Dual boot Vista and XP with Vista installed first

[Betty]

Most new laptops have only Vista available. Those with XP have it as a downgrade where you usually pay more for the computer and pay again for the downgrade.

I have a computer user that recently bought a laptop with Vista. The computer has to run XP to run our computer design software. Until we upgrade, it's not Vista compatible. We've got the upgrade but upgrading and testing it with our huge machinery is not a quick or painless process and is something that I'm not involved in.

I've installed XP on laptops that came with Vista before. Coworker brought his new HP laptop to me to put XP on. I go to search for drivers and don't come up with much. I contact HP and the first thing they tell me is that not everything may work or have a driver but that they'll help.

They eventually point me to a page with at least the drivers so I can get online and get the video to a decent level. Not a whole lot else really works based on those drivers. I chat more, try different drivers and this goes on and on.

Eventually I restore Vista, give the guy his laptop back and tell him I can't do it. I consider myself more than an intermediate user but less then advanced - especially in network issues.

Anyway, it occurs to me just now that what about a dual boot of the computer? How difficult is that to do? And will I have the same driver issues as before or is there some sort of magic that happens with a dual boot and I can get around that?

I don't think it will work because of the driver issue... right?

If not - can you think of any creative solution? This is only going to become more of an issue - not less. I don't want to upgrade everything to Vista - just this damn program - and the current version we're on isn't Vista compatible.