Installing Windows xP after Windows Vista / 7

Requirements before proceeding:-
1) Installtion CD (and CD key/ serial number) of Windows xP.
2) Installtion DVD (and DVD key / serial number) of Winows vista.
3) Make sure that AC power supply is continuously available during the process.
4) Print the instructions if you feel it necessary.

Step 1:- Create a back-up of your all data (e.g. documents,pictures,software installers (installers not installed files!!!), etc.) whatever you don't want to loose in case of a problem. You can do it by just copy and paste operation to any external hard-disk or you can even burn them into DVDs or CDs.

Step 2:-Install xp as usual (preferably install it in the drive-partition other than that with vista or 7. For knowing how to create drive partitions, refer to Help and Support in Control panel. I hope there you should get enough information.)

Step 3:- When you will reboot the system after finishing the xP installation, you will see only xP and no trace of Vista. You don't need to worry at all if this occurs. Actually, this occurs because the boot-loader of xP does not recognise Vista (as it is a new Operating system which is a succesor to xP.). But Vista's boot-loader can recognize xP and we will make use of this fact in our process.

Step 4:- Insert the vista DVD and reboot. When asked for pressing any key to boot from CD or DVD... do it. In the window where it asks for installing vista, in the same window in lower side there is an option of correcting/reapiring the problems. When ypu find it , click to access it. It will automatically find your vista installation. Select you vista partition and continue. In the next window you will see an option of Reapairing start-up problems automatically. Select it and reboot after the process finishes when it asks so (In the log window you should see some repair has taken place).

Step 5:- When you reboot your vista should boot normally and this time you will see no trace of xP.

Step 6:- Editing boot.ini.
In Vista, the boot.ini is not editable directly, as the file itself is hard to locate, so we will be modifying it through "Boot Configuration Data Store Editor" bcdedit.exe:
a) first open a command prompt with administrative privilages (right-click and choose "run as administrator")

*Note:- the following 2 answers from bcdedit for each item are acceptable:
"The Operation Completed Successfully"
"The Specified Entry Already Exists"

b) Be sure to type each line carefully (replace C in the first line with the drive containing your Vista installation) (Just as an explanation, the loader type for XP is an NT Loader, hence the use of ntldr) :
bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=C:
bcdedit –set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit –displayorder {ntldr} –addlast
bcdedit -set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP"

c) This will correctly add XP to your boot sequence, and even name it properly instead of "Earlier Version of Windows".

d) the displayorder line also allows the entry to be visible under the advanced settings of your computer properties.

e) Vista is the default boot, if you wish to change this to XP it can be done by setting {current} to addlast, or under the computer
-> properties -> advanced settings.

f) If all done properly, XP and Vista will dual boot properly!

enjoy!!!

Note:-The above process is tested well with vista and should also work for Windows 7.You have to just read Vista as 7 in above explanation.