How to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows XP and others?

One can have dual boot option on PC to boot multiple operating system on single computer. For example, you can have Windows XP, Linux, Vista, Windows 7 etc on single PC by installing them in different partitions. 

But to have that dual configuration, you will have to install the latest version after the earlier ones.

suppose you installed windows xp in a partition and then installed latest windows such as windows 7 in other partition then dual boot will occur and their will be no problem.

For example, you can have dual boot option if you have installed Windows 7 in different partition on a PC with already installed XP. But if you will install XP after Windows 7, boot screen will not see any option to start Windows 7. But there may be a situation where you need to install Windows XP on your pre-installed Windows 7 PC.This guide tells you ‘How to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows XP’ with Windows 7 installed first. This case is applicable for users who have Windows 7 pre-installed on ‘C’ and want to install XP on their ‘D’ partition.

The process for this is same as we did for Windows XP & Vista. Follow the simple steps below to install XP after Windows 7.

1) Make a clean Install of Windows XP on ‘D’ partition of your hard drive. Assuming, Windows 7 is installed on ‘C’ partition.

2) After restarting system, you will directly boot into Windows XP. That’s because XP writes its bootloader over Windows 7. So, we need to restore the Win 7 bootloader.

3) To restore 7, you need to Boot from the Windows 7 DVD and “Repair your computer”. Check this article “How to Perform a Startup Repair in Windows 7” to perform repair.

4) After repairing, your system will restart and boot into Windows 7.

5) Download and Install EasyBCD on your Windows 7 to add boot entry for XP.

6) Launch the program and select ‘Add New Entry’. Under “Operating Systems” open the Windows tab, select the Type as “Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3” and click on ‘Add Entry’.

The entry for Windows XP would be added instantly. You can choose the default OS to boot and modify the boot menu time-out from “Edit Boot Menu” option.

That’s it. Now restart you PC and you’ll be presented with two options, Windows 7 and Windows XP.  Select the OS you want to work on.

Even simple process without repair step in above process :

I installed Windows XP in different partition of my computer hard disk and then lost Windows 7 boot option. After the successful installation of Windows XP, computer started properly but with only XP. To get the dual boot option and get back Windows 7 boot option, you will have to follow below steps,

Steps to get dual boot on PC even Windows XP was installed after Windows 7

1. Start your computer (It will start with Windows XP)
2. Download Microsoft .net framework and install the same
3. Download and Install EasyBCD on your current Windows
4. Now use Add/Edit Entry to add Windows XP in the list. To do that, Select Windows NT/2K/XP in the type dropdown and type Windows XP in the name section
5. You may set the drive where XP is installed
6 Finally, you will have to “Write MBR” which is available under “Bootloader Setup” tab in the left navigation. select “Install the windows vista/7 bootloader to the MBR”

Done. Now restart your computer and there you can see dual boot option for Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows XP. You can use EasyBCD for multiple boot options as well. For example, to have Ubuntu, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 on a single PC