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I installed windows XP, vista then 7 in that order. Right now when i boot up i get a login screen where i can select which of the 3 os to use with the default highlighting windows 7. After a bit on no input it logs into windows 7.

How can i have it log into windows XP instead by default? in fact if i can make the screen disappear and only appear when i hold down a button that would be terrific (bootcamp does this). Is there a way i can by default boot into windows XP?

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Get EasyBCD, it will help you manage your bootloader with a simple GUI

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Pure awesome – acidzombie24 Jul 21 '09 at 19:16
excellent app – acidzombie24 Jul 25 '09 at 10:12
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There is a bootloader GUI built into Windows, you can select which OS to default boot into and how long to wait, it might not have all the bells and whistles that EasyBCD does, but you don't need to install anything.

Log into Windows 7, open System properties (either right click on Computer, select Properties, or press Win-Break), then click on the Advanced System Settings -> Startup and Recovery. There you have a dropdown menu under "Default operation system" where you can select which OS to default to.

Note, you cannot do this in XP since XP uses the boot.ini file which isn't used by Vista or Windows 7 anymore. You might be able to do it in Vista, but definitively in Windows 7.

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Here's a quick question: I have my boot.ini in XP setup such that there is a default = XP boot, but the default always fails, even though using the Advanced > System Settings -> Startup and Recovery method says the default is the XP system. – nicorellius Apr 9 '10 at 18:59
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