# Dual boot personal laptop for lighting software only partition?



## Kozak (Nov 21, 2018)

I couldnt find an answer to this, but I doubt I am the first to ask this easy question. 

Is it a viable option to partition my laptop for a second windows os for lighting software only? I want to have fun with lighting using my personal laptop but dont want updates and bloatware to mess up the drivers. Is anyone currently doin something like this?

Just looking to have a conversation on this I guess. Dont want to spend extra money on a separate windows lisence if people are having no problems using their personal laptops for work like this (but just hobby at church for me). 

Thank you.


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## dbaxter (Nov 21, 2018)

Please help us (well, me anyway) better understand your concern here. Is it that you fear an installation of any of the several available lighting packages will mess up your computer? What drivers are you concerned about? Any of the packages will have something to work with a DMX interface device. Perhaps there was some risk in the days of interfaces that only 'spoke' via a virtual serial port, but Windows 10 uses D2XX transparently and Art-Net devices use the standard networking.


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## Kozak (Nov 21, 2018)

dbaxter said:


> Please help us (well, me anyway) better understand your concern here. Is it that you fear an installation of any of the several available lighting packages will mess up your computer? What drivers are you concerned about? Any of the packages will have something to work with a DMX interface device. Perhaps there was some risk in the days of interfaces that only 'spoke' via a virtual serial port, but Windows 10 uses D2XX transparently and Art-Net devices use the standard networking.




I am assuming the software will work on the laptop, or I will figure it out and make it work. My concern is the other way around, but thats a good point as well.....
For example, I have learned on many forums and maybe from a podcast that if you gig (which I might be interested in in the future or not), say, you have a dj setup and you rent yourself and your gear out, you should have a dedicated computer for the software you use so that its functionality and reliability is consistent. 
Since I am not gigging but just want to use my personal laptop as a reliable lighting control system to run lights at church for big events, would a dual boot be considered a good alternative to buying a new laptop just for lighting.. The concern is with the dll files (if applicable) or drivers for a USB DMX dongle being messed with as i do my daily tasks with my laptop. Daily tasks being that i might spontaneously install a new software or a windows update turns necessary drivers off (if it ever does that). Or maybe, god forbid, i get a virus on one partition, would it transfer to the other? (hopefully i dont get one that messes with the bios or something, im not well versed with this stuff, hope some of this makes sense). I dont want to show up day of event and have to troubleshoot some problem out of the blue if I can help it.

Thanks for the reply.


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## Kozak (Nov 21, 2018)

My question is probably just me seeking very general advice, or just help me decide type of thing. Maybe im not seeing something that others have experience with. All I want to do is make my life easier and use my laptop to occasionally run a small lighting setup instead of using the church's Smartfade ML (not the most fun console). I am willing to make a dedicated partition just to keep the lighting software from any issues that might come from daily use of a personal computer, since I found out that lighting is kind of fun. Or does anyone think that if i keep my computer very clean and only install very trusted software, I shouldnt have any issues with outputting dmx and stuff.


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## cbrandt (Nov 21, 2018)

Ask your IT services, or whomever handles those things at your church. It is entirely possible that they have an older but still completely useable desktop or laptop somewhere that they'd let you use for this purpose. Any medium or large organization generally has a closet with "all that old computer stuff that doesn't work anymore".

With all that out of the way, it is totally possible and reasonable to run a dual boot with a second partition to another version of windows. However, it isn't easy, and it isn't without problems, especially in the windows 10 environment. For the cost of a standalone windows license, you can probably get a Black Friday or Cyber Monday deal on a low to mid end computer that will do everything you want it to, without all the fuss of trying to get two competing sets of OS to work on a single computer. Back in my college days, I ran a macbook pro with OSX, Windows, and Linux all as separate boot partitions. It served my purposes then, but mostly because I like to tinker around with things. It was by no means worth it.


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## Amiers (Nov 21, 2018)

To much hassle. 

Learn the Smartfade ML or get a second laptop either from the church or have them buy one for a redundant backup of the lighting system. Tomorrow and Monday are the best times of the year. 

Never use your personal gear for anything unless you are getting paid for it. 

If it fails or breaks that all on you and they won’t reimburse you for it. Especially a church.


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## Kozak (Nov 21, 2018)

Those are all good point. I do like to tinker. I think if my laptop breaks when I do stuff I like doing anyways then it’s a poor laptop. Hopefully it will last me as long as my 2010 MacBook lasted me. The new windows laptop is still in the mail.

Thanks for all the input.


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## JD (Nov 22, 2018)

One of the biggest issues is anti-virus software and system upgrades. Both can wreck a show if they decide to start doing their stuff. I would guess what you are thinking of is using one boot with all the usual protection to go online, and a second boot that does not have antivirus and has updates shut down for when you are doing a show. The second OS would also not have any secondary software so less of a chance of it tripping up. yea... makes sense.


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## jtweigandt (Nov 23, 2018)

For running a second os, I'd take a good look at Virtualbox and run the "clean" lighting copy as a virtual machine. Virtualbox is free, and being a vm makes it easy to back up, and even can be easily 
transplanted to another host computer in the case of disaster. YOu need some pretty good processing power, and memory, but I am running 4 vm's right now on my desktop computer, that 
handle various dedicated tasks for my business. If you want to play with virtualbox, it's free, and you can install some flavor of linux just to get the feel of working with virtualbox, but 
you can literally install a second windows computer in it if you want to. Not a fan of dual boot.. too many things to go wrong if a hard drive fails, harder to recover from etc.


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