How to make Windows XP your default operating system in dual boot with Ubuntu?

Lots of people are trying out Ubuntu, one of the currently most popular distributions of Linux. Why not? After all, it's free. Many are installing it to dual boot with their Windows OS, which is a good idea since many Windows applications that you may rely on to do your work don't run in Linux. However, you may notice that its boot loader takes over and makes Ubuntu the default operating system, and that might not be what you want. To change that behavior, you need to edit the Grub boot loader menu. Here's how:

1. Boot into Ubuntu
2. Click Applications Accessories Terminal to open a command line window
3. At the command prompt, type sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
4. When prompted, type your password
5. In the file, find the following section:
   ## default num
   # Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0,
   and
   # the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.default 0
6. Change the 0 to the number of the Windows boot section, which should be 4 on a typical dual boot system where you installed Ubuntu after XP
7. Save the file with the changes
   

It's a good idea to back up the file before you edit it.

How to install Windows 7 to dual boot with XP

Many people who have stuck with XP are getting the itch to give Windows 7 a try - but without making a commitment. Here's the procedure for installing 7 to dual boot with XP on a computer that already has XP installed:

1.If you only have one partition on your hard drive, you need to shrink it so you can create a second one on which to install Windows 7 (I recommend if you have less than 30 GB of free space, you should buy and install a second physical hard drive on which to install Win7).

2. Boot the system from the Windows 7 installation DVD and when you get to the "Where do you want to install Windows?" option, be sure to pick the partition, disk or unallocated space on which XP is not installed. Proceed through the Setup process.

3. Proceed through the Setup process

4. When the system reboots after installing, pick "Earlier Version of Windows" from the boot menu to boot into XP.
If you had XP installed on C:, when you boot into Windows 7 you'll see that it appears to be installed on C:. Don't panic - Windows 7 calls whatever drive it's installed on C:, which actually makes things easier for applications. The drive on which XP is installed won't show up at all by default, although it's there in Disk Management and you can assign it a drive letter if you want it to show up when you're in Win7 (for example, if it has data stored on it that you want to access). For example, you might assign it drive letter X: to denote that it's the XP drive, and you'll see it as X: in Win7 Explorer. However, when you boot back into XP, the drive it's installed on will be C: (or whatever it was originally) again.

Here's a detailed, illustrated tutorial on installing the dual boot configuration:
How to dual boot Windows XP and Windows 7 (XP installed first)

Can I boot Vista without the boot menu?

QUESTION:
I installed Vista with Windows XP (dual boot) just in case, so I could go back to XP if Vista didn't work. Well, it does and I like Vista and I never use XP. But when I reboot, I still get the boot menu to choose Vista or XP. Is there a way I can get it to just boot into Vista? Do I have to uninstall XP?

ANSWER:
It's not necessary to uninstall XP in order to boot directly to Vista. You just need to adjust the system startup settings. Here's how:

1. Click Start and right click My Computer
Select Properties
In the left pane, click Advanced System Settings
On the Advanced tab, at the bottom in the Startup and Recovery section, click the Settings button
Make sure the Default Operating System is set to Vista
Uncheck the box labeled "Time to display list of operating systems"
If you ever do need to boot to XP again, first go into Vista and re-enable the boot menu by checking this box and setting the time to a number of seconds (such as 15).