Possible experiment...

scrapheap · Jul 7, 2021

Can use product-key for that

Tweakfiend · Jul 7, 2021

Ghot said:
Here I go thinking too much again. I've come up with an idea.

I have 2x 500GB SSDs. One has never been used. The other is my Windows 10 SSD.
I have current full OS image backups, which I can access for Macrium's bootable media.

Here's my idea...

1. Hook up the new SSD and put the exact same partitions on it, as I have on my existing SSD.
2. Use Macrium's bootable media to restore one of my Windows 10 backups, to the "new" SSD.
3. Now I have two identical Win 10 installs on two SSDs.
4. Take one of these SSDs, and boot into Windows 10.
5. Upgrade that Windows 10 SSD to Windows 11.
6. Now I have an SSD with Windows 10, and another SSD with Windows 11.

I'm guessing that I can then... "boot" from whichever one I want to and they will both be activated with the same license.
Sort of like Dual Boot, the hard way. Then I can play around with Windows 11 when I want to, and if I need to do something important, I can just reboot to the Windows 10 SSD.

It will all work, except maybe the license to activate. I'm not sure about that.

Yes ......been using that principle on Windows current & previous versions since Windows 8.

As long as you boot from one at a time , the electronic licence remains valid !

Ghot · Jul 8, 2021

Well, the new SSD just arrived today. I made a full disk backup of the current SSD and "restored" it to the "new" SSD.
So... currently, I have two Samsung 500 GB SSDs both with the exact same Windows 10 install.

Both booted just fine.
Tomorrow I call Microsoft and double check about the licensing rules, and if they are happy, then I'll "upgrade" the "new" SSD to Windows 11.

Then... hopefully, I'll just be able to swap them back and forth when I want to. :)

NavyLCDR · Jul 8, 2021

Ghot said:
Well, the new SSD just arrived today. I made a full disk backup of the current SSD and "restored" it to the "new" SSD.
So... currently, I have two Samsung 500 GB SSDs both with the exact same Windows 10 install.

Both booted just fine.
Tomorrow I call Microsoft and double check about the licensing rules, and if they are happy, then I'll "upgrade" the "new" SSD to Windows 11.

Then... hopefully, I'll just be able to swap them back and forth when I want to. :)

You can call Microsoft if you want to. If they tell you there will be a problem then ask them how thousands of users are doing exactly the same thing with no problems at all.

Ghot · Jul 8, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
You can call Microsoft if you want to. If they tell you there will be a problem then ask them how thousands of users are doing exactly the same thing with no problems at all.

I don't "think" there will be a problem.
But I only have one license, and I'd like to be "sure" I will keep it.

AndreTen · Jul 9, 2021

Ghot said:
I don't "think" there will be a problem.
But I only have one license, and I'd like to be "sure" I will keep it.

Done this several times. Even for swapping SSDs in the beginning of Windows 10 Insider era. Dual booting with multiple SSDs or from different partitions on the same drive in the last years.

Encountered only one problem. Upgrading from the same backup image gives the same ID for Onedrive, and it sometimes (interesting, not always) deletes the files online. So I have to check online recycle bin, say once a month, and restore some files.

Ghot · Jul 9, 2021

AndreTen said:
Done this several times. Even for swapping SSDs in the beginning of Windows 10 Insider era. Dual booting with multiple SSDs or from different partitions on the same drive in the last years.

Encountered only one problem. Upgrading from the same backup image gives the same ID for Onedrive, and it sometimes (interesting, not always) deletes the files online. So I have to check online recycle bin, say once a month, and restore some files.

I don't use One Drive at all, and don't plan to. :)

In the past I've noticed that Microsoft doesn't always interpret things the way I do.

In 2012 I bought a copy of Win 7 Home Premium (retail key).
Until then I had never dealt with a System Reserve partition, and didn't really want to deal with one.

Long story, short... I just installed, wiped and reinstalled Win 7, 8 times in that first week, till I got it to install with no SR partition.

Everything was fine after that. Then Win 10 comes along, and in May 2020, I used my Win 7 retail key to clean install Windows 10.
Everything was still fine. Then in July 2020 I needed to do my first In-Place Upgrade, to get from v1909 to v2004.
I was on the phone with MS during this, and I asked about my Win 7 retail key.
They said I only had one install, left on that key, because I had already used 8 installs, plus the one I used up when clean installing Windows 10.

So... I'd like to make "sure" how MS will look at what I'm trying to do, before I jump in with both feet.

johnlgalt · Jul 9, 2021

Don't know what the results of the call will be.

But as for swapping back and forth - you might confuse them with the same license repeatedly swapping from 10 to 11 lol. But actually doubtful that happens as the HW ID will change with each drive , too, so it will look like multiple drives.

I used to use a similar manner, jsut used hte BIOS to swap the boot drive. Allowed me to keep the installations fully independent,

Good times.

NavyLCDR · Jul 9, 2021

johnlgalt said:
Don't know what the results of the call will be.

But as for swapping back and forth - you might confuse them with the same license repeatedly swapping from 10 to 11 lol. But actually doubtful that happens as the HW ID will change with each drive , too, so it will look like multiple drives.

I used to use a similar manner, jsut used hte BIOS to swap the boot drive. Allowed me to keep the installations fully independent,

Good times.

The HW ID will not change with each drive. The HW ID will be the same as long as the drive is connected to the same motherboard. If the HW ID changed, than activation would fail because the digital license is tied to the HW ID.

And @Ghot, just realize that Microsoft's glorified phone receptionists don't know the correct answers to every question. If you get one that tells you that you will have problems with activations in your situation then your are talking to one of those that doesn't know the correct answer to that question.

johnlgalt · Jul 9, 2021

Interesting. So HDs are not factored into the HWID - good to know.

I should have known that - with as many times as I changed the boot drive in Win10 on my old rig with automatic activation - just didn't think about it.

NICK ADSL UK · Jul 9, 2021

the key windows licences will work on windows 11 providing you are signed in to a Microsoft account and have been in using windows 10. both licences will be linked. for dual booting, i use easyBCD and iReboot

Mark Phelps · Jul 9, 2021

Ghot said:
Here I go thinking too much again. I've come up with an idea.

I have 2x 500GB SSDs. One has never been used. The other is my Windows 10 SSD.
I have current full OS image backups, which I can access for Macrium's bootable media.

Here's my idea...

It will all work, except maybe the license to activate. I'm not sure about that.

I did exactly the same thing with my Win10 Pro desktop and a blank SSD. The Win11 upgrade went fine, everything remained, and it actiavted with no issues at all.

NavyLCDR · Jul 9, 2021

NICK ADSL UK said:
the key windows licences will work on windows 11 providing you are signed in to a Microsoft account and have been in using windows 10. both licences will be linked. for dual booting, i use easyBCD and iReboot

You don't need the Microsoft Account.

Ghot · Jul 9, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
And @Ghot, just realize that Microsoft's glorified phone receptionists don't know the correct answers to every question. If you get one that tells you that you will have problems with activations in your situation then your are talking to one of those that doesn't know the correct answer to that question.

I realize that. I'm not doubting what you're saying... I'm just gonna add the "MS input", to my decision making.

LOL... I have noticed that on MS chat, they've taken to re-labling the "Advisors" as Ambassadors.
Maybe Microsoft is getting ready to seceded from the Union.

Ghot · Jul 10, 2021

Well... I'm on the "other" 500 GB SSD and Windows 11.
I did an In-Place Upgrade. It took a total of 35 minutes.

It seems to have kept everything (programs and files). Currently I'm on 22000.1
That was the ISO I built at UUPDump.

It gave me a Recovery Partition, that I didn't have before... and on the Taskbar, it wiped out my Task Manager icon.
Task Manager still works...the icon, just changed to a black square.

@Brink

@z3r010

Ghot · Jul 10, 2021

After about 1.5 hours of tweaking... (most Win 10 tweaks have worked for me)

Also, (because I have a Win 10 backup), I removed the windows.old folder
I also ran CCleaner, and the cleaner part looked mormal. The Registry part removed a bunch of .dll files... mostly old .NET Framework stuff.

Ran sfc /scannow afterwards...it came up clean.

I got Windows Explorer looking... normal.

For the Taskbar location, size and Win 10 view... I used the Win 11 tutorials in this forum. They all worked fine.

I'm still on Win 11 22000.1 ...so I will now try the Windows Updates.

Updates went fine...

And Microsoft Links 2003... still works.

Even the original Zelda works....

Ghot · Jul 10, 2021

And under the what the heck is this junk.... this came with the .65 update I guess. It wasn't like this on 22000.1
@Brink

This is when I left click the Start button....

This is when I right click the desktop...

When I right click an image on the desktop... I get this stupidity. I have to then click "Show more Options" to get the real context menu...

I did the registry edit for the classic Start menu, and it worked. Then I did the 22000.65 CU and this happened.
I went back and checked the registry edit... it's still there and still set to 1

Almost forgot... the 22000.65 CU also changed File Explorer from what it was up above (pic), to this cr*pola...

Other than these three "knot holes" everything works fine.

This does look like typical MS thinking as of late. Take whatever is simple, intuitive and works... and mess it up. :)

/edit

This whole project was started in post #35, this topic.

AndreTen · Jul 10, 2021

You can revert File explorer toolbar to old one, by selecting "open explorer in a separate process". It is a bug ...

Ghot · Jul 10, 2021

Well, I got the normal File Explorer back. Youi have to put a check in this checkbox...

Now all that's left is to get the regular context menu on the desktop and desktop items, back...

And to get the regular Win 10 start menu back. I had that, then the CU borked it again. But the registry edit is still there and set.