Dual-Booting Vista and XP (Part 2)

Editing the Windows Boot Manager

"Oh this is easy" you say. "Just open boot.ini in NotePad, make the changes and save."

Not so fast! Vista has done away with boot.ini and now has something way more complex: the Boot Configuration Data store.

Rather than go into lengthy details at this time, there's an explanatory FAQ here and a Microsoft document here.

Enter VistaBootPRO*!

VistaBootPRO is a graphical interface to the command line tool bcdedit.exe. It allows one to make changes to the Windows boot manager such as boot order, time to boot, OS listing name and more.

It has a simple, tabbed interface (click on the thumbnail to get a closer look):

As you can see, its pretty straightforward to use. One nice feature is that, if you decide you no longer want Vista, you simply go to the "Change settings" tab and click "Delete Vista Boot Loader!". This 'reactivates' boot.ini in the XP partition and when you reboot, Vista's Boot Manager is gone and you will boot directly into XP. You can then format the Vista partition if you wish. Alternatively, you can access VistaBootPRO from within XP and accomplish the same task.

Dual-booting Vista and XP could not be easier!

Note regarding Vista's Bootloader: Each time you install a version of Windows, it rewrites the MBR to call its own boot loader. If you install Windows Vista as a second operating system on a PC where Windows XP is already installed, the Windows Vista boot menu incorporates the options from the older boot menu. But if you install a fresh copy of Windows XP on a system that is already running Windows Vista, you’ll overwrite the MBR with one that doesn’t recognize the Windows Vista Boot Loader. To repair the damage, open a Command Prompt window
in the older operating system and run the following command from the Windows Vista DVD, substituting the letter of your drive for <d> here.
<d>:\Boot\ Bootsect.exe –NT60 All

When you restart, you should see the Windows Vista menu. To restore the menu entry for your earlier version of Windows, open an elevated Command Prompt and enter this command:

Bcdedit –create {ntldr} –d “Menu description goes here”

Substitute your own description for the placeholder text. The next time you start your computer, the menus should appear as you intended.
(from "Windows Vista Inside Out" from Microsoft Press)

This page last updated: 19 April, 2008