Windows NT Tips

Switching operating systems is a gut-wrenching decision. Even if the upgrade works, you face a steep learning curve and a litany of hardware and software hassles: NT may spell curtains for games and utilities, and will inactivate nifty Universal Serial Bus devices. The solution: Keep Windows 9x as you move to NT, and choose which OS to run at start-up.

Happy Together

You can run NT alongside Win 9x or even Win 3.x by pointing to a directory other than the existing Windows directory when you install NT. But first decide how you will manage data and applications on your dual-boot system, since each OS works with disk drives in its own way. If you want NT and Win 9x or 3.x to have free access to all files and partitions, you must sacrifice some features. NT's own File System (NTFS) offers password-protected file access and on-the-fly file- and folder-level compression (for selectively saving disk space). Win 98 and OSR2 versions of Win 95 feature the FAT32 file system, which includes efficient file storage and the ability to defragment as needed. Unfortunately, NT won't recognize FAT32 disk partitions, and Win 9x can't make sense of NTFS. (All versions of Win 9x and NT support FAT16, the file system found in the original Win 95 and 3.x.)

So what should you do? You can install NT onto the same disk and partition as Win 9x, but the partition must be formatted in FAT16. Because FAT16 can only handle partitions that are 2GB or smaller, large hard disks will be split into three or more partitions (which get separate drive letters). Install NT and Win 9x to different partitions, and you can adopt an optimized file system for each OS and use larger partitions.

Dual-booters must also contend with program installation. When you add Windows NT to your PC, you must reinstall all your applications--the NT Registry won't take configuration data from the Windows 9x Registry. To avoid keeping duplicate program files on your hard disk, when you reinstall those apps, direct the setup programs to write files to the application directory that already exists for Win 9x. Remember, format your Win 9x partition using FAT16; otherwise you won't see the existing program directories from NT.

Tailor Your Dual-Boot Start-Up

In a dual-boot setup, your system will boot by default into Win 9x. But before it does, a 30-second delay gives you time to select another OS from a list of installed operating systems. If you want, you can speed up the 30-second delay from the NT System Properties box:

1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.
   
   
2. Open the Systems icon.
   
   
3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Startup/Shutdown tab.
   
   
4. From the Startup drop-down list, select the operating system to which you wish to boot by default.
   
   
5. In the 'Show list for' field, enter the time in seconds you want the OS list to appear before the default OS loads. Then click OK.
   
   

To force the system to wait until you pick an OS, modify the file boot.ini in the root directory of your NT partition. Open the file using Notepad or another text editor, and find the line that starts with 'Timeout='. Change the numeric value in this line to -1, which NT interprets as an indefinite amount of time. Note: The 'Show list for' item in the Startup/Shutdown sheet rejects negative values. You must enter it directly into boot.ini.