XP & Vista Boot Options

  • Thread starter Thread starter Andy Roberts
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A

Andy Roberts

I have a dual boot system whereby I have 2 disk partitions - one with XP Pro
and one with Vista Ultimate.

I want to continue using XP Pro as my main operating system until I get up
to speed with Vista. When I boot my machine, the Windows Boot Manager has
XP and Vista operating systems (XP is referred to as an earlier version of
windows) listed, with Vista as the default OS. The timer counts down and
unless you select the other OS then Vista loads by default. I want to set
XP as the default. I've looked in the boot.ini file for xp and the boot
manager for vista but each only lists the respective OS.

How can I set this?

Andy Roberts
 
Andy Roberts said:
I have a dual boot system whereby I have 2 disk partitions - one with XP
Pro and one with Vista Ultimate.

I want to continue using XP Pro as my main operating system until I get up
to speed with Vista. When I boot my machine, the Windows Boot Manager has
XP and Vista operating systems (XP is referred to as an earlier version of
windows) listed, with Vista as the default OS. The timer counts down and
unless you select the other OS then Vista loads by default. I want to set
XP as the default. I've looked in the boot.ini file for xp and the boot
manager for vista but each only lists the respective OS.

How can I set this?

Andy Roberts
Click to expand...

The easiest way to do this would be to download and install Vista Boot Pro.

http://www.vistabootpro.org/
 
Control Panel/System/Advanced system settings/Advanced Tab/{Startup and
Recovery section}/Settings/Default operating system (choose)
 
Thanks Maxwell

I've already tried this and there is only one os available to choose from.

Andy
 
Then perhaps something else "ain't right" with your dual boot setup.
You didn't, by chance, modify/edit any of those files you were looking at,
did you?
Try the other suggestion of Vista Boot Pro.
 
Since Vista does not use boot.ini, you cannot set XP as the default from
within Vista.
 
Vista does not use the boot.ini file so you would not have a non-Vista OS
showing as an option. All is normal.
 
After I added a second HDD to my XP Home Desktop system and I have installed
Vista RC2 on it and I have no trouble from within Vista changing the default
boot system/drive or timeout value using
ContorlPanel/System/Advasnced.../Startup...
 
You should have both Vista and earlier version available. Hopefully, you
will be able to fix things using VistaBootPro as recommended earlier. You
should be able to set the default and time there.
 
Max wrote:
"Control Panel/System/Advanced system settings/Advanced Tab/{Startup and
Recovery section}/Settings/Default operating system (choose)"

Colin wrote:
"Vista does not use the boot.ini file so you would not have a non-Vista OS
showing as an option."

Colin:

It should show "Earlier version of Windows" as an option, which is what the
OP wants (at least it does on mine).
 
If 'earlier version of Windows' is XP, and there is only one entry in
boot.ini, selecting the 'earlier ...' as the default it will default into
XP after the set time. If more than one earlier version, the boot.ini
entries will be shown after the default time, and the boot.ini default
system will boot after it's default time.

I have set up several both ways, and with both systems as default and it has
always worked the same. I do not let Vista set up the XP system which I
have disconnected, but adding XP to the Vista boot with VistaBootPro has
worked this way.
 
But the OP wants to make XP the default, not Vista.

Colin:

What OP wants is to boot his computer, walk away, and have the computer boot
into XP, not into Vista.

That will happen as follows:
Vista's boot mgr default will be set to "Earlier version of Windows".
And if the default in the boot.ini file is also set to XP as the default, he
will have what he wants.
 
As I stated I have absolutly no trouble selecting XP as the default when I
used Vista to select the selection default, infact that is how I have it set
up andit works every time.
 
On Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:09:03 -0700, "Colin Barnhorst"

Boot into Vista and then try it.

It shows up from the vista side and you will be able to set the
default there.
 
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