Duel Booting Vista with XP

[JonM]

Hey.

 

I have an Acer Aspire computer which came with Windows Vista pre-installed. I've got 1 physical HDD, which is partitioned into two drives. On the first half, I have the pre-installed Windows Vista, and on the other I've installed a copy of Windows XP Home edition.

 

When I boot up, I'd like the option to choose which OS I want to boot in. At the moment, since I installed the version of XP, it boots in XP automatically. On my other computer, I have a version of Linux and Windows XP home, and when I boot up it asks me which OS I want to use. (XP was the first installed OS on this machine.) I'd like to be able to do this with the XP/Vista machine too, but I'm not sure how.

 

Thanks!

[maynardvdm]

Hi JonM

 

Welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help.

 

If you press F8 at start up, do you get the option to choose between XP and Vista?

 

In Windows XP

• Right-Click My Computer and click Properties
  
• Click on the Advanced tab and click on Startup and Recovery and click Settings
  
• There you can click Edit to edit the Boot options.
  

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

Also check this link:

 

Windows Vista no longer starts after you install an earlier version of the Windows operating system in a dual-boot configuration

[JonM]

Yep, F8 worked, thanks!

 

Also, is there a way to make it automatically load the OS choice menu, instead of automatically booting in XP if I don't press F8?

[RandyL]

Hi Jon;

If you're in XP just follow the instuctions maynard provided. In Vista the instructions are almost the same to choose the default OS. There is no Edit tab to click though. Instead use the dropdown arrow to choose the default OS.

[maynardvdm]

Hi

 

Download and use this tool:

 

EasyBCD