Windows vista/XP switch?

Question

I recently upgraded my laptop from Win XP to 7 and found out that the majority of my games no longer work as they are not compatible with Win 7. Is there anyway to install win XP or Vista while still keeping Win 7 so i can just switch between them whenever i want?

btw i have already tried starting the games in compatibility mode but it still doesn't work

Answer 1

Great article here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

Answer 2

You can dual-boot the 2; meaning you'd select which one to boot into each time you turn on or restart your pc. There are plenty of great guides out there to setting up a dual boot system if you don't already know the ins and outs. A quick google will find what you need.



The easiest dual-boot here would be Vista and 7, although if a game has issues with Windows 7 it's unlikely to be trouble-free on Vista. For compatibility I'd recommend 7 and XP, however the dual boot here is a little more annoying as XP uses Microsoft's legacy bootloader instead of the new BCD.



It's not too tricky; just requires setting up a few partitions and managing the bootloader yourself; you can choose between using legacy, bcd, or a third-party such as grub or burg. As I said google around, it's totally do-able!

Answer 3

You can create a partition and install Windows XP on it.



1. Defrag your computer. Just type "defrag" into the start menu.

2. Open up disk management. Just type it into the start menu and then click on Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions

3. Shrink the current volume by 30 or so less GB to create 30GB of unallocated space (You just need enough to install WinXP, the programs/games can be installed on your default drive). Do this by right clicking it and clicking shrink.

4. Right click the new block of unallocated space and format it. Select NTSC, and leave everything else as default.



Now all you need to do is install Windows XP onto that drive and you're good to go.

Answer 4

yeah dual boot is what you want, but if you install xp after win 7 it'll overwrite the boot loader and as it knows nothing about win 7 (as XP was 10 years prior to 7) it won't give you a boot menu to load 7 from , it'll go straight into XP.



If the games aren't particularly graphics intensive you could always install VMWare or Virtualbox and run a virtual machine inside of win 7.

Answer 5

http://webtrickz.com/how-to-install-windows-xp-over-windows-7-in-a-dual-boot/



Good luck!