Mike Southby

With Windows 7 well on the way now with official public release due on October 22^nd, I’m sure a lot of people will want to dual boot the new OS with an existing installation of Vista.  In this post, I’ll show you how to achieve this.

Firstly, and very importantly, make sure that you have applied the latest updates from Windows Update and made sure that you have the latest drivers installed for your specific hardware.  It’s important to remember that Windows 7 is still currently in beta release.  The version of Windows that I am using in this post is Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, build 6.1.7000.  When the final version is available, although unlikely, this information may need updating.

I am going to perform this installation on a virtual machine.  If it were a production machine you would simply create a restore point and back up any data on the system before continuing.

Things to note before attempting a dual-boot configuration:

• You need a hard disk in the system that has a separate partition for each operating system that you want to install
• If the single disk does not have multiple partitions already configured you may need to reformat and / or repartition your hard disk
• Alternatively, you could install an additional hard drive in the system
• The partition should formatted with the NTFS file system.
• To avoid major configuration problems, especially between older boot managers and newer boot managers, you should always install operating systems from oldest release to newest i.e. Vista should be installed first.

Notes – When you install multiple operating systems to a single system in a multi-boot configuration you should do so in the order of their release. Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 released in that order so if you’re trying to install one or more on a system you should do them in that order.

- The Installation

Before starting this post I already have a virtual machine configured with Windows Vista Ultimate Edition service pack 1 and have an available primary partition to use for Windows 7.  I am going to launch setup from within the running Vista operating system; I could have just as easily booted from the DVD at startup and kicked off the installation routine following most of the upcoming steps.

Once the Windows 7 media is in the DVD drive autorun should execute on its own. It may not based on your default settings in which case you’d have to launch the installation routine manually.  Setup will begin copying some of the needed temporary files and then present you with the “Get important updates for installation” options.

You can choose one option or the other; unless you have some specific reason to do otherwise, it is almost always the best bet to go ahead and get the latest updates for installation (as recommended by the setup wizard).

If you do not want to take part in the Windows improvement program (I’d recommend you don’t, I like to know what my machine is doing and do not like the idea of information being passed out without my knowing!) you’ll need to clear the “I want to help make Windows installation better” check box as it is selected by default.  I am going to choose the “Get important updates for installation” option for this post.

Setup will search online for installation updates (if any) and will reboot the system when this part of the installation is complete

If this system should restart at this point or a little later on in the installation routine you need to make sure you are not doing anything with the keyboard if your system is set to check the DVD drive for a boot device; otherwise you’ll hit a key and then begin booting from the DVD which starts the setup process all over.  If you should accidentally do this you can fix it by power cycling the system and letting the routine restart from where it left off which it will do if you do not hit the keys on the keyboard on the next cycle.

- After the reboot

Once the system gets back up from rebooting you’ll reach the “Please read the license terms” screen; you’ll need to accept the license terms to proceed to the next phase.

The next screen is where you have the option to chose which type of installation you want to perform.

You would select Custom (advanced) to perform a clean installation or to set up the system in a dual or multi-boot configurations. As we are going ahead with a dual boot installation this is the option we would select.

When the routine continues from here you’ll be presented the “Where do you want to install Windows” options which will show you the available partitions where Windows can be installed.

Notes – if you are expecting to see another partition and it is not available you can try refreshing the screen but it is more likely that setup needs to load a driver for that device and it is not present.  To load a driver for a missing controller or other device you would choose the Load Driver option shown at the bottom left of the window.  In order for you to successfully install Windows 7 alongside the existing Windows Vista installation you should choose the other available partition, in this case E:\ on Disk 0 Partition 2

Once the setup routine continues, it will copy the Windows files and then begin expanding them.  At some point in the ‘Expanding Files’ sequence the routine will stop and the system will reboot before continuing, don’t worry this is normal.  During this reboot cycle you’ll notice the first Windows 7 splash screens.

Once setup comes back online it will finish expanding all of the files (and it’ll reboot again) and install all of the files needed before it restarts one final time for the final configuration (after setup) of the Windows 7 OS.

What you should also notice during this startup sequence (and all that follow) is that you are now presented with the Windows Boot Manager [image 6] at start up which allows you to choose which operating system you want to boot the system into.  When you install Windows 7 in a multi-boot environment it becomes the default operating system in the Windows Boot Manager.  Setup always designates the last operating system to be installed the default to start after a 30 second delay; this can of course be changed later on.

- After Installation

Now that Windows 7 is running you can start the final stage of setting up the system.  On the first screen you are prompted to choose a country or region setting, the time and currency settings and keyboard layout you’re using.  Obviously this will vary according to where you are but for me, I’ve chosen the United Kingdom settings.

Next, you’ll need to type in a user name to use on the system and that entry will give you a computer name suggestion based on what you entered.  You can choose to keep that name or change it (I recommend changing it to something more appropriate, such a $name-laptop or $name-desktop etc for easier identification later on) and click NEXT.

The next screen is ‘Set a password for your user account’ where you enter your password information and a hint in case you need help remembering what your password is.  Please do remember to take setting your password seriously, don’t type something so obvious it can be hacked!

The step of entering in a product key and for activation of the operating system is going to be dependent on which type of installation media you have, I am using standard media that requires this for install and this would be the screen where you’d provide this information.  You can just choose NEXT and bypass entering a key; you;ll be able to run the operating system for 30 days.  At the end of that time you will be required to enter a key and activate the product.  After the key is entered and you choose NEXT you’ll land on the ‘Help protect you computer and improve Windows automatically’ page which is where you’ll initially configure the Windows Update settings.

The next screen is the ‘Review your time and date settings’ page which allows you to change time zone settings.  You are also able to change the time and date as well if you need to.  Additionally, the ‘automatically adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time’ checkbox is selected by default so if you’re in an area where it is not observed you’ll need to clear this option.

On the next screen you are presented with the ‘Select your computer’s current location’ page where you choose to identify the network settings as Home, Work or Public which will automatically configure the network resource settings, firewall settings, network discovery settings and other parameters based on the profile you choose.

After you make this selection, Windows 7 will finalise your settings and the operating system will show the user desktop and you will be good to go!  Enjoy…