Preparation

First, gather your WinXP and Vista installation discs. If your computer only came with a recovery partition (a hard drive section with its own letter, such as D:) for Vista reinstallation, verify that it has a file called Bootsect.exe, possibly in a folder called Boot. You might first need to uncover hidden and system files in Vista by clicking Start, Control Panel, Appearance And Personalization, Folder Options, and then clicking the View tab. Check Show Hidden Files And Folders, uncheck Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended), and click Apply and OK.

Next, gather your network and Internet settings and passwords so you can set up an online connection on the new OS. Press the Windows logo key and the PAUSE key to find your Workgroup name (such as MSHOME).

In the Control Panel, click Network And Internet, Network And Sharing Center, and Manage Network Connections. Right-click Local Area Connection or Wireless Network Connection, depending on how your computer connects to the Internet, and select Properties. Highlight Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. If there are IP (Internet Protocol) addresses such as 10.89.122.251 under the General tab, write them all down. These include IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, and one or two DNS (Domain Name System) Servers. If applicable, right-click Wireless Network Connection and click Status. Write down the SSID (Service Set Identifier) and then click Wireless Properties and the Security tab to learn the type of encryption (such as WEP [Wired Equivalency Privacy]) the network uses. You’ll need to know your own wireless pass-phrase, however.

Next, get the latest drivers for your PC so you can use it with the new OS. On your computer or motherboard manufacturer’s Web site, download WinXP drivers for the chipset, the LAN (local-area network) card, the storage controller (which might be labeled RAID, or redundant array of independent disks), the onboard graphics if applicable, and the integrated sound chip if you use it. If you have add-in cards for graphics, sound, networking (including wireless), or other functions, visit their manufacturers’ sites for the appropriate drivers. Burn everything to a CD-R (CD-recordable) or DVD.

With certain motherboards, there’s another trick to installing WinXP on a SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drive. You’ll need to download a special SATA driver, often with “F6” or “Floppy” in its name, from the motherboard manufacturer. Follow the site’s instructions to transfer the files to a diskette. If your PC has no floppy drive, add one or install WinXP on a second hard drive with an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) interface. Finally, back up all of your personal data.

Adding WinXP To Vista

We had a WinXP Pro disc with Service Pack 3 ready to install on a Vista SP1 computer. We’ll assume your PC has Vista on a single hard drive partition labeled C:. Let’s shrink that partition to make room for WinXP.

1 Click Start, Control Panel, System And Maintenance, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and Disk Management. Right-click the C: drive and select Properties. Write down the Used Space figure, such as 63.4GB; this tells you how much data the partition holds. Click OK.

2 Next, right-click C: and choose Shrink Volume. Your goal is to decrease the number in the Enter The Amount Of Space To Shrink In MB field so that the Total Size After Shrink In MB equals the Used Space number you wrote down, plus an extra chunk of space for data storage and updates for your existing OS.

On our PC, we had a 240GB partition with 63.4GB of data on it. We wanted to leave an extra 50GB (113.4GB total) for Windows updates and any data we saved later while using Vista. We set the Enter The Amount Of Space To Shrink In MB to 132000, which left 113391 in the Total Size After Shrink In MB field, and then we clicked Shrink. This left an Unallocated section of the hard drive totaling 128.91GB. This free space became our WinXP partition later on.

3 Insert your WinXP installation disc and reboot the PC. At the prompt, press a key to launch Windows Setup from the CD.

4 After Windows Setup stops loading files from the CD, press ENTER to set up Windows XP and F8 to agree to Microsoft’s terms.

5 Next, you should see a list of the partitions on your hard drive, with Unpartitioned Space on it the size of the Unallocated Space you made in Disk Management when you shrank the existing C: drive. If you see this information, skip ahead to Step 6.

If your SATA hard drive partitions don’t appear in the box, you’ll need to provide a SATA driver on a diskette as mentioned earlier. Press F3 twice to quit Setup. At the bootup prompt, press a key to launch Setup from the CD once again. Immediately, you’ll see a message at the bottom of the screen reading, Press F6 If You Need To Install A Third-Party SCSI Or RAID Driver; do so.

nsert the floppy disk and then press S. If a list of drivers appears, select and load each of them in turn so that Windows will have the one it needs. When you’re finished, press ENTER to continue and then press ENTER and F8.

6 In the partition list, press the Down arrow key to highlight Unpartitioned Space and then press C to create a new partition in it. By default, WinXP will use the entire capacity of the unallocated storage space; press ENTER to accept this.

7 Next, arrow down to the new partition, which may be labeled E: Partition3 [New (Raw)]. Press ENTER to begin the installation of WinXP there. When Setup asks about the way it should format the new partition, choose the NTFS (NT File System) and Quick option.

Your PC will restart a few times as Windows installs. When it prompts you to Press Any Key To Boot From CD, however, don’t do anything.

8 During the installation process, WinXP will ask you to enter your name and other things. Later, you’ll need to enter the workgroup you wrote down earlier. Finally, click OK twice to let WinXP adjust your screen resolution.

In the last stages of installation, click Next, Help Protect My PC By Turning On Automatic Updates Now, Next again, the name you want to use for your primary user account, Next, and Finish.

9 When WinXP’s Desktop appears, it’s time to install the motherboard chipset drivers from the CD you made. If Windows tells you it needs to reboot, let it.

10 Afterward, install the driver for your network device, such as the motherboard’s LAN port or a wireless adapter. Network setup is beyond the scope of this article, but you can refer to “Use Windows XP’s Wireless Network Setup Wizard” on page 28 of the September 2007 issue of Smart Computing or “WinXP Networking Wizards & Settings” on page 76 of the August 2006 issue of the Smart Computing Reference Series. Both are available to subscribers online at www.smartcomputing.com.

11 Once your WinXP installation is online, click Start, All Programs, and Windows Update. You’ll need to run Windows Update several times, rebooting as necessary, until no more important security updates are available.

12 Speaking of security, it’s time to install anti-malware software. A downside of a dual-boot system is that antivirus vendors consider each OS a separate PC. You may need to buy another license for your anti-malware utility (many Internet security suites come with three PC licenses) or download a freebie such as Avast! (www.avast.com) or AVG (free.avg.com).

13 During bootup, there was supposed to be a menu asking you which version of Windows you prefer to use. However, because we installed WinXP after Vista, the latter’s boot-up files have been disrupted. Let’s fix that with help from Microsoft’s Knowledge Base (support.microsoft.com/kb/919529).

One way to fix the problem is to reinstall Vista on its existing partition. However, you’ll lose any personal data stored there, and you’ll have to reinstall all of your Vista applications if they reside on the same partition. If you want to do this, insert your Vista installation disc and reboot. Press a key to launch Vista’s setup and then follow the instructions to reinstall it.

The less intrusive way to resurrect Vista and set up a dual-boot menu is to type five lines in WinXP’s Command Prompt. This shouldn’t disrupt any of your data or applications.

14 In WinXP, you’ll need to uncover some info about your hard drive. Enter Disk Management and jot down the drive letters of the WinXP and Vista partitions, such as C: and D:, respectively; the active partition (listed in the Status column), which might be either C: or D:; and the CD/DVD drive, which might be E:.

15 Next, insert your Vista installation disc (if you have one) into your DVD drive, and close any windows the disc launches. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and Command Prompt.

At the command line, type the following, replacing E with your CD/DVD drive letter (or your computer’s recovery partition with the Vista installation files on it), D with your Vista drive letter, and F with the active partition’s drive letter. The first two commands may cause error messages, but you can ignore them. Be sure to include all spaces. Press ENTER after each line.

E:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All

D:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d “WinXP”

D:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=F:

D:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr

D:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

(NOTE: If you need to run these commands in Vista later, click Start, All Programs, and Accessories. Right-click Command Prompt and choose Run As Administrator.)

16 Restart your PC. Soon, you should see a black menu with white text. Press ENTER to select Microsoft Windows Vista so you can make sure the OS launches correctly. By default, Vista will boot if you don’t make a decision in 30 seconds.

17 If Vista’s Desktop appears, restart the computer and launch WinXP from the dual-boot menu by selecting Earlier Version Of Windows. If WinXP boots correctly, congratulations! You’ve made a working dual-boot PC.

18 It’s time to install the remaining WinXP drivers, such as for the graphics and sound cards. Install the applications you want to use under WinXP, too. However, first check Disk Management to verify the drive letter of the OS you’re currently using. If it isn’t C:, which may often be the case, you’ll have to adjust the file path of every application you install, such as to D: or E: instead of the default C:.

19 If you want to decrease the 30-second wait before the dual-boot menu starts the default OS, or change the default to WinXP, press the Windows logo and the PAUSE keys. Click the Advanced tab and then the Settings button under Startup And Recovery. Adjust the System Startup settings and then click OK.

by Marty Sems