*** Dual Boot Adjustments ***

Most of the Windows users use dual boot operating systems in their system. The most commonly used dual boot Operating Systems are Windows Vista and XP. Some users use Windows 2003 and Windows XP on their system. And still some are using Windows XP and Windows 98 on their machines. The most obvious reason for still using Windows 98 as an OS is compatibility issue. Some software such as older version of Shreelipi (pirated as well as licensed ) and others runs only on Windows 98.

In this topic I am going to discuss some simple but must know issues for every Windows Dual Boot OS user. Most of the computer geeks already acquainted about this but most of the users are still unaware of it. In this topic I want to discuss about following issues:
1) Setting default option for OS.
2) Changing order of menu items in OS selection menu.
3) Setting startup delay.

Setting default option for OS : I am considering that your one of the OS is Windows XP and other OS is Windows 98. Start Windows XP if you have not already stared. Click on Start -> Run. In the Run dialog type msconfig and press Enter. System Configuration Utility window appears like this :

When you start computer, boot menu appears. If you do not select any OS in this menu, then after 30 seconds automatically one of the OS (either Windows 98 OR Windows XP) gets automatically stared. This is default OS selection. Suppose your default OS is Windows XP and you want to set Windows 98 as your default OS. Then click on the option C:\=”Microsoft Windows” the screen appears as below :

Now Click on Set as Default option.

Changing order of menu items in OS selection menu: This is very easy task. Just click on the appropriate menu item and the click on Move Up or Move Down button.

And then click on OK.

Setting Startup Delay : This is set to 30 unless you make a change. To setup startup delay, simply type the value of delay in Timeout text box.

Another way to configure this most commonly edited settings is to open the Start menu, right-click on "My Computer" and choose "Properties" from the context menu. The System Properties dialog box will open as shown below. In the section "Startup and Recovery" click the button "Settings".

The another dialog appears which shown both the Timeout setting and the default operating system settings. These settings can be changed here.

To add or delete an operating system or program from the boot display menu, use the "Edit" button on the right of the entry "To edit the startup options file manually, click Edit" as shown in the figure below.

You can also do these task using comand line. Take a help on bootcfg by typing bootcfg /? on command line. Best of luck !