Windows Vista: How do I dual boot my computer to run Windows XP and Vista?
- 10/24/08 4:00 PM
Try out Vista without dual booting...
by caskater4 - 10/17/08 11:27 PM In reply to: How do I dual boot my computer to run Windows XP and Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
At this point the choice between Vista is no longer an issue of compatibility or performance but rather taste. Those who aren't interested in learning something a little different will not want to use Vista. Those who are interested in trying something new will likely love Vista. I assume that by asking the question in the first place you fall into the second category.
While most people here will give you detailed instructions about how to dual-boot between XP and Vista I am going to give you another option.
Dual booting is definitely a good option but is a rather lengthy process and if you aren't starting everything from scratch you risk losing all your data.
Since you're interested in trying out Vista, which means you likely just want to see what new features it offers to you and what interface changes there are, I would encourage you to instead use a virtual machine. Running Vista in a virtual machine requires no changes to your hard drive partitions or XP installation. It also doesn't require restarting to go from XP to Vista and vice versa. The negative side of using a virtual machine is that Vista _will_ run noticeably slower than it would if you installed Vista as a dual-boot or by itself. So make sure not to base your judgment about the OS if you decide to try it this way.
Microsoft makes it pretty easy to test out Vista in a virtual machine. You will need two things to try it out. First you'll need to download and install Virtual PC 2007. This is freely available at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=28C97D22-6EB8-4A09-A7F7-F6C7A1F000B5&displaylang=en
Second, you'll need the VHD, or Virtual Hard Disk, of Vista. You can download this from Microsoft for free as well at the following link.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c2c27337-d4d1-4b9b-926d-86493c7da1aa&DisplayLang=en
From there simply install Virtual PC 2007 and open up the Vista VHD file you downloaded. The virtual machine will load up in a window just like any other program or application except it will be a real desktop of the full version of Vista that you can play with to your hearts desire. You can even install programs to it, play movies, games, whatever you desire.
Good luck with whatever your choice is and enjoy!
Not Exactly True
by Renegade Knight - 10/21/08 11:08 AM In reply to: Try out Vista without dual booting... by caskater4I like Vista Better than XP insofar as interface. I'd rather use Vista. However Vista remains problimatic. My upgrade CD is at present unused because of insurmountable problems and limited time to bang my head on the wall to solve them.
Insurmountable means "The OEM didn't make a driver and said the Vista driver did the job. The Vista driver didn't, thus there is no way to solve the problme without writing my own driver or fighting with MicroSoft to get them to do the job right...which past experience has told me they quit working on problems that they don't wish to work on".
Word bro
by Tech Boy Stevo - 10/24/08 7:49 PM In reply to: Try out Vista without dual booting... by caskater4Vista SP1 solved all the problems I had with it - mainly older software not working. Good Lord, I have software from 1997 that now works under Vista - which never worked using XP.
Dual booting is more trouble then it is worth. I did it for a while, but then you end up with some emails and files on one OS, and have to reboot when they are on the other OS. More trouble then it's worth trust me.
My advice? Take the plunge and go with Vista - making sure you update with Service Pack 1. Be make sure your computer has the processor and memory that can handle it.
Oh, and for you old DOS guys? Vista SP1 eliminates the need for DOS emulators! Woo-hoo!
As with all things, the newer the software, the bigger engine you need to drive it. It is the way it has been - and always will be.
Yes but surely you can-
by morrie 52 - 10/26/08 8:18 AM In reply to: Word bro by Tech Boy StevoThat problem with files being on one and not the other,can be resolved by having a seperate auto backup hard drive,connected to both systems,which is good practice on one system anyway.
Vista
by WAArnold - 11/25/08 1:39 PM In reply to: Word bro by Tech Boy StevoWord Bro - some of what you say I agree. However, I find Vista to be very restricting. Try deleting some of the garbage on your system. Ie., take windows muvee, give yourself all privys and it still wont let you do it. Same with some of the other stuff. Made a disk with that thing and it's garbage. What you say about old progs working with your vista, you are telling me you have Vista 32 bit. There are numerous progs that wont work on the 64 bit version and, in my case, Hewlitt wont change your from the 64bit to 32bit. I tried. Had nothing that told me it was 64bit prior to buying either.
I am, at this very moment, formatting my disk to install XP. I am hoping I don't need any drivers as HP wouldn't let me have them either. They don't want me to downgrade from what they had installed, even if 90 percent is garbage.
Vista SP I did not solve my compatibility problems
by Viejito11 - 12/14/08 5:28 PM In reply to: Word bro by Tech Boy StevoI like Vista, as long as I don't have to run anything old. Even with SP I, my old MP3 player has no drivers, there are several programs that used to run on XP but don't run under Vista, my Nikon camera software doesn't run under Vista, etc.
When I contact the manufacturers, they tell me "that product has reached the end-of-life point, so we will not write drivers for it, which translated means, "you have to buy a new model. We got you." And this was not very old stuff, either, they had been purchased a short time before Vista came out.
As long as you don't have any of those old programs or peripherals, you are OK. Vista works OK for almost everything else.
What really bugs me is that Microsoft Office 2007 cannot open older files, not because it doesn't have the capability, but because Microsoft intentionally inactivated that function in the registry, and to activate it you have to read a long paper on the Website and then tweak the registry, running the risk of ruining it and not being able to boot any more.
And some of the software that is labeled "optimized for Vista" doesn't work with Vista either, unless you download a patch from the publisher and update it. A real pain in the neck. Even with SP I.
And I don't have optimism of things getting better with Windows 7. History doesn't give us hope.
Using Vista instead of XP
by Doh_1 - 10/25/08 10:36 AM In reply to: Try out Vista without dual booting... by caskater4Be careful here, if you have a computer that's a couple of years old or older that came with XP, I'm not sure that I'd bother to dual-boot. Vista is going to be best on a newer computer that has at least 2GB of memory (cheap these days) and a dual-core CPU is also nice. You are not going to like the performance of Vista on an older computer, and there may indeed be missing drivers for older hardware on Vista.
And you will have the problems mentioned by other people, having to reboot to do something in the other OS is time consuming and you'll stop doing it pretty quickly. Unless you use a separate disk for your Vista installation, you'll be giving up part of your main disk, and over time you won't like that, either.
The best way to get and enjoy Vista is with a new computer. The problem with Vista as a virtual machine is that you have yet another layer between your computer and Vista (the virtual machine player), which will make Vista performance look even worse on older hardware.
I really like Vista (another post *smile*), but I really like it on my new desktop system. I really like XP on my older computer, and I wouldn't consider upgrading it to Vista, that just doesn't make sense. Performance is important for a good OS experience, so use each OS on appropriate hardware and you'll be happy.
-Roger
Constructive reply
by charlie7290 - 10/25/08 3:55 PM In reply to: Try out Vista without dual booting... by caskater4Thanks for a constructive reply to our readers question and providing the correct links with the pro,s and cons also.
It caught my eye whilst reading (your reply especially).
It makes a refreshing change for the constructive replies,instead of idiot and crass replies sometimes received.
Thanks again
A problem
by Mélingue - 10/26/08 7:26 AM In reply to: Try out Vista without dual booting... by caskater4Setup.exe reports "MC Virtual\setup.exe is not a valid Win 32 application". (I downloaded twice and tried twice).
George Upham
uplandgm@gmail.com
It's possible...
by Wolfie2k5 - 10/18/08 1:08 AM In reply to: How do I dual boot my computer to run Windows XP and Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are a number of ways to do it - some ways are safer and easier than others.
A lot of it depends on your computer's motherboard BIOS. The best way to do it involves installing Vista on two entirely separate hard drives. The reasoning behind that is when you otherwise install Vista on a computer with XP, Vista modifies the XP boot partition in a way so that it's a bit more of a pain to get rid of.
My method involves two hard drives. One for Vista, one for XP. It also relies on my motherboard's ability to change the boot priority. I can tell the motherboard which hard drive to boot from first. In fact, when I installed Vista, I unplugged the other hard drives and forced Vista to install itself to that drive. That prevents Vista from possibly doing anything to any other drive/partition in the machine. Once Vista was installed, I then plugged the hard drives back in and everything was good to go.
To swap from Vista to XP, I'd boot the computer, hit the Delete key to enter the BIOS setup, navigate to the Advanced Options and changed the Boot Priority option. Press F10 to save and reboot the computer. And the computer boots into XP. Repeat the process for changing over to Vista. It takes all of an extra 15 - 20 seconds to change the priority.
If you find you hate Vista, it's simply a matter of booting into XP and blowing out the other hard drive's partition and you can reuse the drive for something else - storage, another operating system, etc... - so it's not a wasted investment. You can't ever have too much hard disk space.
Of course, this assumes your motherboard has the ability to do this. Your mileage will, no doubt, vary. Regardless of which OS the computer boots to - I have full access to the other partition and the files on the other drive. Using this technique, you can install any number of operating systems - XP, Vista, Linux, etc... as long as you've got a free hard drive.
Now then... If your motherboard doesn't support assigning boot priority, all is NOT lost. There are a number of boot mangers on the market. Acronis - best known for their backup software - has a boot manager you can download and try for free - but it will set you back $50. On the plus side, you will also get a partition manager, partition recovery module and a disk editor for the money. Visit
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/?source=us_google&keyword=bootdisk&gclid=CKGt0uKosJYCFQQCagodwyFgLA
You can Google for Boot Manager and you'll find over 1.5 million hits for different sites that have to do with Boot Managers.
Two Hard Drives
by islandporgy - 10/24/08 7:06 PM In reply to: It's possible... by Wolfie2k5Thats how I did it. When I want to switch I go into Bios to (advance Bios features) and switch it that way.
At one time I had 3 operating Systems. All depends on the MB you may have to go inside (Intergrated Peripherals) and set up in there also.
1) One on IDE
2) One On IDE Raid
3) One On Sata
Had know problems with that, each operating system read the other. all NFTS operating Systems.
NFTS can read Fat32, But Fat32 can not read NFTS. On another computer I had 1 Fat32 and 1 NFTS, worked well.
My next upgrade will have to have a good MB I will always buy a good MB.
Have Fun
Wendell H
its' possible
by BANDIT1946 - 10/25/08 5:40 AM In reply to: It's possible... by Wolfie2k5i use this system for 1 years now i got 3 hard drive xp vista linux most bios today have the fonction f8 to select your boot.
xp and vista
by popnz - 10/18/08 1:22 AM In reply to: How do I dual boot my computer to run Windows XP and Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
hi yes it can be done,but you either need to partition your hard drive or use a spare drive and put vista on there,when you have done that when your computer starts up it will give you the option to start in vista or in the old window xp, it also depends how your xp is setup, cheers chris.
A very easy to understand and simple guide to dual boot!
by mattribbins - 10/18/08 1:42 AM In reply to: How do I dual boot my computer to run Windows XP and Vista? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This has probably been posted before, but I want to emphesise the simplicity and well constructed guide.
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm
This guide should tell you everything on how to dual boot. Now I know this works becuase I tried it and everything went fantastic. Have a read of the guide first before attempting anything, and make sure work is backed up incase something goes drasticly wrong.
-Matt
apcmag tutorial very good
by rich_jtg - 10/18/08 2:48 AM In reply to: A very easy to understand and simple guide to dual boot! by mattribbinsI agree with Matt, the apcmag tutorial is one of the better ones I've seen online - they also do another one which has the instructions in case you want to install Vista after XP too (link is on the page Matt referred to).
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