First let me say I have dual boot with OS 11.1/Win7 not OS 11.2/Win7 and I don’t think that would make a difference. Second, I my Win7 was an upgrade of WinXP, ie, (technically) WinXPSP3/OS 11.1 to Win7/OS 11.1. Third its been a long time ago, and now its IIRC but post questions and I’ll try.
No problems with Win7 updates, though my Win7 Update is set to download the updates but doesn’t apply them until I’m ready.
Upgrading the WinXP on dual boot for my machine had to be done using a bootable CD, the generic process of running the Win7 upgrade setup program didn’t work. Sorry I can’t remember what it didn’t like.
Booting the Win7 CD, made from the upgrade CD, worked pretty much without problems except I created a clean install of Win7 and by hand migrated programs to Win7 that I could and reinstalled those I couldn’t. I did use Windows Easy Transfer Reports and Windows Easy Transfer.
I’m about 90% sure that if I needed to fix a boot after Win7 was installed it was OS 11.1. I didn’t use YaST Boot Loader post install process, I used
sudoedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
as show I below after I changed the menu to point to a newly installed HD. **I like YaST Boot Loader, it works very well and I think you should continue to use it.
**
Using Grub on the OpenSuse DVD or other Linux LiveCD, I’m 90% sure I used the grub-install process to enable me to boot into OS 11.1.
The basic grub-install is start grub, mount the Linux root partition, search for the stage1 then setup the boot partition.
A detailed example of grub-install is here GRUB Manual - Installation.
Unless you’re partitions are strange or severely fragmented you should be able to install Win7 and/or OS 11.2 in dual boot. The normal process is Win7 is on the first partition and other Operating Systems on other partition. Windows allows installation to other partitions but for me that was usually followed by headaches some time later.
When you install or upgrade Windows it wipes out grub, so, I use grub-install. With Windows installed to the 1st primary partition the OpenSuse install process should recognize there is another OS and install grub with dual boot.
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Mar 3 07:38:29 CST 2010
default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,6)/boot/message
##YaST - activate
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.45-0.1 (default)
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.45-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000528AS_9VP5X58H-part7 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000528AS_9VP5X58H-part6 splash=silent showopts vga=0x314
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.45-0.1-default
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.45-0.1
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.45-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000528AS_9VP5X58H-part7 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x314
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.45-0.1-default
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: xen###
title Xen -- openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.45-0.1
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/xen.gz
module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.45-0.1-xen root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000528AS_9VP5X58H-part7 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST31000528AS_9VP5X58H-part6 splash=silent showopts vga=0x314
module /boot/initrd-2.6.27.45-0.1-xen
**###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1**