem to figure a way to make Netflix fill whole screen. It will maximize but not cover the taskbar. Any help here?
3) On my desktop, games are crashy. Game doesn't just crash randomly, who computer shuts down. Early build so quite understandable.
4) Add a "stay-on-top" feature for windows that I wish to always remain on top.
Also love how Windows apps (such as Netflix, Hulu, etc.) are now windowed and sizable.
Everything is very fast and smooth. Honestly excited about this. The combination of the W7 Start Menu and the W8 Start Menu into one super menu is awesome. And guess what, it ACTUALLY MAKES SENSE. The average non-technical user will "get this". Gone are the multiple hidden steps to do anything. One can literally learn to fly around on this OS will very little learning curve.
I think MS has a true winner on their hands here. Hard to believe this is only a preview build. Usually with a new MS release I have multiple, "What were you thinking?!!" moments. With Windows 10 so far I've had nothing but, "Damn MS, you nailed that!" moments.
SUGGESTIONS:
1) Allow me to make Start Menu semi-transparent.
2) Can't seem to figure a way to make Netflix fill whole screen. It will maximize but not cover the taskbar. Any help here?
3) On my desktop, games are crashy. Game doesn't just crash randomly, who computer shuts down. Early build so quite understandable.
4) Add a "stay-on-top" feature for windows that I wish to always remain on top.
mitchellvii
Well-Known Member
Another suggestion. Allow me to have folders first on the "All Programs" list as opposed to Windows Apps first. Annoying always having to scroll down.
wynand32
Well-Known Member
To augment @gkarg's excellent post:
1. What's "special" about the USB boot drive is that compared to in the past with BIOS, UEFI requires a FAT32 drive instead of NTFS. I've used the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool in the past to make these because it was quick and easy and worked with all OSs. That tool creates an NTFS drive, however, and it won't work with the SP3.
So, just format your USB drive to FAT32, then copy the contents of the Windows Preview ISO to the drive. Then follow @gkarg's directions to boot from the drive.
2. You'll need to free up space before shrinking the partition to make space for Windows 10 (using Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management, "Shrink Volume"). Actually, it's making sure there are no files at the end of the SSD--since the tool won't defragment an SSD like it would a spinning disk, if you have any virtual memory files or system recovery files, they can stop the shrink process from working.
So, to resolve that, turn off virtual memory and system recovery, then you might have to reboot (maybe do that just to be safe). Doing so gets rid of those files and then Shrink Volume can work. I was able to create 75GB of free space. Once you shrink the volume, you can turn virtual memory and system recovery back on if you want.
From there, the installation is easy as pie. Just select Custom Install once you boot from the drive, then the free space, and the install takes about 10 minutes. Go into Device Manager and point to wherever you extract the SP3 driver pack and update drivers for each missing device, and everything will work. Note that you can store the driver pack on the USB boot drive; it won't interfere with anything.
1. What's "special" about the USB boot drive is that compared to in the past with BIOS, UEFI requires a FAT32 drive instead of NTFS. I've used the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD Download tool in the past to make these because it was quick and easy and worked with all OSs. That tool creates an NTFS drive, however, and it won't work with the SP3.
So, just format your USB drive to FAT32, then copy the contents of the Windows Preview ISO to the drive. Then follow @gkarg's directions to boot from the drive.
2. You'll need to free up space before shrinking the partition to make space for Windows 10 (using Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management, "Shrink Volume"). Actually, it's making sure there are no files at the end of the SSD--since the tool won't defragment an SSD like it would a spinning disk, if you have any virtual memory files or system recovery files, they can stop the shrink process from working.
So, to resolve that, turn off virtual memory and system recovery, then you might have to reboot (maybe do that just to be safe). Doing so gets rid of those files and then Shrink Volume can work. I was able to create 75GB of free space. Once you shrink the volume, you can turn virtual memory and system recovery back on if you want.
From there, the installation is easy as pie. Just select Custom Install once you boot from the drive, then the free space, and the install takes about 10 minutes. Go into Device Manager and point to wherever you extract the SP3 driver pack and update drivers for each missing device, and everything will work. Note that you can store the driver pack on the USB boot drive; it won't interfere with anything.
OP
Oh. Sorry. Never mind, then.
Sorry, this is the scrolling generation. every *new* web site redesign results in endless scrolling pages. Its a sickness. Anytime now we may convert to vertical rather than horizontal text orientation on pages. That way pages only have to be ten characters wide (2 position left margin, 2 position left ad, 1 position body, 3 position right ad, 2 position right margin). It'll be perfect for the small screen format.
mitchellvii
Well-Known Member
P.S., If you are running Windows 10, disable Windows Updates. They WILL BREAK WINDOWS 10. Wait for Windows 10 specific updates. I ran updates once and system wouldn't reboot.
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