Dual boot WinXP/7 - How to hide Windows 7 from boot loader and XP?

[nascar2496]

Working in a corporate environment, we use Windows XP now but are needing to upgrade to Windows 7. I have dual boot Windows XP and 7 machine, thats the easy part, but I need to hide Windows 7 from the boot menu OR have a keyboard shortcut that can boot Win 7. The goal is I do not want users to know about Windows 7 until it has been tested and when we go live its already installed and working.

So my objectives are: Working Win 7 install, Hide from XP and boot menu, Be able to boot into 7 at a later time, eventually remove XP from the boot and have 7 the only OS.

Is this possible?


Thank you

 

[gregrocker]

In Control Panel\System and Security\System\Advanced System Settings|Advanced tab\Startup and Recovery\Settings set XP as default OS, uncheck Time to Display OS Menu.

Now to boot Win7 you'lll need to go into that setting in XP to enable the Dual Boot menu (with 5-10 sec timeout) so that you can reboot into Win7 via the Dual Boot menu.

 

[nascar2496]

Thank you for your response.

I understand what you are saying but I want to hide the boot menu totally. If I hide windows 7 from the menu how do I get it back from xp? In xp (which was installed first) it only lists Windows xp and nothing about 7 and vice versa with 7.

 

[gregrocker]

You would go into the same place in XP to re-enable the Boot Menu and/or set Win7 as default OS. These options are in both OS's.