Windows Vista Beta

Windows Vista Beta: How to dual-boot Windows XP

and Windows Vista

Update, March 30, 2007: This article was published in June of 2006 when a beta
version of Windows Vista was available for download from Microsoft, which is no
longer the case. However, these instructions still work if you have a PC running
Windows XP and a Windows Vista installation DVD. If you already have Vista
installed, and you want to dual boot XP, go here.

In short, the steps for dual-booting Vista on an XP PC are:

0. Back up ALL your PC's important data.

1. Partition your hard drive. In Windows XP, using the $50 PartitionMagic or
(according to one of our readers) the free GParted Live CD, create a new "primary"
partition to install Vista on. Make it at least 20 gigabytes in size.

2. Install Vista on the new partition. Pop in the Vista CD and point it to your newly-
created partition as the installation destination. Installation will restart your machine at
various points.

3. 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. Thankfully all turned out well: I now have a single dual-boot PC that can
run either Vista or XP.

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.com, or order the
DVD kit to be shipped to you for about 10 bucks. Last time I checked everyone and
their sister was downloading the 3.12 GB file from the Microsoft servers, so for awhile
there they took down the download link and you could only order the DVD kit. 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.
UPDATE: If the download is unavailable on the Microsoft site, give the torrent a try
after you get your Product key. It's an .iso file, which you have to burn to DVD. (So,
obviously, you need a DVD burner.)

Next I started up the install and found that Vista will only install itself on a primary
partition. If you choose the C: drive where XP is already installed? Vista asks if it can
rename your Windows folder "Windows.old." Uh, no thank you Vista. To get dual-
booting to work, you have to create another primary partition where Vista can live
alongside XP in peace and happiness.

Free partitioning utilities (like the one on the XP setup disk) delete all the data on the
disk when they create new partitions. That's not very convenient. Norton's commercial
product called PartitionMagic, which you can purchase at Amazon for $43 (after
rebate), however, can create a new partition out of free space on your C: drive without
killing the rest of the files. That's what you want. UPDATE: Astute reader Barron says
that the GParted Live CD also works and it's free. Thanks Barron!

Using PartitionMagic, I created a "primary" partition on drive C: made up of 20

gigabytes of free space. I assigned the drive letter V: for Vista. When you apply your
partition changes, PM will make you reboot. Then you hold your breath and pray while
PartitionMagic rejigs things on your hard drive. If the gods are smiling upon you, you'll
boot up into XP with a shiny new disk parition all set up. Here's what the
PartitionMagic console looked like after V: was created. (Click to enlarge.)
Note about the screenshot: The newly-created partition, V:, is on the right of C: in Disk
1. I took this screenshot after Vista was installed, so I'm not sure what the ?h? characters
in the disk name are about. In Vista, the disk is called "Vista."

Now, once Windows XP is fully booted up and you can see your new 20GB drive, pop
in the Vista DVD and run the install from there. Choose your newly created V: drive as
the installation location, and let 'er rip. Vista will spend lots of time copying files and
restarting your machine. All goes well in installation-ville, and you'll set up your first
administrative Vista user and go from there.

Note: Vista didn't have the drivers for a whole bunch of the devices on my machine, like
the sound card, video card, USB Wifi adaptor, dialup modem or Ethernet card, so be
prepared to have all the driver disks that came with your computer (you did save your
driver disks, didn't you?) to get your machine fully functioning with Vista.

Now, once you restart your computer, you'll get a choice to boot into XP or Vista. (Click
image to enlarge.)

"Microsoft Windows" refers to Vista, and "Earlier version of Windows" refers to XP.
The default choice is Vista, and you have 25 seconds to make another choice. Otherwise
it boots into Vista automatically. (I'm sure one can change this behavior; something to
research.)

There's much to be discussed regarding Vista, so this is the first of a series of posts that
will do so over the next few weeks.

If you're feeling brave and wildly curious and not afraid to completely destroy your PC
with unstable code, take a stab at a Vista installation and let us know how it goes.
Everyone else? Post your questions and comments about Vista below or send us an
email at tips at lifehacker.com. — Gina Trapani
Geek to Live: Run Windows XP inside Vista with
Virtual PC

by Gina Trapani

You've taken the leap into Windows Vista, but once in awhile, your heart yearns for the
classic features and functionality of XP. Maybe you've got software that doesn't yet
work in Vista, or maybe you just want to see how a web site looks in Internet Explorer
6. You could dual-boot XP and Vista, but switching between operating systems in that
setup takes too much time.

Instead, quickly toggle between Windows versions with an XP virtual machine running
inside Vista using the free Virtual PC 2007. Here's how.

What you'll need

1. A Windows XP setup disc with a license.
2. The free Virtual PC 2007 download.
3. About an hour, depending on how fast your computer is.

Now, lots of lifehackers say that other virtualization software, like VMWare or Parallels
for Windows is better or faster than Virtual PC. That may well be true, but Virtual PC is
free, which is just cheap enough for home use. Virtual PC is best suited for casual users
who fancy an occasional foray into an older version of Windows.

This particular article is for running an XP virtual machine inside Vista, which is almost
guaranteed to work reasonably well. Here's my logic: if your PC is beefed up enough to
run Vista, it'll run XP just fine as a virtual machine.

Virtual PC can be used to run other operating systems inside Windows XP, also - but be
warned: without a fast physical machine with lots of RAM, your virtual machine may
be slow too.
Create a new XP Virtual Machine

Once you've got Virtual PC 2007 downloaded and installed and your XP disc at the
ready, from Virtual PC's Action menu, choose "New Virtual Machine Wizard" and
you're off. Within the VM Wizard, you'll set how much RAM to allocate to the XP
virtual machine, and you'll also set up a new Virtual Hard Drive with a size you set that
XP will use to store data.

The Virtual Machine Wizard, like most Windows wizards, is easy enough to work
through, so I'll spare you the text. To see the details of what I entered for a new XP Pro
install, check out the New Virtual Machine Wizard photo gallery.

New Virtual Machine Wizard

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Once your new VM is installed, insert your XP setup disc into your CD drive. Then,
within Virtual PC, select the XP vm, and hit the Start button.

Install Windows XP

Now, you've got to install Windows XP onto your new virtual partition. If you've ever
set up XP from scratch before, this'll be old hat. To see what it looks like in progress,
check out the photo gallery.

Windows XP Virtual Machine Setup

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You'll be prompted to format a "new partition," which is the virtual hard drive you set
up earlier. Also, you'll be asked to set XP's date and time and other regional settings.
The first time you click inside the XP VM, Virtual PC will attempt to "capture" your
mouse pointer. Once it's inside the VM, you won't be able to move it out of the window
without using a special key combination (Right-Alt, by default.) Here's the initial VPC
prompt about mouse capturing:
This mouse pointer capturing business is really annoying, especially for someone used
to using VNC to remote control computers. Happily using some extras for VPC, we can
stop the Right-Alt madness. More on that later.

I completed XP setup in about an hour on my Acer laptop. Your mileage, as they say,
may vary.

Run your XP virtual machine

Once setup completes, XP will "reboot" and start running inside a window on Vista.
Here's what that looks like:

Now, there are tons of virtual machine settings and properties you can fiddle with to
your heart's content. But before you do that, be sure to install the Virtual Machine
Additions to your XP VM for a few must-have extras.

Install the Virtual Machine Additions

To get extra VPC features like sharing the mouse and folders between guest OS and
host, start up your XP VM, and from the Action menu, choose "Install or Update Virtual
Machine Additions" (the key command is Right-Alt-I). VPC will go through its paces
and prompt you to reboot the XP VM. (Click to enlarge image.)
Once VM Additions are installed, you can move your mouse between your XP VM and
Vista host without having to press Right-Alt to free the pointer. Additionally, you can
share folders from the host PC to the VM. Check out the Settings area to do that, as
pictured (click to enlarge):

While Virtual PC 2007 isn't the best virtualization software ever (I'm still drooling over
Parallels desktop for Mac, with Coherence and Windows support), it's pretty damn good
for free, and it may be just the thing you need for a little retro XP action, fast.
Got any VPC tips, tricks, questions, rants or raves? Share 'em in the comments.

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, likes to switch back to XP once in awhile. Her
semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker.
Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.