toggle operating system

[naveen]

i have two operating systems,iwould like to toggle desktop
of each os by logging in one os.Both r windows operating
systems.Anyone plz share any views
goodday

 

[George Hester]

Since in a Operating system which is not running, the folder desktop means nothing different then the folder Program, Files or for that matter WINNT in the partition you have this operating system on. In other words an Operating System not running knows nothing because it's not running. You can only run one operating system at a time unless you have a software workaround not included in Windoes 2000. The one that is running understands desktop in SystemDrive and nowhere else. There is software which allows you to run a different operating system from the one you are currently running and that has the software in it. Whether you can toggle would just be in the Window which is showing the "Virtual Operating System." But if you go to Set in the command prompt you will find none of the evnvironment variables from the Virtual Operating System.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

i have two operating systems,iwould like to toggle desktop
of each os by logging in one os.Both r windows operating
systems.Anyone plz share any views
goodday

Reboot the machine, then select the desired operating system
from your boot loader.

 

[Dan Seur]

There are one or two 3rd party boot managers that claim they can do
this. Google "boot manager" and check specs.

There are also one or two virtual machine (VM) systems that do it.

No Windows can do this natively. Some other OSs may be able to.

Be careful. This capability is often accompanied by a dangerous
vulnerability to intersystem corruption, especially with boot managers
(I believe - I'm not sure how they actually do what they claim to do). A
well-written VM system will protect against this better, often using
hardware to allocate and handle virtual address spaces and myriad other
duties.

Since your systems are already installed, you may be constrained in your
choice of which boot manager or VM to use. I'm not certain of that
either. Uncertainty is a big part of my life, and often entertaining.

Good luck. It'd be nice if you'd post back with a success story.

 

[Enkidu]

I've used both VMWare and Microsoft Virtual PC for this with some
success. The OP will need plenty of RAM, hard disk and CPU of course.

Cheers,

Cliff