Dual boot 2 versions of windows xp

[ppabel1]

Does anybody know if it is possible to dual boot a machine with two instances of windows XP? instead of say windows 2000 and windows xp

Paul

 

[vacunita]

Very Possible.It's the same process as with any dual boot setup, install one first and then the other. Since they are both XP's the order of install is irrelevant. And The second XP you install would create the bootloader.

The only thing to watch for is when installing the second one to select a different partition to install to. so as to not overwrite the previous install.

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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[rvnguy]

ppabel1,

While I have not done this, I can not envision why you couldn't. I would have to wonder why you would want to.

MS will of course want you to have two unique copies and this is the only place that might be a problem if you try to load two instances of the same. Although, while only one instance can run on the CPU at a time, I think you are within the EULA restrictions.

Try it and post back with what you find and possibly what benefits you see from this.


rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[rvnguy]

ppabel1,

Just remembered, that I did this once to save files on a broken install.


rvnguy
"I know everything..I just can't remember it all

 

[ppabel1]

excellent news, just as i thought.

The reason i wish to do this is because a kid at the school where i work would like to bring in his own laptop and logon to the network.

I however am not happy for him to do this with a machine that could potentialy be infeced with spyware and viruses etc...

Therfore i can dual boot a machine and he can logon to the network using one instance of windows xp and i wont let him know what the password is for the local account and it will have the schools antivirus software running on that instance. he can then go home and logon to the other version and do whatever he likes.

many thanks for the quick response


Paul

 

[vacunita]

That would work, but you would have to tell the kid that at home he has to select the firts option and then at school he must select the second option from the bootscreen. To make it easier on him you can go into the boot.ini file and alter it so intsead of reading
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 1"
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional 2"

it reads

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP For School"
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP for Home"

or something like that.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.