hi. i'm currently dual booting windows vista and windows xp(cuz vista is so terrible) and when i boot up the "windows boot manager" lets me choose which one to load(xp or vista). anyway, i want to install linux on this machine, but i don't know anything about this windows boot manager thingy and i was wondering what would happen when i installed lilo or grub.

is this windows boot manager a real bootloader that gets run from the mbr like lilo and grub? is it just ntldr? what's the deal with it? i don't want to end up having to do lilo->windows boot manager->windows when i want to load windows. and i want to be prepared for any weird complications that this might cause.

Boot code, boot managers, etc. typically come in 2 or more pieces. GRUB has stage 1, 1.5, and 2; and Windows has the MBR code + NTLDR.

Assuming that you are booting the hard drive, it always has to start with the MBR code---In that regard, there is no difference between Linux and Windows.

To set up dual-boot with Linux, You should be able to simply install Linux and let the installer detect the Windows installation(s) and automatically configure GRUB. Search here at LQ for dual-boot with Vista--I have read about some special considerations, but have not absorbed.

You can also configure NTLDR to point to a Linux install. This allows you to dual-boot without disturbing the Windows setup. Search here for "linux boot from NTLDR", or just search for member Saikee.

As this is a Windows problem, I have moved the thread to General