Dual Booting Vista and XP: Vista installed first.

There are two solutions possible if you prefer to just use one computer, one is to run XP inside Vista running some kind of virtualization software, such Virtual Box or Microsoft’s Virtual PC. Virtualization is a good solution for those who would be using the “other” OS infrequently or for non resource intensive applications. But if you want to run the other OS for an extensive period of time or have application that needs the entire resources of the computer for than dual booting is the way to go.

When you are setting up a new machine with nothing on the hard drive dual booting XP and Vista is fairly simple, always load the older OS first, and newer one after. The reason, the older OS XP, doesn’t know what Vista is, so if you have XP on a computer, its a simple matter to create a new partition on the hard drive and install Vista. The Vista boot manager will recognize XP as “Older Version Of Windows” and list it along with Vista in a DOS screen at boot up and allow you to choose which OS to load.

When you have the newer OS on first, in this case Vista, it takes a bit more work to get XP to play with Vista in a dual boot environment. First off, you do have to determine if your machine can run XP. I previously blogged about issues some people were having when downgrading Vista machines that were manufactured recently and there were no XP drivers written for them. For this post I assume the computer can run XP, the machine I used to implement the installation was 9 month old Dell Inspiron 1420. Dell had all of the XP drivers on a very well laid out Drivers and Downloads section in their support site.

So starting with a stock Inspiron 1420 running Vista, the first procedure is to create an additional partition on the hard drive. To do this I used the built in Vista Disk Management tool, found by right clicking on Computer>Manage>Disk Management. Right click on you primary C drive and select shrink volume. As long as you have a large amount of free space on your C drive Vista will be able to shrink the volume and the create a new volume. If your hard drive is more than half full, you will need to use a third party tool to create a new partition, or you can boot into your Vista Dvd and shrink the volume using a Diskpart. I prefer to use Acronis Disk Director or the Partition utility found in most Linux Live CDs.

Assuming you have created a new volume on which to install XP, at this point you reboot your computer, hit F12 on Dells to go into the one time boot menu, select boot from Cd/Dvd RW and boot into your XP install disk. One problem you may have is that Windows XP will not recognize your hard drive if its a sata drive so you can do 1 of two things. Before loading XP you can boot into your Bios and find the setting for your hard drive setting. You can select to set your sata drive as ide and XP will recognize an Ide drive and install fine, once the bios has been changed. The other option is to load the sata driver using an internal floppy drive or on to a custom install disk using a program called nlite, but that won’t be covered here.

XP will see both partitions and can then be loaded on the new, empty partition. Once you go thought he XP install process XP will be on the E drive. This will be no problem for XP but keep in mind many programs, starting with the XP drivers will want to install on the C drive. Simply change the drive letter on the install path and it should work fine. Now I recommend you install the drivers in generally this order, chipset, audio, graphics, Ethernet,then wireless and the rest.

Now when you restart your machine, you will automatically boot into XP, you need to repair your Vista boot manager so you can use Vista. To do this, you again will need your Vista install Dvd any will do fine, so borrow one if you didn’t get one with your machine. So when the “Install Now” prompt comes up, select “Repair Your Computer”. The next screen will show you a “System Recovery Options” box, it will only see the Vista install, select Vista you will get another “System Recovery Options” box, “Choose a recovery tool” the first choice is “Startup Repair” click this option it will discover and repair the Vista Boot Manager. Restart your machine, now you will boot into Vista.
Now you will need to get a third party app to amend your boot manager to include XP. There are several out there the 2 I recommend are, Vista Boot Pro from Pronetworks, http://www.vistabootpro.org/ and Easy BCD from Neosmart Technologies,http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Either of these will be able to modify your Vista Boot Manager to include XP. I used easy BCD and the operation took all of two minutes. Open the application, go to “Add Remove Entries” under “Add an Entry” under Widows use the drop down menu “Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3″ change the drive to E (or D or F in some cases) to “Windows XP” click “Add Entry” and click save. Reboot your machine, you will be presented with a screen allowing you to boot into either OS.

Your done! Yes it’s much easier to start with XP but that’s not always an option. Of course back up an image of your Vista install using Vista’s backup and Restore if you have Ultimate or Business, if you have any other version of Vista you need a third party application, my own favorite is Acronis True Image. But definitely make sure your backed up before undertaking anything this intrusive. But you’re already backed up right?

Using Vista’s Backup and Restore Center

I recently blogged about my daughters laptop getting infected with one of the many phoney anti-spyware programs out there today PC-Antispyware. In the end we ended up having to reformat reinstall Windows Vista to finally free the machine once and for all of this malady. I would also like to point out an excellent blog I found when trying to research the PC-Antispyware, Bill Mullins blog post on rogue Antispyware programs was very informative about rogue programs out there now and can be found here http://billmullins.wordpress.com/2008/05/04/dont-install-pncantispyware-rogue-security-software/. Bills blog is quite informative and very well done. I recommend you check it out for a number of helpful hints, tools and software programs his homepage is here, http://billmullins.wordpress.com/

Now back to the system restore,that went better than I had originally hoped. In some ways it turned out to be a bit of a Godsend. First let me explain, this computer is not the highest powered machine out there. It was basically a bargain buy at Christmas time from Best Buy, for $599.00 we got a 14.1 inch Gateway 1616 running the AMD mobile Turion at 1.9×2 Ghz, it came with integrated graphics which will use up to 256 MBs of system ram for video use. I upgraded the ram from a pathetic 1 GB to 4Gbs. Ram is cheap and even if the 32 bit system won’t see all 4 Gigs so what, its far better than a stock 1 GB. So performance wasn’t great, although it wasn’t horrible on this machine.

Now however the machine was infected and I doubted it could be fixed by traditional methods. To fix it, I believe I used the term “nuke the bastards” a frustrated comment from one exhausted father, dealing with child’s computer. Fortunately the machine came with a system restore disk, but no disks for drivers or pre-installed software, strange but no big deal. Note I choose to install from the OEM Vista OS disk provided rather than use the restore partition, I wanted a clean install, you see I didn’t want the pre-installed trialware or more accurately crapware that comes with new computer these days. So the re-install went fine, Vista installs fast compared to XP, and in half hour it was done. Next the drivers, I was surprised that more drivers weren’t included with Vista install, as was the case when I installed Vista for the first time on my desktop. So I plugged in the Ethernet from my router and went to the Gateway site were I found a fairly intuitive, and easy to use driver download section. Within an hour or so I had the machine loaded with the latest drivers so then time for service pack 1, which went without a hitch. So now it was time to reinstall the data. Fortunately we had been making incremental backups using Vista’s native backup and restore utility, as would turn out, very fortunate indeed.

I wish I could say this went perfect, but it really didn’t, even though I have 2 excellent books on Vista, I did manage to screw things up the first few tries. First I wanted to restore her precious itunes library. I download the latest version of itunes as I had a data backup on a DVD of her songs , play lists and ratings. Doing this had always worked fine before, when moving to a new computer. So with the fresh install of itunes I tried the DVD and it only installed about one third of the songs, even though I could see all of them. Not good, no not at all. I tried to install the backup on another PC with itunes, same result.

So now my last chance, the backup on an external hard drive, I had made using Vista’s Backup and Restore Center. At first my main problem was trying to be too specific in giving instructions to the program. I tried to restore only specific data, by searching the program and installing all things with the keyword itunes. I got another small amount of songs and metadata but not nearly all of it. I tried the same for pictures with similar results. Frustrated, I was beginning to think this was headed for a total disaster. I tried again, this time selecting to restore the entire contents to the desired drive(c) and let it go. I immediately was queried by the program on how to handle a duplicate file, I told it to just keep the original and not save the second version. This kept happening, I finally noticed the little box to check,”do this with all duplicates” . Now, we were finally getting somewhere!

I took a while, maybe an hour, but in the end after a re-boot, Vista’s Backup and Restore Center had done it. Even her desktop icons were back in place. All photos were restored as well as her entire itunes library, with play list and ratings intact, very cool indeed! A program actually performed as it was supposed to.

As for the Godsend, well that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but with the latest drivers, combined with no crapware, makes for a far better performing machine. It boots quicker than when it was brand new, and is much snappier opening and running programs even after the ram upgrade. It also illustrates one of the older axioms of computing. Unless you have multiple backups, you aren’t backed up. It also highlights a new rule for my daughter and her computer, no passwords for you! I’ll control the administrator account on her machine from now on, I’ll let UAC handle the rest.

Why Macs Suck

Lately it’s very fashionable to be a switcher, switching from a Windows machine to a Mac makes you feel oh so superior. The success of the ipod and the innovation of the iphone have given Apple an opportunity to get people into there slick (all- be-it sterile) stores. The Mac hardware is very attractive looking and many people love the style. The reality though is that for a lot of people, myself included, Macs do in fact, suck. No doubt Mac fan boys and girls bristle at the mention that anyone could be so, so ignorant to suggest such a thing.

Why do I think they suck, easy, I’ve used them. In fact I’ve had three of them in the last five years. Two ibooks and a 12 inch Powerbook, running OS’s 9 to 10.5.1. So let me list these reasons why I gave up on the Mac platform in favor of Windows.

1. The hardware is crap. Looks can be deceiving, pretty on the outside doesn’t translate to quality inside. 2 logic boards and 3 hard drives later these laptops almost cost more in repairs than they did to purchase. And does any one remember the famous Macbook yellow, The early white Macbooks turned a lovely shade of yellow/brown in a few months after they shipped.

2. Upgrading is almost impossible for the home user. With the exception of the Mac Pro, and the new MacBook upgrading a MacBook Pro laptop or iMac is ridiculously difficult. In contrast I recently changed out the hard drive on a older Dell Inspiron 8600 in 5 minutes. When I tried to upgrade the hard drive on the Powerbook it was more like a weekend. Selling shoddy hardware that fails right after the warranty ends and making repairs all but impossible for the home user, great business plan.

3. Peripheral compatibility has always been poor compared to Windows machines, Leopard only makes it worse.

4. Steve Jobs, no question he’s a great salesman and he saved Apple from probably going into bankruptcy. But his well documented arrogance caries on to the whole Mac persona.

5. Many Mac users, arrogant,  smug, cool-aid drinking sycophants.

Staying Safe Online

Do antivirus suites work anymore? With today’s virus and spyware writers having the huge monetary incentive to keep crap from being removed from your machine probably the best antivirus/malware is the end user.Some general rules to live by in today’s computing world are:1.      Keep Windows updated, keep your Automatic Updates on and set for a time your machine is usually running.2.      Keep your Virus and antispyware definitions up to date. 3.      Scan your machine daily, with antivirus and antispyware. Run only one antivirus but use multiple antispyware tools. Generally it’s best to run only one antivirus at a time. However you can run as many antispyware tools as you like. The 3 best known free spyware programs are Ad-aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, and Microsoft Defender. It also makes sense to run a commercial antispyware program such as Spyware Doctor. All of these programs can be had at www.download.com4.      Do most of your computing especially online work as a limited user. Not operating as an administrator is always safer even if you are using a Mac or Linux system.5.      Don’t click on links in an email. Never log on to EBay, PayPal, or any online financial site from a link in an email. Always type in the website manually to go to your bank or EBay account. 6.      If you have teenagers using a family computer always have them log into the computer on a non-administrator account. Consider using Microsoft Windows Steady State program which will undo any changes done to the hard drive by limited users at the next re-boot. This program works great but may be a little on the geeky side. It does take some time to set up properly, but I’ve been playing with it and find it quite remarkable. Its designed to be used on public computers, such as in libraries so at the end of the day the administrator just re-boots the machine and it returns to its pre-configured condition.7.      Use Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, or Opera. Internet Explorer 6 is notoriously insecure and should be upgraded to 7 ASAP. Even IE 7 should only used for windows update on XP. Firefox or Opera are generally less targeted by hackers and mal-ware writers. Firefox is getting more popular and is now becoming a target for exploits more and more.  Use the add on, “No Scripts” which allows users to opt in for sites running scripts. “No Script” disables all scripts on a site until the user allows scripts to run hopefully preventing dangerous java script exploits from unknown or miss typed URLs. Vista users are safer in IE 7 than XP as Vista runs IE 7 in “protected Mode” which attempts to sandbox the browser from the hard drive. IE & also has a fairly effective phishing filter, which notifies the user if the link you clicked on in an email isn’t taking you to the banking site you thought you were going to.8.      Use Windows Vista, if you can. Windows Vista was built with a priority of safe computing being one of Microsoft’s primary goals. Unlike Windows XP which claimed to be safe when first released Vista truly does have a number of features that make you safer. The UAC or User Account Control is a feature similar to account permissions contained in most UNIX based OS’s, that asks for an administrator’s password whenever the user install software, hardware, or changes the system in a major way. This has saved me, it can save you from, “drive by malware attacks” where just browsing to a website with malicious code and infect you without clicking on anything.9.      Use virtual machine software such as Microsoft Virtual PC or similar software from VMware. Another simpler solution is to use Sandbox IE. Sandbox IE allows you to use your browser in a “virtual sandbox” that  protects your computer from malware as long as you don’t save anything to your hard drive.

Vista Impressions UAC Hassle or Godsend

Microsoft released Windows Vista to the general public at the end of January 2007. I first started using Vista back in May of 2007, I installed it on a home built tower with modest but new generation hardware. I installed the middle of the road Vista Home Premium. I’m using a core 2 duo 1.83 ghz Intel processor with 2 gigs of ram, and a ATI Raddeon 1950 video card with 512 mbs of video ram.

Installing Vista was far easier than I expected. it took no more than 20 minutes and it was done. Vista installs and then immediately goes out if connected to the Internet gets all necessary drivers and then it just works. It installs far easier than XP  does and the whole process was very  smooth.

People using Vista for the first time should take advantage of Vista’s ability to be used under a limited user account. Although multiple user accounts are nothing new, they become much more livable for the regular user in Vista. In XP installing a new program or changing major settings to the operating system required the user be logged in as an administrator. With Vista you are able to perform many functions, such as install drivers or new software as a limited user. UAC or user account control will prompt you for administrator  password and then allow you to install the program.

UAC itself has been an object of many complaints about Vista. While it is possible to totally disable the UAC, I feel that would be a mistake. Many of the mal-ware problems suffered by Windows XP users were enabled by the user being logged in as an administrator. UAC prompts the user when a program is being installed, or the system is being modified. This feature already saved me once, one morning when checking my email while half asleep, instead of deleting an email that was obviously spam I opened the email, immediately my screen darkened and UAC asked me for the administrators password, requesting permission to install some piece of software. I woke up at that point, unplugged my Ethernet and ran my spyware and virus scans. Fortunately I didn’t suffer any ill effects from this attack but I am convinced that UAC is a worthwhile improvement in Windows Vista.

There are many other features in Vista that seem small by themselves but in total add up to a very nice experience. Although many corporate users still feel that XP serves their needs and IT departments within  may not want to invest in a large scale upgrade to Vista computers. Home users should feel comfortable upgrading to Vista when the time to upgrade your hardware arrives.

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