i moved on to Ubuntu.

Why? Cause, i have started loving Linux, after working with Fedora. It feels great to have full control using the terminal. Now, my dad insists to have Vista too, so that my transition from Windows to Linux is smooth. I believe I have already shifted to Ubuntu, cause rarely do I login to Vista.

Now all this is on my laptop that I will be taking with me to my college. I have so many friends, who will consider that I am being rude if I don’t let the use the laptop for watching movies or playing games. (I am using my laptop for coding and web design, sometimes for songs, but no games! at least for now). So how do I do that? Well, most of my friends are bad at Linux, so I don’t need to worry about that, but still I have Vista and that shall be a problem.

I found a solution for this myself: Remove Vista Option from the boot loader! You might be thinking, then how do you access Vista!

That’s exactly what I am going to tell now.

To remove/edit the menu options, you need to edit this file.

/boot/grub/menu.lst

Before that make a backup file using the following command.

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.backup

Open your terminal. Type

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

This should open the menu file. Scroll down and find something similar to this.

title Windows Vista Home Premium
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

It might vary depending on what you have installed and where you have installed. Comment them by adding a ‘#’ without quotes in front of each line. (Deleting them won’t be a good idea).

Save the file and try restarting. You won’t find the Vista option now!

Hey! now what do I do to boot Vista?

It’s simple. When the OS selection menu appears, press ‘c’ to enter the command line interface.

Type the following commands one by one.

root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Note: Replace (hd0,0) with what was mentioned in the menu.lst file corresponding to Vista.

Finally type the command boot, and lo, Vista loads.

Now, that’s a geeky way. Provides access only to me and none else. One look and everyone thinks that only Ubuntu is installed, but peep a little more and hey! there is Vista too!.

Disclaimer: Helpful only if your friends are vista noobs and don’t know this alternative.

Hope that was helpful.