I recently installed Mandrake 10.0 on my laptop, which also has Windows XP. Now when I boot up, the list has Windows last and the default selection is Linux. Is there a way in which I can change the order of this list so that Windows XP is the default? Thanks.

Are you using lilo or grub?

In lilo you'd just have to add the windows partition first then the linux one (or just swap em over in lilo.conf).

Edit your bootloader configuration file. You must be root to edit files in the /etc/ directory.
lilo - /etc/lilo.conf
Change the default from the linux label to the windows label.
You will need to rerun lilo update the bootloader
lilo -v

The grub configuration file is /boot/grub/menu.lst. The default value is a number starting
at 0 for the first item. Change the default number to match the desired windows menu item number.

You should also be able to update the bootloader using the Mandrake Control Center but since its been awhile I do not remember the exact steps.