Dual-Booting Vista and XP*

Are you wanting to try Vista, but don't want (or are not ready to) to give up on XP? Then dual booting XP and Vista is a possible solution for you. Ready to install it?

Before progressing, let's assume you have read (and understand) the instructions about installing Vista on a home computer. It will also be assumed that you have backed up all your important data as well.
As a 'safer' alternative, you may want to try Microsoft's free Virtual PC 2007 program. You can install your copy of Vista and run it as a virtual machine. This way, there is no messing with partitions and boot loaders and such.

Upgrade or Dual-boot?

While Vista can upgrade your current version of XP, you may wish to try a dual-boot configuration. This leaves your XP installation alone and installs Vista in another partition, either an existing one or one you will create just for Vista. Now Vista comes with it's own partitioning tools that can be accessed during setup as run from the Vista bootable DVD. I have never used these myself, preferring Acronis Disk Director to manage my partitions. whatever tool you prefer, you will need a good sized partition, at least 15GB or more, depending on how many programs you will install in Vista later.

Once you have your partition, you can install Vista in one of 2 ways: either start the install from within XP (telling Vista to not perform an upgrade) or you can boot with the Vista DVD, making sure that your BIOS is configured to boot your DVD drive before the hard drive. I prefer to boot from the DVD.

Vista's installation program is fairly straightforward, and if you have installed XP from scratch before, Vista's initial setup screens will be quite familiar. You are presented with a list of partitions to chose from, and once you choose the partition, if you would like to format it or not.

Once Vista is installed, you will notice a boring black & white text screen that presents itself when the PC is restarted. This is Vista's boot manager. You have about 30 seconds to choose between "Earlier version of Windows" (that would be XP) and "Microsoft Windows" (that would be Vista):

Next: Editing the Windows Vista Boot Manager