Dual booting 7 and XP?

[vj8usa]

I've got Windows 7 installed right now and like it, but I want to throw XP on my system to satisfy my curiosity about a game's performance (I feel like Mass Effect ran better way back when I was using XP). If I make a new partition and install XP on it, what'll happen when I boot up my computer? Will I need to edit the bootloader or something along those lines to be able to choose between OSes?

edit: huh, guess I should've googled a bit harder. Found a nice little guide:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

 

[Gamingphreek]

I've got Windows 7 installed right now and like it, but I want to throw XP on my system to satisfy my curiosity about a game's performance (I feel like Mass Effect ran better way back when I was using XP). If I make a new partition and install XP on it, what'll happen when I boot up my computer? Will I need to edit the bootloader or something along those lines to be able to choose between OSes?

edit: huh, guess I should've googled a bit harder. Found a nice little guide:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

The bootloader for Windows will automatically detect the new installation.

Make sure you install XP on a primary partition and not an extended partition. Windows has always been sketchy about installing on Extended paritions.

To answer your question about the game-- Mass Effect probably did run better on Windows XP for the simple reason that XP only supports up to Direct X 9.0c whereas 7 and Vista both support up to DX11 (I believe Mass Effect is a DX10 title). Thus more advanced (and thus more intense) graphics processing features were being used which probably cause a slowdown.

-Kevin

 

[Scotteq]

Here you go: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html