Here´s a great Multiboot Wintogo set of systems all updateable !! no 3rd party stuff reqd


jimbo45

jimbo45

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Hi folks
by using vhdx (physical files) and setting the reg key portableoperatingsystem to '0' you can create a whole slew of Windows installs on to a really fast small external Nvme device connected to machine via USBC adapter -- works really fast. What I like about this is that you can install W11 versions with different languages, different apps, different users with different privileges etc etc which IMHO is far more flexible than a single system. Also keep the OS just for OS and apps, user data store on different devices /partitions.

To get sensible descriptions in the boot menu run as administrator bcdedit /set {identifier} description "Your description". Put the identifier in the curly braces { } when running the command.

You can have as many Windows installs as you like of the product(s) you are licensed for

I'm running this lot from a 1.2 TB external nvme device. Note as these are PHYSICAL installs you can't run them concurrently.



Skjámynd 2024-06-08 104543.png


I'm going to add a Winpe system, Windows 10, the Windows 2025 server preview, and 2 Linux systems.

I've got 2 of these sticks so I just clone the entire device to the 2nd one for entire backup in case the device fails. The linux dd command is my weapn of choice for that - no reason why it should - but "technology" is not without risks.

I'm surprised that when people are testing insider builds either via UUPDUMP ISO's or via WU they make that their only system. With vhdx files you can have standard RP, Dev, Canary,AND Beta builds all on your valid Windows license legally !!.

cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
jimbo45 said:
To get sensible descriptions in the boot menu run as administrator bcdedit /set {identifier} description "Your description". Put the identifier in the curly braces { } when running the command.
Click to expand...
If you run the command from within the system you want to rename, then the identifier is always: {current}
jimbo45 said:
You can have as many Windows installs as you like of the product(s) you are licensed for...
Click to expand...
The standard boot menu is limited to six entries, I have already hit the limit. :lmao:

1717845625797.png


jimbo45 said:
I'm surprised that when people are testing insider builds either via UUPDUMP ISO's or via WU they make that their only system. With vhdx files you can have standard RP, Dev, Canary,AND Beta builds....
Click to expand...

Me too, when native boot vhdx is so easy to use - and to remove when done testing.
 
Last edited:

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October 2021 it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update, and 24H2 on 3rd October 2024 through Windows Update by setting the Target Release Version for 24H2.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 8GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Dev, Beta, and RP 24H2 as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 8GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, Canary, and Release Preview builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package. In-place upgrade to 24H2 using hybrid 23H2/24H2 install media. Also running Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 8GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Dev, Beta, and RP 24H2 as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 8GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, Canary, and Release Preview builds as a native boot .vhdx.
Bree said:
If you run the command from within the system you want to rename, then the identifier is always: {current}

The standard boot menu is limited to six entries, I have already hit the limit. :lmao:

View attachment 98696




Me too, when native boot vhdx is so easy to use - and to remove when done testing.
Click to expand...
No it is not limited to 6 items.

If you have more than 6, they are displayed on a second page.
Without trying, I do not know if you can have a 3rd page (or more).

It would be nice if you could have smaller icons to get more than 6 on one page.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14
    CPU
    I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB soldered
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop OLED screen
    Screen Resolution
    2880x1800 touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    1 TB NVME SSD (only weakness is only one slot)
    PSU
    Internal + 65W thunderbolt USB4 charger
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois (UK pint cans - 568 ml) - extra cost.
    Keyboard
    Built in UK keybd
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wireless dongled, wired
    Internet Speed
    900 mbs (ethernet), wifi 6 typical 350-450 mb/s both up and down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

    Macrium Reflect Home V8
    Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
    Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
cereberus said:
No it is not limited to 6 items.

If you have more than 6, they are displayed on a second page.
Without trying, I do not know if you can have a 3rd page (or more).

It would be nice if you could have smaller icons to get more than 6 on one page.
Click to expand...
Agree -- Not limited to 6 -- it might seem like that because of the size of Icons making 1 page. Haven't yet got as far as 3 pages though.

( OT @cereberus
hope you liked England getting wacked by Iceland at Wembley stadium last night in Football (For USA - the real version with a ROUND ball not the "Squashed rugby thing" and where you actually have to KICK the ball).

1-0 -- Alway great seeing England lose at their "Sports palace" of Wembley Stadium !!!!)


Cheers
jimbo
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows XP,7,10,11 Linux Arch Linux
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    2 X Intel i7
cereberus said:
No it is not limited to 6 items.

If you have more than 6, they are displayed on a second page.
Click to expand...
I had assumed there was a limit because when I added my 6th OS doing so removed my Reflect recovery boot entry (don't know why). Adding it back I do get a 2nd page.

cereberus said:
It would be nice if you could have smaller icons to get more than 6 on one page.
Click to expand...
I tried out the classic boot menu with bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes but that too can only show 6 entries at a time, though at least it's in a scrollable list.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October 2021 it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update, and 24H2 on 3rd October 2024 through Windows Update by setting the Target Release Version for 24H2.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 8GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Dev, Beta, and RP 24H2 as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 8GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, Canary, and Release Preview builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package. In-place upgrade to 24H2 using hybrid 23H2/24H2 install media. Also running Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 8GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Dev, Beta, and RP 24H2 as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 8GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, Canary, and Release Preview builds as a native boot .vhdx.
jimbo45 said:
Hi folks
by using vhdx (physical files) and setting the reg key portableoperatingsystem to '0' you can create a whole slew of Windows installs on to a really fast small external Nvme device connected to machine via USBC adapter -- works really fast. What I like about this is that you can install W11 versions with different languages, different apps, different users with different privileges etc etc which IMHO is far more flexible than a single system. Also keep the OS just for OS and apps, user data store on different devices /partitions.

To get sensible descriptions in the boot menu run as administrator bcdedit /set {identifier} description "Your description". Put the identifier in the curly braces { } when running the command.

You can have as many Windows installs as you like of the product(s) you are licensed for

I'm running this lot from a 1.2 TB external nvme device. Note as these are PHYSICAL installs you can't run them concurrently.



View attachment 98695


I'm going to add a Winpe system, Windows 10, the Windows 2025 server preview, and 2 Linux systems.

I've got 2 of these sticks so I just clone the entire device to the 2nd one for entire backup in case the device fails. The linux dd command is my weapn of choice for that - no reason why it should - but "technology" is not without risks.

I'm surprised that when people are testing insider builds either via UUPDUMP ISO's or via WU they make that their only system. With vhdx files you can have standard RP, Dev, Canary,AND Beta builds all on your valid Windows license legally !!.

cheers
jimbo
Click to expand...
Re. licensing - if you have two copies of the same version, they will both activate from one digital licence, so you can have say a copy geared for work, and a copy geared for fun.

Now here's the thing, strictly the EULA needs a separate licence for each installation (as one would require back in W7/8 daya before digital licensing was introduced). However, as the second licence automatically activates, MS rather defeat their own licenciing rules.



Multiple versions. If when acquiring the software you were provided with multiple versions (such as 32-bit and 64-bit versions), you may install and activate only one of those versions at a time.

So technically, you need to uninstall versions
jimbo45 said:
Agree -- Not limited to 6 -- it might seem like that because of the size of Icons making 1 page. Haven't yet got as far as 3 pages though.

( OT @cereberus
hope you liked England getting wacked by Iceland at Wembley stadium last night in Football (For USA - the real version with a ROUND ball not the "Squashed rugby thing" and where you actually have to KICK the ball).

1-0 -- Alway great seeing England lose at their "Sports palace" of Wembley Stadium !!!!)


Cheers
jimbo
Click to expand...
No need to be offensive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14
    CPU
    I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB soldered
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop OLED screen
    Screen Resolution
    2880x1800 touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    1 TB NVME SSD (only weakness is only one slot)
    PSU
    Internal + 65W thunderbolt USB4 charger
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois (UK pint cans - 568 ml) - extra cost.
    Keyboard
    Built in UK keybd
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wireless dongled, wired
    Internet Speed
    900 mbs (ethernet), wifi 6 typical 350-450 mb/s both up and down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

    Macrium Reflect Home V8
    Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
    Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
Bree said:
I had assumed there was a limit because when I added my 6th OS doing so removed my Reflect recovery boot entry (don't know why). Adding it back I do get a 2nd page.


I tried out the classic boot menu with bcdedit /set {bootmgr} displaybootmenu yes but that too can only show 6 entries at a time, though at least it's in a scrollable list.
Click to expand...
I have had more than 30 entries on the grown up menu. Dont know if there is a limit to the pages on the children's menu.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7,Win11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    2x8gb 3200mhz
    Monitor(s) Displays
    benq gw2480
    PSU
    bequiet pure power 11 400CM
    Cooling
    cryorig m9i
  • Operating System
    win7,win11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    pentium g5400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    1x8gb 2400
    PSU
    xfx pro 450
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