To test the Windows 7 Beta, I repartitioned my hard drive (with Easeaus Partition Manager—flawless, try the free Home edition) and installed Windows 7 on the new smaller partition.
When you do this, a boot menu appears before any OS is loaded, allowing you to choose which one to boot into. The default is set to Windows 7. After a short delay, the system boots into the default choice.
I’d prefer to have the default be XP, since that’s where everything I need is loaded. I don’t have the time or room to reinstall everything I use on my Windows 7 partition.
Here’s how to change the default boot choice:
- Right-click on Computer, and choose Properties
- Choose Advanced System Settings from the menu on the left.
- On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button in the Startup and Recovery section.
- You can now choose which OS to boot into, and how long to display the choices. The default was 30 seconds, which means that the choices are displayed for about as long as it takes Windows 7 to boot.
- OK your way back out, and next time you restart, your default choice will be changed.