Vista/XP Dual System

[speedchick]

Other half has a computer where the hd has been partitioned, and one half is running XP Pro, and the other half Vista Home Premium.

when he turns the computer on, unless he hits the button to tell it to boot into XP, it automatically boots into Vista, is there anyway of telling the computer that he wants XP to be the default boot up, or will Vista always think it take priority?

Many thanks

[Man-At-Arms]

what is being done in the bootloader ?

not sure about Shista Vista
but in XP, click on Start and Run
type msconfig
and have a look at the preferred partition in the BOOT.INI tab

Edited by Man-At-Arms on Monday 20th July 15:19

[Liszt]

Man-At-Arms said:

what is being done in the bootloader ?

not sure about [s]Shista[/s] Vista
but in XP, click on Start and Run
type msconfig
and have a look at the preferred partition in the BOOT.INI tab

Should be able to do the same in vista.

[LOGiK]

"msconfig" into the run section

confirm admin crap
in the boot tab, highlight windows XP
set as default

there's a few things to play with there. I suggest a 5-10 second timeout, 3 (default) is too little.

[speedchick]

thanks chaps, I printed it off and left it with him, and he has managed to do it, so now it boots into XP.

But does anyone know how he renames them? the XP one is calling it self 'an older version of windoze'

[LOGiK]

You have to use BCDEDIT.exe for that which isn't so straightforward.

Run command prompt as administrator, type in bcdedit.exe

that will give you a list including your two operating systems (XP and Vista)

You have to take down the identifier key of the XP loader entry, then type bcdedit -set {ID key} DESCRIPTION "Windows XP"

The ID key will be a bunch of mixed numbers and letters. I'd say it wasn't worth it. There might be an easier way, if so I don't know of it.

I miss the ease of the XP bootloader.

[recalluk]

May I suggest : http://download.cnet.com/EasyBCD/3000-2094_4-10556...

MILES easier.

[LOGiK]

XP was miles easier full stop, just edit boot.ini by hand, no messing about with programs or anything.

[recalluk]

LOGiK said:

XP was miles easier full stop, just edit boot.ini by hand, no messing about with programs or anything.

Yupola .. nice easy text. But I am sure MS have a wonderful reason ....... not.

[LOGiK]

I tried using the XP bootloader to load vista and win7

DOES NOT WORK.

Oh it kicks in the OS fine, then it just reboots.

Instead I now use the bios bootloader with separate HD's.

[recalluk]

LOGiK said:

I tried using the XP bootloader to load vista and win7

DOES NOT WORK.

Oh it kicks in the OS fine, then it just reboots.

Instead I now use the bios bootloader with separate HD's.

Correct because XP Bootloader is older than the new BCD system in W7/Vista so it cant actually read it as it is not aware of it. The correct offical way to do this is to install XP first then vista and allow the vista bootloader to handle it. Handy if you only have one disk.

Had same issue running 2003/2007 on my test lab machine.

But as you have identified alterations using BCD Edit are a complete pain, hence why so many new tools such as Easy BCD are popping up.

[speedchick]

Thank you all, he followed LOGik's directions, and has managed to change it, and so is now a happy chappy (which means a big thank you from me too!)