Multi-OS boot manager

[bertie97]

I am wondering if anyone can recommend a boot manager?
I have looked at OSL2000 Boot Manager & Terabytes BootIt Bare Metal - both of which sound ideal.
Any freeware tho?

Basically I have 2 disks - one with W7 & one with W10, I'd like to be able to boot them entirely separately but due to the disc format/UEFI on this mobo they don't really seem to like the selection process available in the BIOS (eg random whining about wrong boot loader version etc) so I figure an independent boot manager would sort out the niggles.

[BenYeeHua]

Well, I will choose to ignore the error, unless I can make sure I would not get any issues while upgrading Windows 10 RS1 or any big build.

For freeware, sorry, I really don't know about this.

[bertie97]

Thanks BenYeeHua
I've spent a few hours trying things & whilst it will work it isn't 100% that it won't whine about something so I am going to mess about for a while longer. 

[Jeremy Collake]

Dual-boot is always a pain. I don't know what I'd recommend, but usually it's the lowest common denominator. For instance, if Linux requires GRUB, and it supports NT, then you use GRUB. Or vice-versa for Windows. I really don't know as it's virtual machine land over here (4 constantly running), I haven't dual-booted in years.

[bertie97]

I am kinda leaning towards giving BootIt a try, unfortunately current $ rates make it a bit expensive as I don't want the imaging etc that is now in the package 'on offer'.

I doubt that I have enough HW for a bunch of VMs esp if I ever load up games
I think that as a ultimate work solution it is probably best tho.  Maybe when I upgrade my HW next, I'll aim to go the VM route & get more RAM than usual etc.

OT
So far I don't like the win10 network & app function embedding esp with the new batch of ransomware doing the rounds. 
I've seen 2 systems completely screwed & no way to recover without paying up or wiping.  Clearly there are still a lot of backdoors & workarounds that just aren't being covered. 
CryptoDrop  sounds like it might help...
Virtualization seems like a better solution with a VM just for the internet etc.  But W10 doesn't like stuff like a virtual desktop apparently

[Jeremy Collake]

So far I don't like the win10 network & app function embedding esp with the new batch of ransomware doing the rounds. 
I've seen 2 systems completely screwed & no way to recover without paying up or wiping.  Clearly there are still a lot of backdoors & workarounds that just aren't being covered. 
CryptoDrop  sounds like it might help...
Virtualization seems like a better solution with a VM just for the internet etc.  But W10 doesn't like stuff like a virtual desktop apparently

In fairness, Ransomware has nothing to do with Win10, and any unpatched exploit is sure to most likely to exist in prior editions too. In fact, you are safer with Win10. Sure, recently affected users may of been running Win10, because so many people have migrated to Win10 by now. You are much more vulnerable on XP or Vista, and about equally vulnerable on 7.

This ransomware stuff is just another form of malware, so the same practices apply - Don't download/run things unless you are *certain* you trust the source.

For example, in our case, you know our files come from bitsum.com *and* they are digitally signed. And we know Bitsum has never 'done wrong', so you can trust us. Blindly downloading trial software, especially with all these nasty and tricky installer bundles (which, again, bitsum.com *never* uses), is a recipe for disaster.

The only new twist is now they came up with a way to force infected people to pay money, and it's worked well for them.

There is no product that is going to 100% protect you against this threat because, like malware, the authors will adapt. You must be judicious, cautious, secure, and keep excellent backups.

[Jeremy Collake]

I just mean to say - Give Windows 10 a chance, it really is great .

Change takes time to get used to, but then you are glad you made the change (well, sometimes).

For Gaming, definitely you will never get optimal FPS in a VM.

[bertie97]

Thanks for the replies JC.
I have yet to be convinced on W10.  Some things seem OK but
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-10-anniversary-update-watch-out-for-these-nasty-surprises/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=19840393881837288397181766470674
--theres still aggravation to be had! 
I esp don't like the way things like run & the old control panel & MMC commands seem to have been sidetracked.  OK not everyone looks at that stuff often but if you want to tweak something & you are used to typing xxxx.msc in the run box - it now often just slaps me in the face

They really want the data mining to be front & centre.
Really don't like the new double qty of ads thing either.  Aren't we bombarded enough?
I notice that you cannot fully disable the apps side either as it will kill the start button. 

I have installed 1 game on w10 so far & it runs fine, beyond that I'm digging around & trying to break stuff.    I am not surrendering my w7 yet tho!

[BenYeeHua]

This ransomware stuff is just another form of malware, so the same practices apply - Don't download/run things unless you are *certain* you trust the source.

Yes, even worst, because any files that you download or saved on your own folders will not be protected by NTFS security, it means it can just encrypts your files silently without the admin right...

Thanks for the replies JC.
I have yet to be convinced on W10.  Some things seem OK but
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-10-anniversary-update-watch-out-for-these-nasty-surprises/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=19840393881837288397181766470674
--theres still aggravation to be had! 
I esp don't like the way things like run & the old control panel & MMC commands seem to have been sidetracked.  OK not everyone looks at that stuff often but if you want to tweak something & you are used to typing xxxx.msc in the run box - it now often just slaps me in the face

They really want the data mining to be front & centre.
Really don't like the new double qty of ads thing either.  Aren't we bombarded enough?
I notice that you cannot fully disable the apps side either as it will kill the start button. 

I have installed 1 game on w10 so far & it runs fine, beyond that I'm digging around & trying to break stuff.    I am not surrendering my w7 yet tho!

At least they start allow the Edge/IE Flash Player to asking the Multimedia Scheduler driver to change the Timer Resolution to 0.5ms, which disabled the C-states of the whole CPU package...(as there is no time for the CPU to rest...)
And I wonder why they changed this, it is working very well for 60FPS playback without Frame drop in 1511, before doing this...

For gaming, because they move over to WDDM 2.1, a little bit game like CS:GO is having low FPS in exclusive full screen, but working fine in Windowed mode.

And most important, you can login your Microsoft Account to link the free Windows 10 Digital license activation with it.
----
I forgot!
The Sticky Note UWP is a mess, the default size and font size has been changed, and it is very bad for people that having a lot of sticky note before....
If you enable the insights which link the Cortana together, the stick note will freeze each time you start it with a lot of note.
And it never running with Windows Startup anymore, also the hidden feature like changing the font size is executing very badly.

[edkiefer]

I don't use Edge at all, for maybe last ditch backup (use IE11 more), I have not noticed any timer requests.
I am on 1607 with latest updates.

As far as gems goes on my end I have not noticed any changes going back to win7, Overall I have had good luck with gaming, smooth play for most part.
I never run max settings, I find in many games ultra doesn't give any HQ that I would notice while I am moving around, so I don't set things up for best quality more usable quality, at least what a 970 can handle at 1600x1200.

Win10 so far to me feels beta, but no show stoppers, thats best i can describe it.

As for dual boot, I do it old school through bios if i need to run other OS.

[BenYeeHua]

Yup, the feature is a lot, but it is unstable for new feature, so it is indeed beta.
At least the old feature is not broken, and the IE has added some new feature from Edge too.

I don't use Edge at all, for maybe last ditch backup (use IE11 more), I have not noticed any timer requests.

Yup, no flash, no issues.

I never run max settings, I find in many games ultra doesn't give any HQ that I would notice while I am moving around, so I don't set things up for best quality more usable quality, at least what a 970 can handle at 1600x1200.

Ya, the max quality is unstable, it is there because that's artist want to show you how they designed their game, and that's how it should be look like, but you will feel a lot stutter if your CPU is not strong enough.

This should be change a lot after many games start supporting DX12, and, using it correctly.

[edkiefer]

Yup, the feature is a lot, but it is unstable for new feature, so it is indeed beta.
At least the old feature is not broken, and the IE has added some new feature from Edge too.
Yup, no flash, no issues.
Ya, the max quality is unstable, it is there because that's artist want to show you how they designed their game, and that's how it should be look like, but you will feel a lot stutter if your CPU is not strong enough.

This should be change a lot after many games start supporting DX12, and, using it correctly.

Yeh, right now most Dx12 games are ports from Xbox, not ground up dx12/vulkan for PC.
I think both those low level API will help low to mid range CPU even more, you can see it now with dx12, but you don't see it mentioned much as the combo is low end CPU with high end GPU, were this shows the most.
Not a realistic user system really.

[BenYeeHua]

Yeh, right now most Dx12 games are ports from Xbox, not ground up dx12/vulkan for PC.

Yup, I even can't run the free DX12 games (Forza Motorshort 6: Apex(Beta)), it just hang on the loading screen...

I think both those low level API will help low to mid range CPU even more, you can see it now with dx12, but you don't see it mentioned much as the combo is low end CPU with high end GPU, were this shows the most.
Not a realistic user system really.

It should help every game, unless the dev using it incorrectly, or the bottleneck is on the GPU.

It is talking about low range CPU because most laptop has dual-core i3 and i5, for example, I am playing Planetside 2(DX9), and it is getting 90% cpu usage because of dual-core.
By reducing overhead for DX12, then it should improve the performance a lot higher than 4 core CPU, unless the game can using 90% of 4 core CPU too, or the bottleneck is the game are just waiting respond from DX api without doing anything(means it block the main thread and any other threads).

They also supported you to use AMD and Nvidia graphic card together by rendering half of the screen, but it is a bit bad as it depend on the complex of the half of the screen that you assign to the graphic card.

So if you assign complex part of rendering to weak graphic card, but simple part of rendering to strong graphic card, then it will just getting blocked by the weak graphic.
Then, it will depend on the optimization of the dev to fix(workaround) this issues, or the multi-gpu rendering is still a issues even you has used DX12.
PS: Someone that having a lot of knowledge and better than me said something about this.

[edkiefer]

Yes, laptops should see nice bump in performance, but to get most out of low level API, I think we need to wait for the game engine to be coded from ground up for DX12/Vulkan.
These low level API put more burden on the Dev to get most out of GPU.
The whole dissimilar multi GPU support I am not sure on, might be more trouble than its worth except maybe Intel integrated+ dGPU, where integrated is doing some post processing rendering affects.
AMD +Nvidia GPU doesn't sound to be high% user base as you need both drivers installed, which to me is asking for trouble.

[BenYeeHua]

The whole dissimilar multi GPU support I am not sure on, might be more trouble than its worth except maybe Intel integrated+ dGPU, where integrated is doing some post processing rendering affects.

Ya, but I will not enable it, as the frame might be 2 frame late, which might not worth it.

AMD +Nvidia GPU doesn't sound to be high% user base as you need both drivers installed, which to me is asking for trouble.

Ya, double the trouble, unstable + unstable = trouble.