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Win 7 and Vista dual boot ideas?

right, so i have win7 rc1 and vista home premium on my new shiny laptop, vista on partition 1 (C) with 100gb and win 7 on partition 2 (D) 300gb.

when i start the comp it dual boots to either no problem but im quite fond of windows 7 now (well compared to vista) and im wondering if theres anyway to make the computer automatically go into windows 7 without asking me on the dual boot screen. and lets say i want to go into vista for some reason, i could press something so it gave me the choice..

as i said its new so it has no files on it so i dont mind jigging stuff around if needs be, but i do need to keep vista as its pre-installed and i do want it in case theres a program witch win 7 cant run or if i havnt got the cash to spend on it when the rc1 expires and im left with out an os. i dont mind kubuntu but i just prefer the versatility of windows based programs that i just cant run on linux with all the faf of vm's and stuff

so any ideas or am i asking the impossible?
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Comments

  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,846 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 14 May 2009 pm31 9:30PM
    This answer is for XP, but I don't think it's changed since:

    Either manually edit boot.ini at the root of the bootable partition (almost certainly on your c: drive), or just run msconfig and pick the boot.ini tab. Change the default= statement to point to the Win7 install instead of the Vista one. If you set the timeout= statement to, say, 5 seconds, the menu will flash up for a short period for the cases when you need to choose Vista instead.
  • 4743hudsonj
    4743hudsonj Posts: 3,298 Forumite
    fwor wrote: »
    This answer is for XP, but I don't think it's changed since:

    Either manually edit boot.ini at the root of the bootable partition (almost certainly on your c: drive), or just run msconfig and pick the boot.ini tab. Change the default= statement to point to the Win7 install instead of the Vista one. If you set the timeout= statement to, say, 5 seconds, the menu will flash up for a short period for the cases when you need to choose Vista instead.

    thankyou, thats exactly what i was thinking but ive never done it so didnt even know if its possible.
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  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 4,466 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    You can use EasyBCD to do it quite easily.
  • 4743hudsonj
    4743hudsonj Posts: 3,298 Forumite
    anewhope wrote: »
    You can use EasyBCD to do it quite easily.

    id rather stick to the other method, i have the time down to 3 second but i just want to confirm how to make it "point" (as fwor put it) to windows 7, i have a good idea but i might as well make sure and ask
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  • fwor
    fwor Posts: 6,846 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I usually do these things by example, but I don't have a PC here that uses the Windows bootloader - they all use GRUB.

    I think all you do is copy the complete path of the Win7 install from the "Operating Systems" section and paste it after the default=

    Fortunately it's one of those things that you can get wrong and not end being unable to boot...
  • 4743hudsonj
    4743hudsonj Posts: 3,298 Forumite
    fwor wrote: »
    I usually do these things by example, but I don't have a PC here that uses the Windows bootloader - they all use GRUB.

    I think all you do is copy the complete path of the Win7 install from the "Operating Systems" section and paste it after the default=

    Fortunately it's one of those things that you can get wrong and not end being unable to boot...

    got it working, works a dream


    thankyou!
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  • id rather stick to the other method, i have the time down to 3 second but i just want to confirm how to make it "point" (as fwor put it) to windows 7, i have a good idea but i might as well make sure and ask

    The reason I suggested that utility was because Windows Vista and 7 don't use boot.ini, they use a different way which can be more complex and easy to get wrong, whereas that program can do it in just a few clicks..

    Edit: All's well that end's well, glad you got it sorted out.
  • 4743hudsonj
    4743hudsonj Posts: 3,298 Forumite
    anewhope wrote: »
    The reason I suggested that utility was because Windows Vista and 7 don't use boot.ini, they use a different way which can be more complex and easy to get wrong, whereas that program can do it in just a few clicks..

    Edit: All's well that end's well, glad you got it sorted out.

    yeh thanks anyway, i got a mate to do it while i look at his hjt log. collective minds ftw!
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  • butterbeanmash
    butterbeanmash Posts: 284 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 15 May 2009 am31 10:09AM
    Just in case anyone else is wondering, it's one heck of a lot easier to do this;

    Start >
    Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings (left hand side) > [UAC-continue] > Advanced > [Startup and Recovery] Settings

    and set which OS boots, and how long you have the choice for. No third party programs or manual registry edits.

    Hope this helps.
  • 4743hudsonj
    4743hudsonj Posts: 3,298 Forumite
    Just in case anyone else is wondering, it's one heck of a lot easier to do this;

    Start >
    Computer > Properties > Advanced System Settings (left hand side) > [UAC-continue] > Advanced > [Startup and Recovery] Settings

    and set which OS boots, and how long you have the choice for. No third party programs or manual registry edits.

    Hope this helps.

    i think thats what my mate did

    it looked easy enough
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