Dual booting XP/Vista, have to reinstall every program!?

Alright I just finished installing xp, then it hit me, I can't get to any of the programs on the vista partition that are installed, no crysis, no bioshock, ut 3, nothing. Do I really have to reinstall on this partition or another partition (I have three, one for xp one for vista one for games that I just made thinking I could just move them onto that partition)? I really don't feel like having to run all that again. Please tell me there's an easier way for my registry here to allow me to run it off another partition, after all, it's all the same hard drive right?

 

i try to install the programs in the third partition ¨(e:/) so they are cool with the drive path

you can also try to use portable programs, for example opera@usb , portable firefox, and so on . there are some web sites with a lot of them.

office , i have to install it in both windows, but i install it one over the other, this way they use the same files.the second install its very fast cause it only copies the files needed for the new one. Been using this way for years and different versions of office and windows , with no problems.

a lot of games works out of the box (but a lot doesn't) without having them to reinstall, you have to be carefull tough with the save games and configuration locations, if you want to have the same over the two Oses. sometimes its just not possible. and other times its only needed the registre keys in windows, so you can do like office and install one over other.

 

For most cases, the answer is yes, you will have to reinstall. The programs need information in the registry, and that is only available to the windows you are using at the time of the installation. You need to treat the installations on each Windows almost as if they are a separate computer.

You might be able to get away with installing a game on a shared partition from XP, then again in the same location on Vista. Then you would not be using 2x the disk space, and both windows will have the correct registry. However, if there are updates to the games or something, that could screw things up.

The better solution is to only use each program in the Windows that you need. Like, pick Vista as your main OS, and if you have a game that needs XP, boot to XP and install it there. Then, when you want to play that game boot into XP.

 

i agree with playing games in one OS (eg XP) its the most practical solution, most of the new games relay heavy in registry and config and save locations. a lot of older games works inside their directories tough


and its amazing how a lot of programs works just with the files. you just have to try. Even when i reinstall windows i don't reinstall all programs, i leave the "program files" around the disk so i don't have to reinstall everything


i think the better solution is to use portable applications. if you use other programs, try and see if they work , and if they doesn't, then you can install them one over other or separately.

so far in this installation i had just to install twice the drivers, and some programs that relay in installing things , like I8kfan(installed over), maybe notebook hardware control (well didn't check if i could run it from the other Os without problems).


its even better because for example i have only one opera installation, and only one set of bookmarks, configurations etc. having to do it twice will not be too nice