How to install XP on a pre-installed Vista PC and set up dual boot?

Nowadays, more and more PCs are pre-installed with Windows Vista at the factory, which is very convenient for users - although Pre-installed Windows Vista is mostly a simplified version like Home Basic - however, for many users, it may be more accustomed to Windows XP, and some applications that are used daily may not work properly in Windows Vista, so Many people want to install Windows XP in the system. Of course, the premise is that it does not affect the Windows Vista pre-installed in the system. After all, it is expensive.

In the message of Vista World website and the e-mail received, the proportion of this issue is very large. Many users want to know how to install Windows XP on a PC with Windows Vista pre-installed, and set double Start to enter different systems separately, given our limited energy, we can't reply one by one. Therefore, a brief summary of this, introduce the basic idea of ​​installing Windows XP on a pre-installed Vista PC, I hope to help friends.

Warning: Do not install Windows XP directly on a PC with Windows Vista preinstalled.

It is well known that Microsoft has adopted a new system startup management mechanism and a new BootLoader in Windows Vista. It is different from Windows. NT has included ntldr used in Windows 2000 /XP /2003, so installing Windows XP directly on a PC with Windows Vista pre-installed will destroy the Windows Vista Boot Loader, as we said in the Windows Vista installation tutorial:

If you want to use multiple operating systems in your PC at the same time, you must ensure that Windows Vista is the last installed system. Otherwise, if you install Windows XP after installing Windows Vista, it will cause Windows Vista boot loader. Overwritten by ntldr+boot.ini, Windows Vista could not be started.

I hope to keep this in mind.

How to install Windows XP on a pre-installed Vista PC

The following describes the steps to install Windows XP on a pre-installed Vista PC:

1. If your The PC hard disk has been divided into multiple partitions at the factory, you can jump directly to "Install Windows XP";

2. Prepare a separate installation partition for Windows XP

In the factory settings of many PCs The hard disk is not partitioned, that is, the system only contains the "c:" disk, especially on most laptops. In this case, you need to split the hard disk first and prepare a separate partition for Windows XP.

a, open the disk manager, right click on the "C:" disk, select "compressed volume" in the pop-up menu, reduce the partition occupied by Windows Vista, and adjust the space for the new partition. Note: You need to reserve enough free space for the Windows Vista partition.

b. Right-click on the adjusted Unallocated Disk Space and select New Volume to create a Windows XP installation. New partition;

c, recommendation: It is best to re-adjust the system drive letter. For a system with only one partition, the hard disk is often used as the "c:" disk, and the DVD is the "d:" disk. Set, in this way, the newly created hard disk partition drive letter is arranged as "e:" disk in order, in some cases there may be some hidden danger. Therefore, it is recommended to re-adjust the drive letter at this time, such as setting the hard disk partition to "c:" "d:" and adjusting the DVD drive letter to "e:". Although this step is not necessary.

To adjust the system drive letter settings, select the appropriate partition in Disk Manager, right click and select "Change drive letter and path". Of course, for the above case, that is, when the DVD has occupied the drive letter "d:", the DVD can be first adjusted to an unused drive letter, such as "z:", and then, the newly created hard disk drive letter is set to "d:", release the occupied "e:" drive letter and adjust it back.

d. Close Disk Manager and restart Windows Vista. Note that in order for Windows Vista to accept the modified hard drive settings, the system may need to be rebooted twice.

3, install Windows XP

Next, you can install Windows XP as usual, put the Windows XP installation CD into the DVD/CD drive, set the boot from the CD-ROM, and make corresponding The installation is fine. The only caveat is to install Windows XP on the newly created hard drive.

4, rebuild the Windows Vista Boot Loader and set up dual boot

As mentioned above, after installing Windows XP, Windows Vista preinstalled on the system will be overwritten by the Boot Loader. Boot, although Windows Vista exists in the system. At this point, you need to use a third-party tool to rebuild the Boot Loader and create a dual boot menu to boot into Windows Vista and Windows XP respectively. There are many third-party software that can do this, such as VistaBootPRO. The following is a brief introduction to using VistaBootPRO to rebuild the Boot Loader and set up dual boot.

a, download and install VistaBootPRO in Windows XP, Note: Windows XP needs to be able to support .Net Framework 2.00;

b, run VistaBootPRO, click "Reinstall the Vista" in the Bootloader tab Bootloader" to rebuild the Windows Vista BootLoader, allowing the system to boot into Windows Vista. Note that only completing this step will only allow the system to boot into Windows Vista, but not Windows XP, and then set up dual boot.

c. Click “Run Diagnostics” in the “Diagnostics” menu item to let VistaBootPRO find other OS other than Windows Vista in the system. After the analysis is completed, you can see “Microsoft Windows Vista”. "In addition, there is a "Earlier versions of Windows", this is our newly installed Windows XP, click "Apply" to complete the dual boot settings for Windows Vista and XP. - Of course, if you prefer, you can also set the default startup system, menu delay and other details in this interface.

So, you can install Windows XP on a PC with Windows Vista pre-installed and set up dual boot to boot into the two systems respectively. You can continue to use Windows Vista while pre-installing the system. More accustomed to, more skilled Windows XP.