It’s only been a month since Windows Vista’s public release hence compatibility issues with system drivers and software are to be expected, i.e. your favourite game or image editing application may not work in Windows Vista yet.

Fortunately, you can have both Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same system, by setting up your PC to dual-boot.

Assuming that Windows XP is installed first, create a new partition on your hard drive:

1. Right-click on My Computer and choose Manage.

2. Create a new partition using Disk Management.

Next, install Windows Vista to the new partition using Custom Install - a dual-boot menu will be automatically created.

Things are a little bit trickier if you start with Windows Vista first, e.g. your new PC comes with Windows Vista and you want to add Windows XP as an option during bootup. You can format your PC, install a clean copy of Windows XP and follow the steps above or make use of bootsect.exe as discussed in our forum. Your other alternative is to use the free VistaBootPRO to make chanegs to the Windows Vista Boot Configuration Data registry as outlined here.