from System Properties, Advanced tab, Startup and Recover, click Settings.

System Startup Default operating system:  Select Vista X64 as the default.  change the Time to desplay list of operating systems to 0.

OR

from that page, press the Edit key and edit boot.ini.

read this reference to the boot.ini layout, and this reference to the boot.ini arguments. 

you want to change the default OS to the drive and partition that points to Vista X64, and remove the reference to XP MCE.  Change the timeout to 0.

The first option I gave you leaves the pointers to XP MCE but selects Vista X64 without wating.  The second option removes the reference to XP MCE.  Option 2 also gives you the chance to damage your boot.ini file, so be careful.

In any case, after you are done, you may safely delete the folder that contains XP MCE, as you will have not way to execute it after the edit. 

it's really just a simple as that?

So if i understand just set the time out to 0 sec..then when vista boots i can accss the XP drive an just delete the window folder and that will be the end of XP??

yes.  the boot.ini file points to the various Windows operating systems you might have on your machine, by drive, partition and folder.  one of those links explains it all. 

the default OS is indicated by the default setting, and the timeout is just that.

the bare minimum is to set the default to your prefered OS and the timeout to 0.  it won't wait for you as it used to.

once you can't select it, delete it.  just make sure you choose the right one :-) 

Can i do this from the vista side or do I need to do it from the XP side. The current way it is set is that vista is the default boot..Under vista i found the setting section in the system properties but there is no edit tab..

So do i need to set the time to 0 in vista or in xp and modify the boot.ini as i know this is a xp file only..

thanks

you can take the drive out and put it in a Windows 2000 machine and edit it if you prefer.

but seriously, boot.ini is just a file on your computer.  it's a system hidden file that you won't see in Windows Explorer unless you tell it to show you those files.  it's probably read-only also.  all of this to protect you from yourself.

its a configuration file that MS uses to tell the various versions of Windows what the OS options are.  all you're going to do is modify it.  the edit button on that page is just for that purpose.

most people never install more than one OS at a time.  some cautious people try a new OS before they commit, or maybe just have a good reason to run more than one OS.  those people end up with two lines in that section of boot.ini. 

Use whichever OS you happen to be in.  I gave you the directions from XP because that's all i have.

if you happen to botch the job, you'll need to construct a boot.ini from scratch and place it in C:\, and you'll need to slave it to another bootable drive for that. 

(so pay attention :-) 

Ok Im getting a bit confused here..

.

What i want to do is lose XP.. so i really don't care if i screw up the Boot.ini file...

So Can i just boot into Vista and in there set the time to 0 and it will do the same thing..Then i can just go the to the drive that has XP on it an delet the windows folder or even better yet just reformat the drive...

a bit of an update I booted into XP to look at the system properties page an it only lists one Os on the dropdown box and in the boot.ini file..

Now when i look at it in Vista then the drop down box shows both Os's so i am pretty convinced i will have to to what your first suggestion is to lower the time to zero

no, you really do care if you mess that file up.  if it's wrong, i don't the bootstrap program will know where the OS is.  properly it is ntldr, and it's in the Partition Boot Sector, but the microcode on your PC starts ntldr, which looks at boot.ini which points to your OS.

all you need to do is change the default to Vista, countdown to 0.  all Microsoft operating systems read that file at boot time.

if XP was on the primary drive, i wouldn't reformat it because that is where the bootstrap file is.  

it may seem a little odd to have your OS on the second partition or the second drive, but it doesn't really matter. 

sorry for the crossed post....

you'll have to actually edit boot.ini if you reqlly want to remove XP from the dropdown list.  0 seconds to choose is close enough.

once you've deleted the XP folder, selecting XP from the list just won't work anyway. 

The XP was the intial Os and was on th C drive i installed Vista on the 2nd drive the D drive

but what is strange is when i boot into Vista, the Vista drive is C and the XP drive is D and if i boot into XP its the other way around.

Wonder what would happen if i just disconnected the xp drive would it boot? will have to see..