Windows Vista Dual Boot (After Install)
I can't get Vista to work with a few of my favorite image/video editing programs, namely Ulead MediaStudio Pro 7. Normally, this would be a prompt for me to upgrade to the most recent version -- version 8. However, short of downloading a demo version, there's not really any assurances that MediaStudio Pro 8 will work either. Vista's own application compatibility testing also states there are known issues with the versions of Nero and Ulead PhotoImpact I've been using. So, I guess I'll dual-boot...
However, dual-booting isn't as "easy" as it was in Windows XP. The old-fashioned boot.ini is gone. Now, in Vista, you're dealing with BCD Stores (Boot Configuration Data) stores. I read up on it, and it seems to be a command line utility - that appears to be somewhat simple. Though, the documentation probably makes the application more confusing than it really is.
After I realized I was spending way too much time on trying to figure out the right sequence of commands to do what I needed to do, I found VistaBootPro from PROnetworks. It's quick and easy, as you can see...
Hopefully, you have a partition set up for Vista and one for XP. It's simply a matter of telling the application you'd like to add a Windows Legacy OS (described as Windows XP Pro SP2) on whatever drive you have partitioned for Windows XP.
While Vista will automatically add a boot menu for you if you're adding it to a new partition, there is no way to induce it to detect operating systems you've added after you've installed Windows Vista without using the command-line BCDEdit supplied with Vista - or VistaBootPro.
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