Dual and Multi Boot Operating Systems

Did you know it's possible to have more than one operating system installed on your computer? In fact, some people have three or even more operating systems installed. Having two operating systems installed on your computer is called having a dual boot operating system. Having more than two operating systems installed on your computer is called having a multi boot operating system.

There are many advantages to having more than one operating system installed on your computer.

Foremost, it makes your computer compatible with a wider variety of programs. Since computer programs only work on the operating system they were compiled for, having another operating system ready to go means that you can launch a lot more computer programs than you could without one.

Another advantage to having more than one operating system installed is security (also called "insurance" by some people). Should something ever happen to one of your operating systems, it's possible that you may be able to use one of your other operating systems to fix whatever went wrong with your broken operating system. For example, you could use a Linux operating system to fix a corrupted file preventing a Windows or MAC operating system from launching.

Before I go any further with this post, I wanted to quickly point out that it is possible to have multiple versions of an operating system installed on any computer. For example, you can have Windows Vista and Windows XP and Windows 7 all installed on the same machine. Likewise, you can do the same with different versions of MAC or Linux operating systems if you wish to.

Installing another operating system is as simple as installing your first operating system. You run the operating system installer (which is usually a disc you put into your computer before turning your computer on) and tell the install to install your designated operating system into partitioned space not used by any other operating system. For example, your Windows 7  installation takes up a partition of 250GB on your 500GB hardrive so you choose to install Ubuntu Linux on a partition of 100GB of the remaining 250GB. From then on, every time you turn on your computer, you'll be asked which operating system you'd like to boot into.