XP Downgrade rights?

I should be getting my new laptop in a few days that comes with Vista Ultimate. I've read that Vista Ultimate comes with "downgrade" rights to XP (Pro hopefully). So what exactly does that mean? Can I dual boot XP and Vista together, or do I have to choose one or the other?

Assuming that I can dual boot, anything special I should know about how that works? I know that I'll probably have to do a little searching for drivers for XP, but not sure if there are any other things I really need to know about.

I have a couple of Macs in the house that are dual boot and you can press the option key during start-up and it allows you to choose your start-up volume. What's the equivalent of this on the PC?

Thanks for any tips or tricks.

 

first time see info about downgrading , but i think that if it's possible you can only use xp or vista

 

Google is your friend

 

Thanks. That is very helpful regarding the downgrade info. Sorry I didn't search this time, no good excuse other than I was being lazy. I'll be better next time...promise.

I guess I'll need to get another copy of XP to be able to dual-boot. Which is too bad, and seems kind of short sighted on the part of MS. I'd like to dual-boot for two main reasons.

1) I have at least one software program that I run frequently, that while it is supposed to work on Vista, has given a lot of users trouble getting everything to work right.

2) I'd like to have the comfort of having XP as a back-up in case I get really frustrated with Vista. I'm starting a new job the same week as I get my new machine. I'm going to need to hit the ground running, and I won't have a lot of time to figure out how to tweak Vista to make it work how I want. Having the option to go back and forth between XP and Vista would get me to use both OSes and learn at my own pace...not having that option means there is a better chance I'll just stick with XP (and maybe dual-boot Linux and finally learn how to use that OS).

 

Yes, you would need another copy of XP.

 

You will have to find a copy of XP Pro yourself and install XP. Then call Microsoft to activate it. But you can use only one at a time, you can switch back & forth but I guess each time you will have to call Microsoft for activation...