Microsoft Weekly

Install a second copy of Windows for troubleshooting

By Ed Bott

When you're troubleshooting a PC problem, one of the most important steps is to rule out hardware and driver issues. The best way to do that is to run a clean copy of Windows, with only a basic set of device drivers and no third-party apps or utilities.

Setting up a second copy of Windows isn't difficult, as long as you follow two simple rules:

• You must use a separate disk partition from your current Windows installation. On a desktop PC, you can often add a second physical disk. On notebooks and other sealed systems with a single physical drive, you need to shrink the main disk partition to carve out at least 32 GB of unused space.


• You must boot from Windows installation media. Don't run Windows Setup from within Windows. Instead, use a bootable USB flash drive and choose the Custom installation option. Specify the separate disk partition as the location for your new copy of Windows.

After setup is complete, you'll have a new boot menu you can use to choose which Windows installation you want to run. When you need to check something out by booting from your clean Windows copy, go to Settings > Update & Recovery > Recovery. Under the Advanced Startup heading, click Restart Now to restart immediately and display a menu that includes options to choose your other copy of Windows.

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