Hi Andrew,
You can try using the Windows Easy Transfer Companion (still in beta) to
migrate the programs, though it's more designed for an upgrade vs. a clean
install:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...en&clcid=0x409
Some notes:
- There is a known issue in dual boot situations with volsnap.sys in XP. It
wipes out Vista's restore points. The only resolution to this is to have the
Vista install partition hidden from XP through the use of a third party boot
manager. Even if XP's System Restore is not running or monitoring that
volume, it still happens. This problem occurs whether the install is on
another volume/partition or on another physical drive. Do not try to install
Vista to the same volume as XP as it will make some changes to the NTFS
files system there and render your XP installation unbootable - permanently.
- Shared user folders use different names. The "My" part has been dropped.
- Some of the programs may require an update or patch. Notably, Itunes is
not yet ready for Vista.
--
Best of Luck,
Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help -
www.rickrogers.org
"Andrew Fiddian-Green" <nn@dd> wrote in message
news:%23NLGYOkaHHA.2436@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>I have a machine running XP with a full gamut of installed applications
>(e.g. MS Office, iTunes, BDS2006, and many more).
>
> This is a test and development machine, so I need to keep the XP
> environment and all running application, but I want to also add Vista as a
> dual boot.
>
> My question is whether it is possible for the Vista install to leave the
> XP environment unchanged but copy the XP registry settings for the
> installed applications into the Vista registry. Basically I would like the
> existing applications to continue to work both under XP (existing) and
> Vista (new).
>
> My reason is that for time and disk space reasons, I want to avoid having
> to repeat the software installations of all these applications, and I want
> both O/S to access the same "My Documents" folders. For example "My Music"
> contains 50-60GB of stuff that I would like to access and add to from both
> O/S instances.
>
> { Note: I did not yet decide whether to put Vista a) on a separate folder
> in the same partition, b) on a different partition on the same drive, or
> c) on a completely different drive; the most likely choice is c) but I
> think that this is anyway irrelevant to my question... }
>
>
>