Adding VHD boot support for Win7 Professional?

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by TheLostOne, Oct 21, 2011.

  1. TheLostOne

    TheLostOne MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2009
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    #1 TheLostOne, Oct 21, 2011
    Hi,

    Is it somehow possible to add support to Win7 Professional in order to boot from VHD?
    I have a Professional license and don't want to switch to a unofficial Ultimate activation.

    Would it be possible to keep the Professional version as the default OS and still be able to boot from a VHD containing an Ultimate edition?

    Thank you
     
  2. Tito

    Tito Super Mod / Adviser
    Staff Member

    Nov 30, 2009
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    #2 Tito, Oct 21, 2011
    Use EasyBCD?? :)
     
  3. TheLostOne

    TheLostOne MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2009
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    #3 TheLostOne, Oct 22, 2011 (OP)
    I know EasyBCD, but does it bypass the boot from VHD restriction in non Ultimate and Enterprise editions?
     
  4. WinFLP

    WinFLP MDL Senior Member

    Nov 18, 2009
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    #4 WinFLP, Oct 22, 2011
    My understanding is the Ultimate / enterprise requirement is only for the guest operating system, not the host.
     
  5. TheLostOne

    TheLostOne MDL Novice

    Aug 26, 2009
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    #5 TheLostOne, Oct 22, 2011 (OP)
    I think I've read this somewhere, too.
    That's probably why booting from VHD isn't working if the guest is another OS than Win7 Ultimate/Enterprise.
    For Linux there's VBoot but it's not free.

    Don't know if this could work ;-)
    Create a bootable VHD with a very slimmed down Win7 Ultimate/Enterprise edition.
    Within the booted Win7 from VHD create new partitions and install a Linux distribution of your choice and adjust the boot manager.

    A bit inconvenient but I think it could work:D

    This way one should be able to create different VHDs with a different Linux OS each.