Dear Microsoft,I have tried your windows 7, after completely skipping Vista. And now I meet your new bootloader for the first time, as the 7 and vista are very near identical.You need to work the kinks out of this bootloader. I use multiple Operating Systems, including legacy windows, in order to maintain full productivity, and even Linux. I am still a happy Windows User and the majority of the time i am using this operating system.But after having to restore my MBR two different times, and getting an external harddrive corrupted in the process, I think that more time needs to be spent upgrading your bootloader to be much more compatible with legacy (xp) OS and linux OS for the power users. Face it, alot of businesses are going to stick with Windows XP no matter what and if you have any hope of selling more product to them in the way of Windows 7, please facilitate them to be able to smoothly go back to older Operating systems for added productivity. Also, many users need Linux OS to handle some special programs, and face this reality by making it easier to add linux to the bootloader.Thank you im interested to see your responsesps: i already know about EasyBCD

I think any company with an IT department worth their salt would use a third-party bootloader solution. After all, it's hardly in Microsoft's best interest to facilitate multi-OS environments.That being said, it would definitely be good for consumers to have better default bootloading handling. I've had lots of problems with what you've talked about as well with XP/Vista/Linux.

Business generally do not want to support multi-boot different OS on a single device. For one, it is a support and training nightmare. Second, if different OSes are required to application compatibility, there are other solutions that fit this space. This includes Terminal Serivces, Hosted Desktops, App-V, VirtualPC, etc..Joe

I haven't dual booted in probably 5 years, due to good virtual machine options. VMware workstation is very darn good, and I've found meets all of my needs. Of course there could be situations where that won't work, such as highly graphical intensive program or needing hardware layer access. So I'm not saying you never need to dual boot, but I think it's much less common. I've been a consultant for many very large companies and I've only seen one dual boot with Linux and that was a pharma R&D company.

You shouldlearn how to use your tools. MS offers bcedit along with other tools to help with what you want to do.For a good multiboot setup, you should always load Windows first, then your *nix so that grub can do most of the bootloader handiwork.Also, whenever you are doing any disk recovery work to include restoring a MBR, you always disconnect all other disks--external and internal--so that you don't make an inadvertent mistake.If you are a real "power user," then you should already know these tips. Don't blame MS.

Strangely, I installed Windows 7 yesterday, dual booting (yes, Win 7 first, Linux second) with Grub handline everything. This morning when I got up, I discovered that Grub was no longer handling things, and that Windows 7 had automatically did some updating overnight. I had to partly reinstall my Linux to get Grub back!Nevertheless, I enjoy Windows 7. And Linux. So I'm dual-booting.One reason for dual-booting is if you haven't decided which OS you prefer. I've been running only Linux for years, but decided to give Win 7 a try... It's pretty good, but not as much fun as Linux.

Bcdedit isn't that bad once you've played with it for a while. Enter bcdedit /? from a command prompt to get started.