Question about dual boot

phototim

phototim

phototim

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8 Jul 2009
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If I can afford a new laptop, I want to have it dual booting xp and windows 7. Firstly, how do I do this? In simplistic terms, can I have 7 installed, then restart with the xp disk in and it'll ask me if I want to have a dual boot setup?

Secondly and the main reason for this thread...

If I have programmes installed in say xp mode, am I right in assuming that they will not be available at all in 7 mode? I.e. as far as windows 7 would be concerned, those programs wouldn't exist and so wouldn't update over the internet etc etc. With this question in mind, what happens with the antivirus software? Will that need to be installed on both the xp boot and the 7 boot?

Thanks in advance...
 
You need to have 2 partitions.
Installed Win7 on one and XP on the other.

Programs you installed on either OS run independently.

If I have programmes installed in say xp mode, am I right in assuming that they will not be available at all in 7 mode? Correct but you will be able to browse the 2nd partion.

Yes, install antivirus on both installs.
 
Is there a reason you don't want to use, say, xp mode from within 7? (assuming you'll be using professional or higher)

You'd have win 7 installed on one partition and win xp on the other, but not in that order :D
Method of least pain will be to install windows xp first on one partition, then windows 7 on the other. Windows 7 will detect the xp install and update its BCD accordingly.

As above for the rest, antivirus for both, applications are generally independent..
 
ok, thanks exactly what I wanted to know. Completely forgot about the partition thing, seems obvious now. So I guess when you say browsing the partition, that means I can access my documents and whatnot from each OS.
 
XP mode in win 7? Does that just allow you to run xp programs in win 7 without having xp installed? Will the xp programs still integrate with win 7? For example, when you select the option to "open with" in win 7, will it give you the option to select the xp programs?
 
It's just a well made virtual machine with windows xp pro installed. IIRC, when you install applications within the XP Mode virtual machine, you'll be then able to access them in windows 7 via a direct shortcut. So, you click the shortcut to your 'xp mode' program from your win 7 start menu, then it loads up the VM and your program with it.

What programs do you need to run in xp? I personally havent had a problem running anything in 7, but I'm aware there are many programs that aren't entirely compatible.
 
ok this is slightly more in depth than I thought.

Lets just say that I want to run a couple of programmes (I'm pretty certain they won't run in win 7) that I don't, for whatever reason, want to access the internet to update. My reasoning was to install them on xp mode and then when I'm running that and using the programmes I will have my wireless turned off. Then when I want to use my computer normally with the internet I just boot up win 7 and the computer doesn't even know these programmes are there...make sense? That then got me thinking about the anti-virus, but that question has been answered.
 
Well, IIRC, you shouuld be able to configure the VM not to allow access to network hardware in your XP install. So anything you run in XP mode wouldnt have any access to the internet, but windows 7 will maintain its own access.

If you post the programs you want to use, then I imagine someone here will have some experience on whether it runs in windows 7 or not :)
 
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