How to dual-boot WinXP and Vista

If you think that installing a Windows operating system is not enough, or if you feel that there is not enough trouble in your life, then install Windows XP and Windows Vista at the same time.

Why not? Frankly, I don't know why anyone wants to do this. As mentioned in the previous blog, Windows Vista's dominance of MBR (Master Boot Record) makes the processor very exclusive. Once Vista is installed on the computer, the user must operate the computer in accordance with the rules established by Vista.

Hard Disk Partition

Double operating system is not difficult to implement. On the operating system where Windows XP is installed, the prerequisites for installing Vista are that the hard drive has enough space to support Vista installation, or there is another hard disk partition to install Vista.

If there is only one physical drive, the user must partition the Vista on the disk. But if the user's XP system has only one partition, then it is necessary to repartition the partition. However, XP systems do not have such a partitioning tool. However, if the user has a partitioning tool like Acronis, things will be much easier. If the user does not have such a partitioning tool and does not want to buy it, we have other options.

Windows Vista can repartition partitions, but this feature is not available during the default installation. However, if the user has Windows PE 2.0 on hand, the partitioning problem can be solved.

Enter the PE program and open the DISPART program under the x:WindowsSystem32 directory. The program is a Vista version, so you can use the SHRINK option. First select the appropriate volume label (usually select the volume label is 0) and enter SHRINK (compression). Because this is run through the Vista GUI's disk manager, it is not a setup process. SHRINK only looks at and adjusts the space it can operate. Install XP, 20GB NTFS partition, compressed to reduce the partition size to 10GB, so that you can meet Vista installation requirements to a minimum. Running Disk Defragmenter within a partition can be a great help for the compression process.

If users don't have Windows PE 2.0, there is a very powerful tool here - GParted (Gnome Partition Editor). This is a graphical interface partitioning tool based on Linux that resizes NTFS file partitions.

Get downloadable LiveCD, the image format of an ISO burn bootable CD, use it to start the computer. By accepting all the default settings at runtime, the computer will work fine unless the user is using VMWare. In this case, you can select VESA by manually loading the graphics module, otherwise the screen will display a black screen. Right click on the partition icon, select Resize/Move, drag the partition button, select the desired partition size, select OK, and apply the selected settings. This hard disk partition is ready. Restart your computer and choose to install Vista on the new partition.

Startup Management

When Vista is installed, the system will run the Windows Startup Manager, from which you can select "Microsoft Windows Vista (Microsoft Windows Vista)" or " Earlier Version of Windows (earlier version of Windows).

It's a bit annoying, and unfortunately in Vista it's not as easy to modify the boot manager as Windows. Users can still be in system properties. Open "Startup Information Options" (right-click "My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Settings), where users can select an operating system as the default boot system, select None The time interval option, this becomes. In order to change all startup items, the user must use the new BCDEDIT tool in the command prompt. However, this tool is not so easy to use. Although the tools are very comprehensive and powerful, they are difficult to use.

At the moment, the EasyBCD from Neosmart came to the rescue. It provides a graphical interface to BCDEDIT so that the operation is simple. There are many options in the program, and these options depend on the needs of the user. At this point, just select "Startup Settings", change the Windows Installer name to "Windows XP", and click "Save Settings". After rebooting the system, the user will see that the modified information has been saved to the startup manager.

In the "Add/Remove Portal" option, the user can choose to move the current portal program up or down, or add a new portal program. In theory, users can start XP, Vista, Linux, OSX in Vista environment. However, unless the user has great courage, or the user is a technical expert, we do not recommend users to do so.

If you are sure that dual boot is not for you and you want to resume using XP, you will need to use Vista MBR. Fortunately, EasyBCDy can also help. In Startup Management, select Uninstall Vista Startup and click Write to MBR. After restarting the computer, the Vista startup item disappears - so the system can go directly to Windows XP. In the XP environment, the Vista system is split into a second partition, the D partition, which can be safely erased.