Dual boot windows xp vista upgrade

Installation will restart your machine at various points. Choose your operating system on boot. Once Vista is installed on your newly-created partition, on boot up, you'll get a choice to start XP or Vista. The default is Vista. However, this can be changed using Vista's boot manager.

When you're up and running with Windows Vista, be sure to check our our Vista upgrade power tips. The original article appears below for posterity, and it's still got relevant screenshots and other info for those of you looking to dual-boot XP and Vista. Because I'm a sucker for a good-looking operating system in beta, I downloaded and installed the publicly-available Beta 2 of the next generation of Windows, called Vista, this weekend.

Now, Microsoft says only developers, testers and those "experienced in PC troubleshooting" should install this on a spare machine. But I'm young, stupid and reckless so I installed Vista on my main PC which is the only machine I have souped up enough to handle the Vistage.

I didn't want to let go of XP, though, in case everything went to hell. I don't recommend you be as dumb as I was, but in case you are and you want to dual-boot XP and Vista?

Here's how I got it done. First you have to download the Beta 2 of Vista available at Microsoft. Last time I checked everyone and their sister was downloading the 3. I got in on the download early which took me several hours to complete. Don't do the download with your browser, folks - use a download manager or wget. It's a monster file and you will hate yourself if it fails halfway in and you have to start from the beginning.

It's an. So, obviously, you need a DVD burner. The following table shows which editions of Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7. If you're running this edition of Windows Vista. You can in place upgrade to this edition of Windows 7.

Windows Vista Home Basic. Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Ultimate. Windows Vista Home Premium. Windows Vista Business. Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate. Windows Vista Ultimate. Windows 7 Ultimate. Office Office Exchange Server. Not an IT pro? Resources for IT Professionals. Sign in. United States English. Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. The company that developed the application may no longer be around or the cost to upgrade is too high.

In my case, I have a lot of classic PC games that will not run at all under Windows Vista no matter how I configure the compatibility options. In order to play my old games I need to install Windows XP. However, I am not exactly ready to give up all of the advances in Windows Vista just so that I can play my old games once in a while. The answer is to dual boot Windows Vista and XP. Dual booting Windows XP and Vista on the same computer will allow you to select from a boot menu what operating sytem you want to run.

This menu is shown right after you power on your computer. Setting up both Windows XP and Vista on one computer can be a little ticky depending what operating system you have installed first. The next two sections will help you configure both versions on your computer, depending on what OS you have installed first:. If you want to dual boot XP and Vista and XP is already installed on your computer you will not have to do much work to dual boot vista.