No, you'll have to reformat if you want XP to be the only OS on the system.

You can dual boot with XP - but this'll be difficult with Vista already
installed.

You can run XP or 98SE in a Virtual machine inside of Vista. There's a
Virtual Machine Express feature that comes with the higher end versions of
Vista that will enable this (I'd suggest getting the Ultimate version for
this).

I run XP in a beta of VM 2007 on my system without any problems.

- John

"Vic" wrote:

> I have plans to purchase a laptop soon. Looking at the local Staples
> (office supply store) noticed VISTA is already coming preloaded. I need
> XP installed (at the very least, preferably Win98SE) for backward
> compatibility with software.
>
> My questions are:
>
> 1. Does anybody know if XP can be installed on a PC with Vista
> preinstalled without reformatting?
>
> 2. Can dual-boot be setup for an older OS (i.e. XP) if Vista is
> preinstalled?
>
> TIA
> Vic
>
>
>