System Commander Deluxe 4.0 System Commander Deluxe 4.0 Stefan Assmann
So you've just bought yourself that Pentium II powerhouse, featuring a 9 GB SCSI hard disk with Windows NT 4.0, have you? Very nice indeed. Of course, NT 4.0 has been preinstalled and is the only operating system in sight. You might think that NT 4.0 is the only operating system you'll need...you're wrong. What will you do when your children harass you to put Windows 95 on the computer so that they can play Doom or Hexen? And what about DOS? You'll need it to run for that one application that doesn't have a Windows counterpart yet.
Fear no longer! V Communications has released the newest version of its multibooting utility. For those of you who don't know this utility yet, it automatically detects the operating system(s) you have installed and makes a handy menu. On the next reboot, you’ll be able to choose between them. No hassle, no fuss! Just install the product and you’ll be up and running in less than five.
To sum up our experimentation, we ran the software on several computers and were able to boot between DOS 6.22, Linux, OS/2, Windows NT 4.0, Windows NT 5.0 (beta), Windows 95 and Windows 98 (beta) flawlessly and easily.
You can theoretically have any number and combination of operating systems on your hard drive. You can, of course, place different operating systems on different drives. There are practical limits as to how many operating systems you can have, but you would be VERY hard pressed to reach these limits.
If you're interested in how System Commander performs this "magic", here's how it's done. Upon installation, SC moves the existing boot sector to another place, makes a backup copy of it and puts a so-called "multiFAT boot sector" in its place. Each time you add another operating system, a pointer is placed in the multiFAT boot sector that points to the boot sector of the operating system installed (which is kept in a subdirectory of the folder where you installed System Commander). When you make a selection, the corresponding boot sector is copied to the root in the right place and the chosen operating system is booted.
As if multi-booting is not enough, V Communications put a partition manager in the program as well, along with an operating system "wizard", which will guide you through the process of installing the more "difficult" systems. The boot menu itself can be customized...even with multimedia.
If you're into multi-booting, look no further; this is your dream come true. Go and get it right now! After installation, you'll wonder how on earth you managed without it.
