QUESTION:
I have a problem. I installed Vista on my XP computer, to dual boot. But I don’t like Vista and went back to using XP. The problem is that when I reboot, it automatically starts up Vista unless I’m paying attention and choose the “Previous operating system” in the bootup menu. How can I make it automatically go into XP again?

ANSWER:
Luckily that’s an easy one to fix, although the answer isn’t very intuitive. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Click Start | Control Panel and open the System applet.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. At the bottom, under “Startup and Recovery,” click the Settings button.
4. At the top of the dialog box, under “System Startup,” click the down arrow and select the operating system that you want to be the default (the one that starts automatically after a set amount of time).
5. You can also modify the number of seconds the list will display before going into your default OS, if you want.
6. Click OK twice to close out the dialog boxes.

Now when you boot up, the system should automatically load XP unless you select Vista from the boot menu list.

-summey