Dear CNET members,

Happy Friday! Just a quick announcement before we get started on this week's topic on dual booting Windows XP and Vista.

If you haven't already checked it out, I'm happy to announce the Samsung forum on CNET! Samsung and CNET have teamed up to create a forum just for you to discuss, ask for help, share tips, experiences, and how-to's on all Samsung HD products. In addition to your presence, this special forum is also staffed by fulltime Samsung employees. So if you have questions on Samsung HD products or need some help with everything from selecting the right Samsung TV to setting it up, or need some buying advice, I'm sure Anthony (aka Samsung_HD_Tech) or Louis (aka Mr_Samsung) working alongside our wonderful community members, will be more than happy to give you a helping hand! Be part of the discussion and check out the Samsung forum. Now let's get started with Jay, who wants to know if he can run both Windows XP and Vista on the same computer.

The first answer for you, Jay, is yes, you can dual boot two Windows operating systems on one computer. However, there are several ways of accomplishing this, depending on how you want to approach it, as you will read from our members' advice and suggestions to your question. Answers range from using two hard drives, partitions, and using boot managers, all the way to not using a dual boot system but using Microsoft's Virtual PC to emulate the Vista environment using XP. Members have even provided many useful links to other sites that show you step-by-step instructions to get you going on a dual boot system.

But before you get down and dirty to start any of these, the first thing is to make sure that your hardware requirements are up to par and meet the requirements of Vista, because Vista does require a bit more robust hardware requirements, as opposed to what is needed to run XP. Secondly, back up your important data, so there's no need to worry if anything goes wrong.

In the Q&A section I have listed a few featured member answers to get you started. I'm sure by the time you get through all our members' advice, you'll have a good sense of what it takes to dual boot your computer with Vista and XP. Good luck, and have a great weekend everyone!


Cheers!
- Lee

Got suggestions? Send me an e-mail: messageboards@cnet.com

Featured member solutions
for last week's question:

 "Two operating systems on one computer "
-- Submitted by: Watzman

 "It's possible... "
-- Submitted by: Wolfie2k5

 "Try out Vista without dual booting... "
-- Submitted by: caskater4

 Read all member contributions

 Thanks to all who contributed!