Heard a lot about the recently released Windows 8/8.1 build? Want to install and test drive Windows 8.1 in dual boot with Windows 7? Then you have come to the right place. In this guide, we will show you how you can install Windows 8/8.1 in dual boot with Windows 7.
Dual booting Windows 8 with Windows 7 is a good idea, especially if you want to test drive the Windows 8 OS without removing your current Windows 7 installation. If you don’t want to dual boot Windows 8 with Windows 7, you can test drive Windows 8 in a virtual machine by using following guides:
# How to install Windows 8 on VMware virtual machine
# How to install Windows 8 on VirtualBox virtual machine
How to dual boot Windows 8 with Windows 7:
NOTE: We assume that you are already running Windows 7 on your PC.
Step 1: First things first. Before actually starting the installation, you need to create a partition with a minimum of 20 GB free space. As you are on Windows 7, creating or resizing a partition is pretty easy. Follow our these guides:
# How to create or delete a partition in Windows 7
# How to shrink or extend a partition in Windows 7
Step 2: If you haven’t already downloaded the Windows 8 from Microsoft, to ahead and download your copy from these direct links. Once you have the ISO file, follow one of the below mentioned guides to create a bootable Windows 8 USB to install Windows 8 from USB flash drive:
# How to install Windows 8 Developer Preview from USB flash drive
# How to install Windows 8 from USB drive
# How to install Windows 8 from ISO file
# How to make Windows 8 Developer Preview bootable USB
Step 3: Connect the bootable USB flash drive to the PC or insert the bootable Windows 8 DVD into the optical drive and reboot your machine. Windows will start loading the files to start the setup process.
NOTE: If you are using USB drive as installation media, you need to enable USB boot in the BIOS.
Step 4: From here onwards, follow our step-by-step Windows 8 installation procedure to complete the installation. Once the installation completes, shut down and switch on the PC to see the new graphical boot menu.
Step 5: When you switch the PC, you will see that Windows 8 is the default operating system in the boot menu. That is, when you switch on the PC, the default operating system, Windows 8, starts automatically. If you want to set Windows 7 as the default OS in the boot menu, follow our how to set Windows 7 as default operating system in boot menu guide.
Step 6: Select the operating system that you want to boot into and hit Enter key to start using your PC. Good luck!
admin says
@ William Henry
It seems that your USB devices aren’t compatible with Windows 8. Have you tried to install required software and driver for keyboard and printer? Please check out our guide how to know if your software and devices are compatible with Windows 8 guide: intowindows.com/how-to-check-if-your-software-and-devices-support-windows-8/
William Henry says
I have successfully been able to install Win 8 onto a dual bootable configuration, but I can’t get it to run Office programs, especially Outlook, and it can’t find the printer, keyboard & mouse (Logitech) and Bluetooth card reader. I have accessed the find new devices application and it says “no devices found” and I even unplugged and plugged the USB connections and no reponse. Is this because it is just a “DEMO version” and other stuff will not work?
Kol says
Hi, I also need help, how can I return my windows 7?
Jhun says
hi admin, i have successfully installed win 8 on my system however most of the apps would not run. i can open IE on the desktop but can’t open it through the tiles. what seems to be the problem? no error is showing it just do nothing whenever i click the tiles.
eric says
admin – need your help!
i followed your step by step on how to dual boot windows 8 on windows 7…it was ok but when i try to boot on windows 7 it says repair..i click on repair but it says could not repair..now i cant boot on my windows 7… ;-(
admin says
Wait for a few hours. Will write a detailed guide on that.
Jhun says
Hi admin, i am about to install win8 and dual boot it with my win7 but before i do that, i would like to know how will i cleanly remove win8 dual boot from my system if i decide to?
david says
after having my first play with windows 8 all i can say is if microsoft are planning on keeping the tiles on windows 8 desktop it will be the biggest mistake they will ever make why can’t they make the desktop like windows 7