"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?

Contact the computer manufacturer such as Dell or HP, etc, to get a machine
with XP pre-loaded. You can still get them.

No, to install XP and have that as the only OS, you'll need to do a clean
install.

Yes you can dual boot XP and Vista. The normal procedure is to install the
older OS first then the newer, but it can be done the other way around.
Install XP to it's own partition or drive, then use VistaBoot Pro to restore
the Vista boot loader. This will have entries to boot Vista or the legacy
OS. Choosing the Legacy OS brings you to the XP boot loader where you can
boot into XP.

You should post to one of the Vista newsgroups if you want to do this and
need more help such as
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general.

--
Rock [MVP - User/Shell]