TLW - I also responded to your email and sent you a copy of the Service Manager utility I wrote.  Instructions for use are included.

Bob Bone

Many thanks Bob, I just collected the email.

I've created a test profile and can confirm it all works as advertised - it's a seriously useful little bit of software. And very well documented. No permissions issues as I've got UAC turned off anyway.

One thought - it's possibly worthwhile (especially for those not familiar with Windows services) opening services.msc at the same time simply to get the full(ish) explanation of what each service does plus any dependencies/warnings about the consequences of shutting it down.

And while in services.msc to maybe take the opportunity to switch off what isn't needed at all, like the bluetooth service when the PC doesn't have bluetooth, etc. It's amazing how much unnecessary/irrelevant stuff Windows loads by default.

Thank you for the kind words.

I meant to include a bit about the recomendations put forth at www.blackviper.com on tweaking services and such, sorry if I had forgotten it.

In the Services Manager program, you can double-click on the header tab for description column to expand the text, which would include the same info you were referring to about the consequences of turning any given service off.

This utility does allow you to not have a clue, so you should have or develop an idea of which services you really want to control.  The utility merely performs the mechanics of disabling/enabling.

I DO need to add a little code to the utility, the Edit Profile function and Delete Profile function don't have any code behind them.  I will let you know when that has been added, and will send along an updated program for you.

I think using a utility such as this makes much more sense then having to maintain deal boot partitions just to set things up for audio processing.

Bob Bone

I meant to include a bit about the recomendations put forth at www.blackviper.com on tweaking services and such

No problem, I've been grubbing around in Windows services ever since Windows has had services.

In the Services Manager program, you can double-click on the header tab

Ah!

I think using a utility such as this makes much more sense then having to maintain deal boot partitions just to set things up for audio processing.

Agreed. As well as saving the hassle of maintaining two Windows installations it saves the cost of a second Windows licence and the disk space to run it.


Kill off any remaining unnecessary auto-loading processes using msconfig, Process Manager (or even better a batch file), and there you go. A minimal, clean Windows environment.

> Just curious - Alex - why do you want to have 2 Win 8 bootable partitions/drives?
> If it for maintaining 2 versions based on Windows Services, then I may have something for you to look at as an alternative.

Hi Bob

Thanks but I'm basically using different OS's partitions for a multitude of different reasons.

I'm running a sound studio partition (fully optimized and clean), a development/business environment (Visual Studio/Office work), and a partition dedicated to Windows "recreation" for want of a better word. I also have a Linux partition for sado-kicks. And I now have a single Windows 8 partition

I was hoping that Hyper-V with Windows 8 may be a better way to go but it seems you need a new Windows 8 license key for each Virtual Machine (boo!). Whilst expecting there could be a lot of issues, not least performance and audio support, I was going to have a go anyway and was beaten at the first hurdle. Nevermind....

So next thing I need to do is find out whether you I can same Win8 serial number for multiboot/multiple installations on the same PC, like I can with Win7.
 
Well Acronis OS Selector works but heavy hacking of the boot config file is required. Not automatic at least in my instance.

Cheers...

Well Acronis OS Selector works but heavy hacking of the boot config file is required. Not automatic at least in my instance.

Alex, I gave up on OS selector a few years ago as it's too much of a PIA. I use BootIt Bare Metal now http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-bare-metal.htm 
It's cheap - and it's easy to set up.
 
For me the most important thing, whether you're booting from different partitions or disks, is to *hide* the partitions you're not booting from. This way - each Windows partition doesn't know *anything* about the others, doesn't share the BCD area etc. Of course, any "data" disks or partitions are visible to all.
 
If you dual boot the Microsoft way - you just boot from one BCD partiton which then lets you choose the Windows partition to boot from. If you lose the BCD partition you can't boot from *anything* until you restore/fix it. I prefer to have a BCD partiton with each Windows partition - so they know absolutely nothing about each other. This way if I change anything on one configuration - it has nothing to do with the other(s).
 
I hope this makes sense - this topic is full of potential minefields, and is not for the faint hearted ;-)  
 
 

Alex - you are one brave soul.  Thanks for explaining the configuration. :)

Bob Bone

Hi John

Yes I managed to get all my partitions hidden with OS Selector which is great, but yes I agree it's a total pain in the ass, not something I would fully recommend. Your solution is probably better.

I'm getting away with it so far....! (and cheers Bob!).

I did it from a fresh build and just cloned the fresh install to a second drive so I never really did an install as such. Perhaps that was why.

Your clone did not install the Windows boot loader configured to recognize the other OS. A clean installation of the OS onto a separate partition/drive would recognize the existing OS and set the boot loader to give you a choice of which to boot. What you probably had were two drives each configured as the only OS on the system and each with its own  boot loader, which would have been cloned to be identical in both installations.