How to dual-boot with Windows without partitioning

I've just drop-by this site and think it might be useful for many who are not ready to drop windows for good, have a look on this option; http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/wubi.

I read the info about wubi, was curious. i down loaded it and put it on xp. worked just we were told. xp was dual booted with zorin-os-5-core before installing wubi. there was no interaction between (xp/wubi and dual boot xp/zorin). the uninstall was easy and clean. thanks for the info. now if i can find wabi for zorin, it would make my day.

Just my 2 cents here, but here are my thoughts.....

If you don't play games (WoW, Call of Duty, etc) in Windows, I'd recommend the following:

1) Formatting the PC and putting Linux on it as the primary OS so it interfaces directly with the hardware.

2) If you still want Windows for various things (except Gaming), then I would install VirtualBox and install Windows into it.

After you've installed Windows in to VirtualBox, do the following:

a) Apply all Windows Updates (remember they are incremental, so you download > apply > reboot > repeat until all done)

b) Configure Windows how you want it setup.

c) Save that image as "Windows Default Installation + Updates - month-day-year"

d) Now install all programs you want to use, update them and configure them how you want them setup.

e) Save that image as "Windows Default Installation + Updates + Programs - month-day-year"

f) Save that image as "Windows Default Installation + Working Backup - month-day-year"

g) Save that image as "Windows Default Installation + Working Copy - month-day-year"

You will now have the following VMs:

Windows Default Installation + Updates - month-day-year
Windows Default Installation + Updates + Programs - month-day-year
Windows Default Installation + Working Backup - month-day-year
Windows Default Installation + Working Copy - month-day-year

Windows Default Installation + Updates - month-day-year is the default Windows installation + all Windows updates as of that date you created it.

Windows Default Installation + Updates + Programs - month-day-year is the same as the above, only with all programs and updates for those programs as well.

Windows Default Installation + Working Backup - month-day-year is the same as Windows Default Installation + Updates + Programs - month-day-year and if you need to rollback because your Windows install got messed up, this is the one you will use.

Windows Default Installation + Working Copy - month-day-year - This is the VM of Windows you'll run when needed.

Let's say your Windows gets all borked up with a virus and you are using Windows Default Installation + Working Copy - month-day-year, well, no big deal. Simply quit that VM and load up Windows Default Installation + Working Backup - month-day-year and then save that image as Windows Default Installation + Working Copy - month-day-year (with the current month-date-year) and then delete the old Windows Default Installation + Working Copy - month-day-year that you were using and is the borked up one.

Now, let's say you want to add/remove programs or update them or update Windows, then programs, etc, you can roll back to an earlier image and create new dated images like we did before. So you may have several say "Windows Default Installation + Updates - month-day-year" and "Windows Default Installation + Updates + Programs - month-day-year" and even several "Windows Default Installation + Working Backup - month-day-year" VMs, all from which may choose. Unlike Windows lame "System Restore" this is a true full restore.

So for example:

Windows Default Installation + Updates - 01-26-2011
Windows Default Installation + Updates - 07-17-2011
Windows Default Installation + Updates + Programs - 07-17-2011
Windows Default Installation + Working Backup - 01-26-2011
Windows Default Installation + Working Backup - 07-17-2011
Windows Default Installation + Working Copy - 01-27-2011

Again, if you Game, you'll want to want to just go Hardware > Windows OS > Programs vs Hardware > Linux > VirtualBox > Virtual Machine (VM) of Windows > Programs, because all the extra software layers plus not directly interfacing with the hardware (as much as you can), will cause software programs to slow down. not work, etc.

Ideally, I suggest running Linux only and if you must use Windows, using the VM methods above. IF you do play games on Windows, I would ideally recommend just having a special Windows-based PC set aside exclusively for Gaming only. Any other Windows-related tasks or programs, I would do in the VM on the Linux box.

Lastly, remember that whenever you run an OS in a VM, regardless of that OS, it takes twice the amount of RAM to run it (and whatever programs within it also require more RAM as well), so since the 32-bit version of Windows XP has a 3.72GB limit on it (without a special kernel from Microsoft), you may run out of room rather quickly depending on what you're doing. If at all possible, use the 64-bit version of Windows XP because the 64-bit versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, Server, etc) do not use RAM for video (even if you have VRAM) whereas the 32-bit versions of Windows DO use normal RAM for video (even if you have VRAM on your video card as well). Bear in mind too that whenever you run a VM, the OS isn't directly interfacing with the hardware because there's those 2 extra layers of software (VirtualBox and the host computers installed OS)