Can I dual boot with Windows XP?

QA long shot but is it still possible to dual boot a Windows 7 computer with Windows XP? I know Microsoft has ended support for XP, and wants everyone to move from 7 to 10, but I avoided the upgrade to 10 because I’m happy with 7. I have recently obtained an old copy of XP that I’d like to set up to dual boot with Windows 7. I have no idea where to start — or even if it’s safe. So, how do I set up a dual-boot Windows 7/XP system, and will I be putting my computer at risk by doing so? Frederick Groom

AWe’ll answer your last question first. Yes, there’s some risk in running Windows XP. In theory at least, unfixed security flaws could allow hackers to access your computer – and the damage won’t necessarily be restricted to the XP side of the system. You can minimise the risks by installing up-todate security software on the XP system, but the dangers will only grow over time, because Microsoft is officially done with repairing XP.

With that clear, here’s how to set up your dual-boot system. First, back up, just in case something goes wrong, and read through and digest our instructions before beginning. Press Windows key+r, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter. If your PC has just one hard drive you’ll need to free up some space for an XP partition, so right-click drive C and choose Shrink Volume. In the ‘Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB’ box, type a figure and then click Shrink. XP needs at least 1.5GB for installation, but you want to allow it 10GB, say, then type 10240 — because Windows calculates 1GB as 1024MB.

Soon, to the right of C, you’ll see a new partition labelled ‘Unallocated’: right-click this and choose New Simple Volume, and work through the instructions, clicking Next at each box. At the third box, set NTFS as the file system, type a name for the partition (like ‘Windows XP’) and ensure that ‘Perform a quick format’ is ticked, then click Next followed by Finish.

Now boot your PC from the Windows XP disc to begin the installation. When asked, choose the partition just created and work through to complete the installation. When finished, your PC will restart and launch straight into XP. To fix that you need to restore the Windows 7 boot loader, which has been overwritten by XP’S.

Visit www.snipca.com/22596 to download EASYBCD (it’s free, but you need to supply your name and email address). Launch EASYBCD, click BCD Deployment (see screenshot), select the ‘Install the Windows Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR’ button and then click Write MBR. Now click Add New Entry, open the Type dropdown menu and choose ‘Windows NT/2K/XP/2003’. Type Windows XP in the Name box and click Add Entry. Now reboot and you will have a dual-boot system that displays a menu offering a choice of operating systems.