Dual Boot XP

Computers Containing Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP

Computers Containing Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XPSetting up a computer to run Windows XP as well as an earlier operating system such as Windows NT Workstation 4.0 requires addressing compatibility issues among different file systems: NTFS, FAT, and FAT32.

Normally, NTFS is the recommended file system because it supports important features, including the Active Directory™ service and domain-based security. However, using NTFS as the only file system on a computer that contains both Windows XP and Windows NT is not recommended. On these computers, a FAT or FAT32 partition containing the Windows NT 4.0 operating system ensures that when started with Windows NT 4.0, the computer will have access to needed files. In addition, if Windows NT is not installed on the system partition, which is almost always the first partition on the disk, it is recommended that the system partition also be formatted with FAT. This is because earlier operating systems, with one exception, can't access a partition if it uses the latest version of NTFS. The one exception is Windows NT version 4.0 with Service Pack 4 or later, which has access to partitions with the latest version of NTFS, but with some limitations.

Even the latest Service Pack does not provide access to files using the new features in NTFS. Windows NT 4.0 cannot access files that have been stored using NTFS features that did not exist when Windows NT 4.0 was released. For example, a file that uses the new encryption feature won’t be readable when the computer is started with Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, which was released before the encryption feature existed.
Note: If you set up a computer so that it starts with Windows NT 3.51 or earlier on a FAT partition, and Windows XP on an NTFS partition, when that computer starts with Windows NT 3.51, the NTFS partition will not be visible.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Checklist Summary

To configure a computer containing Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP, review the following guidelines:

1. As explained above, using NTFS as the only file system on a computer containing both Windows XP and Windows NT is not recommended.

2.Make sure that Windows NT 4.0 has been updated with the latest released Service Pack available for download before installing Windows XP.

3.Install each operating system on a separate drive or disk partition.

4.When you perform a new installation of Windows XP (as opposed to an upgrade), by default, the installation is placed on a partition on which no other operating system is located. You can specify a different partition during Setup.

5.Don’t install Windows XP on a compressed drive unless the drive was compressed with the NTFS file system compression feature.

6.On any partition where you perform a new installation of Windows XP (as opposed to an upgrade), you will need to re-install any programs, such as word processing or email software, after Setup is complete.

7.Install the programs used by each operating system on the partition with that system. If you want your programs to run with multiple operating systems, you need to install separate copies of the programs in each of the operating system partitions.

8.If the computer is on a Windows NT Server or Windows 2000 Server domain, each installation of Windows XP on that computer must have a different computer name.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Dual Boot XP

Computers Containing MS-DOS or Windows 9x and Windows XP

Computers Containing MS-DOS or Windows 9x and Windows XP
As explained above you need to address file system compatibility to ensure a multibooting configuration with these earlier operating systems and Windows XP. Remember to install the latest operating system last otherwise important files may be overwritten.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Checklist Summary

To configure a computer containing Windows XP and Windows 9x or MS-DOS, review the following guidelines:

On computers that contain MS-DOS and Windows XP:

MS-DOS must be installed on a basic disk on a partition formatted with FAT. If MS-DOS is not installed on the system partition, which is almost always the first partition on the disk, the system partition must also be
formatted with FAT.

Windows XP must be installed last. Otherwise important files needed for starting Windows XP could be

overwritten.
On computers that contain Windows 95 and Windows XP:

As in the case above, Windows 95 must be installed on a basic disk on a partition formatted with FAT. (For Windows 95 OSR2, FAT32 may be used.) If Windows 95 is not installed on the system partition, which is almost always the first partition on the disk, the system partition must also be formatted with FAT (or FAT32 for Windows 95 OSR2).

Compressed DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volumes won’t be available while you are running Windows XP. It is not necessary to uncompress DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volumes that you will access only with Windows 95.Windows XP must be installed last. Otherwise important files needed for starting Windows XP could be

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Dual Boot XP

overwritten.
On computers that contain Windows 98 (or Windows ME) and Windows XP:
As in the cases above, Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition (ME) must be installed on a basic disk on a partition formatted with FAT or FAT32. If Windows 98 or Windows ME is not installed on the system partition, which is almost always the first partition on the disk, the system partition must also be formatted with FAT or FAT32.

Compressed DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volumes won’t be available while you are running Windows XP. It is not necessary to uncompress DriveSpace or DoubleSpace volumes that you will access only with Windows 98. Windows XP must be installed last. Otherwise important files needed for starting Windows XP could be overwritten.

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Dual Boot XP

Installation and How to :

The order of installation is critical if you want a successful multiboot installation. In general terms, install non–Microsoft operating systems and earlier versions of the Windows operating system first. This would mean installing UNIX or Linux operating systems first; then Windows 95 or Windows 98 or Windows Me; then Windows NT; and finally, Windows 2000 and/or Windows XP. (In the unlikely event that you’re installing MS–DOS, you can install that either before or after UNIX– or Linux–based operating systems, and generally I’d opt for before.) It’s also important to understand that, without using a third–party product to help out, you can’t install non-Microsoft operating systems, or Windows 95 and Windows 98 on the same computer, and that you can install only a single version of Windows95/98/Me. But you can install as many different versions of Windows NT and later versions of the Windows operating system as you have available logical drives, with the sole caveat that you must install all Windows NT versions before you install any Windows 2000 or Windows XP versions.
Let’s take a typical installation. Our target computer must be able to boot into Windows 98, Windows NT 4 Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP Professional. We have a 2–GB partition to hold our programs and the whole thing must fit on a single 10–GB hard drive. No problem. First, we partition the hard drive into two partitions: a 2–GB primary partition, and an 8-GB extended partition using FDisk. In the extended partition, we’ll create four logical volumes—D, E, F and G—to hold our remaining operating systems and our programs.

After the disk is partitioned, format the primary partition using the FAT16 file system and install Windows 98 on it. So far so good. Now, format your D drive with FAT16 as well. Eventually, you’ll install your programs on D drive.

Next, install Windows NT 4 Workstation. You will install this on any of the logical volumes not already used (either E drive, F drive or G drive) and choose NTFS as your file system. Leave D drive alone, because your applications go there where they’re visible to all operating systems. When you install Windows NT, it recognizes that you already have Windows 98 on the computer. Then it automatically sets up for dual booting between Windows 98 and Windows NT by creating a boot.ini file, which creates a menu of available operating systems. After you have Windows NT 4 installed, immediately apply Service Pack 6, before you install Windows 2000.
Finally, install Windows 2000 and Windows XP, each in its own logical volume. Again, choose NTFS as the file system. As you install them, they are automatically added to the boot.ini file on your C drive, which lets you choose operating systems at start up.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Don't Ignore the Windows Logo Key


The Windows logo key, located in the bottom row of most computer keyboards is a little-used treasure. Don't ignore it. It is the shortcut anchor for the following commands: Windows: Display the Start menu Windows + D: Minimize or restore all windows Windows + E: Display Windows Explorer Windows + F: Display Search for files Windows + Ctrl + F: Display Search for computer Windows + F1: Display Help and Support Center Windows + R: Display Run dialog box Windows + break: Display System Properties dialog box Windows + shift + M: Undo minimize all windows Windows + L: Lock the workstation Windows + U: Open Utility Manager

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Disable CD Autorun


( WinXP PRO Only)

1) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC

2) Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System.

3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and modify it as you desire.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Disable Attachment restrictions in Outlook from Office

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Office > 10.0 >Outlook > Security]

"Level1Remove" = "exe;bat;vbs"

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Exiting Windows the Cool and Quick Way
Normally it takes a hell lot of time just Shutting down Windows, you have to move your mouse to the Start Button, click on it, move it again over Shut Down, click, then move it over the necessary option and click, then move the cursor over the OK button and once again (you guessed it) click.This whole process can be shortened by creating shortcuts on the Desktop which will shut down Windows at the click of a button. Start by creating a new shortcut( right click and select New> Shortcut). Then in the command line box, type (without the quotes.)


Code:
'C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec'

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Create a Password Reset Disk

If you’re running Windows XP Professional as a local user in a workgroup environment, you can create a password reset disk to log onto your computer when you forget your password. To create the disk:

1.Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click User Accounts.

2.Click your account name.

3.Under Related Tasks, click Prevent a forgotten password.

4.Follow the directions in the Forgotten Password Wizard to create a password reset disk.

5.Store the disk in a secure location, because anyone using it can access your local user account.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Copy Files and Folders to CDs


To copy files and folders to a CD

•Insert a blank, writable CD into the CD recorder.

•Open My Computer.

•Click the files or folders you want to copy to the CD. To select more than one file, hold down the CTRL key while you click the files you want. Then, under File and Folder Tasks, click Copy this file, Copy this folder, or Copy the selected items.

•If the files are located in My Pictures, under Picture Tasks, click Copy to CD or Copy all items to CD, and then skip to step 5.

•In the Copy Items dialog box, click the CD recording drive, and then click Copy.

•In My Computer, double–click the CD recording drive. Windows displays a temporary area where the files are held before they are copied to the CD. Verify that the files and folders that you intend to copy to the CD appear under Files Ready to be Written to the CD.

•Under CD Writing Tasks, click Write these files to CD. Windows displays the CD Writing Wizard. Follow the instructions in the wizard.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Convert a FAT Partition to the NTFS File System

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.

Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.

In Windows XP, click Start, and then click Run.

At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.

Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.

NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command. It is also recommended to verify the integrity of the backup before proceeding, as well as to run RDISK and update the emergency repair disk (ERD).

Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Make XP boot even Faster

Microsoft has chosen a completely different path for XP and it's boot features by trying to incorporate as much support for newer fastboot BIOSes that are on most current motherboards. They built XP in such a way as to make it able to take advantage of features in these new BIOSes, and one of the coolest things is a small application called bootvis. bootvis.

Bootvis watches everything that loads at boot time, from the moment the OS begins to load just after POST (Power On Self-Test) to the moment you get to a usable Desktop. Some programs, most notably Norton AntiVirus 2002, suck up valuable seconds before you can actually DO anything even though you're at the Desktop. bootvis generates a trace file that you load and can then "see" a visual representation of what's happening. Every file, driver, hard drive read/write, etc., is recorded. You can then use bootvis to optimize the loading of files during the boot sequence. bootvis will rearrange the ways these very files are stored on the hard drive, thereby improving the boot time dramatically.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Speed Up Browsing

When you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth. Some of this information deals with resolving the site name to an IP address, the stuff that TCP/IP really deals with, not words. This is DNS information and is used so that you will not need to ask for the site location each and every time you visit the site. Although Windows XP and Windows XP have a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase its overall performance by increasing its size. You can do this with the registry entries below:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Dnscache\Parameters]

"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001

"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180

"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00

"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d

Make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg. Then copy and paste the above into it and save it. Merge it into the registry.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Mega Shutdown and Restart Troubleshooting Guide

Thus far, Windows XP shutdown issues most resemble those of Windows Millennium Edition. That is, most of them center around a very few issues, especially driver version and other legacy hardware and software compatibility issues. These are detailed below. The driver and software issues are expected to resolve substantially as hardware and software manufacturers release updated versions, now that Win XP has been officially launched.

Reboot Instead of Shutdown

The majority of shutdown problems reported with Windows XP thus far have been that it reboots when shutdown is attempted. This may be a global symptom emerging from several distinct causes, because XP executes an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. I'm guessing that this means that more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot. If this is true, then our job will be to prepare a series of steps suitable to isolate the most likely cause. Disabling the "restart on system failure" feature may permit the exact cause to be isolated:

Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab. Under 'Startup & Recovery,' click Settings. Under 'System Failure,' uncheck the box in front of 'System reboot.' Some things that have produced this reboot-instead-of-shutdown symptom are:

" By now, Roxio's Easy CD / Direct CD software is well documented as being a major cause - possibly the major cause - of this undesirable shutdown behavior. On November 1, Roxio released new drivers to solve this problem in Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum in its Windows XP updater for the Platinum product. A fix for Easy CD Creator 5 Basic is in the works. In the first few hours of its release, several peple have written me saying that this fix has resolved their Windows XP shutdown problem. I suspect that < least>of the Windows XP shutdown problems will go away with Roxio's release of this patch for Platinum and the pending patch for Basic. This has been the single most common cause of Win XP shutdown problems thus far. One person after another has written to me with the simple message that this reboot behavior went away as soon as they uninstalled Easy CD. HINT No. 1: PCBUILD subscribers, by trial and error, identified the file CDRALW2K.SYS (version 1.0.0.1048) as the Roxio file that was causing his shutdown problems and error conditions. When he deleted this one file, his problems went away. HINT No.2: The Mystic Overclocker and others have reported that installing Easy CD 5.0 does not cause the shutdown problem, provided they do not install the Direct CD component. Though this isn't universally true, enough people have mentioned it by now for me to suggest it as a work-around

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Unassigned Device Drivers

PCBUILD subscribers have found that Windows XP won't shutdown properly if unsigned device drivers are used. Since all necessary device drivers have not yet been created for Win XP, this will be a problem for the next few months. It resembles the pattern for Win ME shutdown problems, because even today, many hardware manufacturers have not prepared suitable drivers for use with ME.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Mega Shutdown and Restart Troubleshooting Guide

SBLive: DEVLDR32.EXE PROBLEMS

In the early days of Win ME, one of the biggest culprits for shutdown issue was the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live. History repeated itself in the early stages of Win XP. This now has been fixed for some users (but not for all) by the release of new drivers.

Here's the commonly reported scenario: On attempting shutdown, nothing at all appears to happen for a prolonged period of time. Eventually, an "End Task" window appears wanting to terminate DEVLDR32.EXE. No matter what one does, one ultimately is locked out of shutting down other than by a power switch shutoff. (This problem exists with the SBLive in Windows 2000 also.)

In mid-July, Microsoft posted new Win XP drivers for the SBLive on the Windows Update site. According to PCBUILD subscribers, these drivers solve the shutdown problem the SBLive was causing. I recommend you go to Windows Update and download the new driver if you have an SBLive card. However, some users are reporting that the DEVLDR problem continues to plague them even with the new drivers:

" In the event installing the new drivers does not solve your shutdown problem, try some of the solutions people have been using prior to the release of these new drivers. PCBUILD subscribers have written that they solved the well-documented SBLive/DEVLDR32 problem by downloading and installing the LiveService software. (We caution that one should disable all antivirus software while executing this program. I do recommend that you at least virus-check anything you download first!)

" PCBUILD subscribers" gave another solution to this problem: Uninstall the LiveWare software pack (of which DEVLDR is part). Uninstall the SBLive card. Restart Windows, let it detect the new hardware, and use the Windows XP driver. However, other users have reported that this isn't satisfactory because the XP native driver gives very poor sound quality. If the new drivers work for you, they are definitely the preferred option.

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A.Rajesh Khanna

Mega Shutdown and Restart Troubleshooting Guide

3D PROPHET 4500 VIDEO CARD

Other video cards that have created problems are those based on the Kyro II video chip, such as the Hercules Prophet 4500. PCBUILD subscribers have reported that until they removed the Kyro II / Prophet 4500, they could shutdown, hibernate, or go to stand by just fine, but Restart wouldn't work - it would shutdown Windows instead. Others with this video card have reported this strange behavior on both restart and shutdown.

Apparently, this problem is now solved. Microsoft reports that new drivers for this card, specific to Windows XP, are now available from Hercules. At present, they remain uncertified (PowerVR, who makes the Kyro II chip, is working on that), but they reportedly work just fine. Download the Kyro II drivers here

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A.Rajesh Khanna

SHUTDOWN HANGS ON "SAVING YOUR SETTINGS"

During shutdown or reboot, Win XP may hang (stop responding) at the "saving your settings" screen. During such a hang, there is no response to Ctrl+Alt+Del; the mouse may or may not work. (The problem may be intermittent.)

This is a known bug in Windows XP, for which Microsoft has a supported fix. Because this patch is scheduled for further quality assurance testing in the future, Microsoft only recommends that you install it if you have a serious problem; otherwise, they recommend waiting for Service Pack 1, which will include the more permanent version of the fix. To learn how to get this patch, see Windows XP Stops Responding (Hangs) During Windows Shutdown.

As a workaround, we resolved this problem by dismantling the Windows XP logon Welcome screen. In the Control Panel, click User Accounts, then click "Change the way users log on or off." Uncheck the box that says "Use the Welcome screen." This removes the initial logon screen with individual icons for each user and, instead, pops up the classic logon prompt that requires each user to type a user name and password.

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A.Rajesh Khanna