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os2fan2, I suggest you go to the first page of this thread and read the info at the link that McTavish posted.

I remember that BootMagic let you configure what partitions are hidden for each OS. But that probably isn't possible for OSL since it is entirely contained in the MBR. OSL's approach should be much safer and trouble-free, as you mentioned earlier.

Is it possible to have Windows Explorer always display the same columns that I specify instead of having Vista change them based on the contents of the folder?

I took another look at the docs and now I see that it does say to make the partition active. I just wish that section was up higher in point 4 so there was no chance of missing this very important point. This is a really fine program with a great set of features.

It would be really helpful if the Boot CD feature in OSL let you pick which partition to make active before booting.

That is a good point. Thanks for all your great help.

I discovered that even though I can boot from the XP partition, I can't get it to be drive C. Since some programs only install to C this will be a problem. So it looks like I need to reinstall that. I expect it will be the same for the Vista installation. I've decided not to proceed with this until I can figure out how to stop my external drive from being hidden. My first thought is to change it to a logical partition.

I have attached an image from Disk Management. The installation that needs boot files is the second partition on Disk 0. I forgot that the external drive that OSL is hiding is marked Active. That is probably what is causing OSL to hide it.

I am Admin in Vista. I was running it from the command console which shows that I am Admin. I just tried creating a shortcut but the option to run as Admin is greyed out. I always work with UAC turned off.

I'll mention this in case anyone knows a solution. When I run OSL from a Vista command window I get this message:

I understand that. Fixing it in XP is simple and I've already done that. I don't know what is involved in fixing it in my second Vista installation. But I can fix it by making that partition active and then reinstalling. This point brings up what I consider to be bad advice in the OSL docs. They recommend installing all OS's and then install OSL. This leaves out that you should make the partition active before installing the OS.

That's a very helpful link. I haven't tried booting any of the non-Vista partitions since installing OSL. But it looks like I shouldn't have a problem with them since making them active will bypass the Vista boot manager. Then removing the non-Vista entries in the BCD should take care of the Vista boot manager coming up when I boot Vista.

I was using the Vista boot manager before. I thought OSL would remove it. How do I get rid of it?

Sorry, but why do you want to? So I can configure OSL without rebooting. It is not a big deal though. I have two USB hard drives and both are formatted as primary partitions. OSL only found an MBR on one of them and that is the only one it hid.

OSL2000 sounds really interesting. I download and installed it but I can't get it to run from a Vista command prompt. All I get is the help screen. When I reboot I get the interface but after selecting an OS I then also get the Vista boot loader. It hid the other primary partitions which is good. But it thinks there is an OS installed on one of my USB hard drives. It found an MBR on there for some reason. So it hid that partition which I don't want.