BEFORE you buy the PC, check the Dell website and verify that there is a WXP
driver for every component of the PC, Basically, the WXP and Vista driver
lists should include all the same components. A lot of new PCs have NO WXP
drivers. You might even try an online chat with Dell support and ask about
potential problems with dual booting with WXP.

Maybe you will be lucky and not have problems. Just in case, I would create
a Ghost or Acronis image of the hard drive prior to booting the system. A
compressed image will range from 8 to 12 gigabytes and can be burned to a
bootable set of DVDs from which you can restore. Test that image by putting
a different hard drive in the computer, boot from the DVD and do the
restore. Then verify that it boots up just like the original drive should
have. Maybe this is overkill, but ...

-Paul Randall

"Andy" <andy@indigo.ie> wrote in message
news:f9qk76$19c$1@news.datemas.de...[color=blue]
> Will be getting a new Dell PC soon with Windows Vista preloaded on it
> (Doubt if it will come with a Vista installation CD). What I want to know
> is if I can easily install Windows XP and leave the Vista intact and just
> chose at startup of PC whether to use Vista or XP? - I think they call it
> dual booting isn't it?
>
> But I don't really want to go formatting and partitioning the hard drive
> if I can avoid it to do this.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Andy.
>
>
>[/color]