internet explorer 7 beta 3

Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

It is not an update. Install it or not as you like. Set a System Restore point before installing any new software.
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message

Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

System Restore sets the point automatically for you- if you have the Vista Volume checked, which it is by default. Just don't boot to XP. Unless, you have BitLocker turned on.
-Michael
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message

It is not an update. Install it or not as you like. Set a System Restore point before installing any new software.
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

What is bitlocker ? please explain tks "MICHAEL" wrote in message

System Restore sets the point automatically for you- if you have the Vista Volume checked, which it is by default. Just don't boot to XP. Unless, you have BitLocker turned on.
-Michael
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message It is not an update. Install it or not as you like. Set a System Restore point before installing any new software.
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

As long as you are not running both XP and Vista on the same computer the issue Michael refers to will not occur. Other things, maybe.
"Kue2" wrote in message

What is bitlocker ? please explain tks "MICHAEL" wrote in message System Restore sets the point automatically for you- if you have the Vista Volume checked, which it is by default. Just don't boot to XP. Unless, you have BitLocker turned on.
-Michael
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message It is not an update. Install it or not as you like. Set a System Restore point before installing any new software.
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

Of course if you disable restore in Xp there's no problems either.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message

As long as you are not running both XP and Vista on the same computer the issue Michael refers to will not occur. Other things, maybe.
"Kue2" wrote in message What is bitlocker ? please explain tks "MICHAEL" wrote in message System Restore sets the point automatically for you- if you have the Vista Volume checked, which it is by default. Just don't boot to XP. Unless, you have BitLocker turned on.
-Michael
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message It is not an update. Install it or not as you like. Set a System Restore point before installing any new software.
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

What do you mean? Disabling XP's System Restore doesn't protect Vista's restore points.
-Michael
"Peter M" wrote in message

Of course if you disable restore in Xp there's no problems either.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message As long as you are not running both XP and Vista on the same computer the issue Michael refers to will not occur. Other things, maybe.
"Kue2" wrote in message What is bitlocker ? please explain tks "MICHAEL" wrote in message System Restore sets the point automatically for you- if you have the Vista Volume checked, which it is by default. Just don't boot to XP. Unless, you have BitLocker turned on.
-Michael
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message It is not an update. Install it or not as you like. Set a System Restore point before installing any new software.
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

It isn't caused by System Restore. It's caused by volsnap.sys, a VSS driver.
"Peter M" wrote in message

Of course if you disable restore in Xp there's no problems either.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message As long as you are not running both XP and Vista on the same computer the issue Michael refers to will not occur. Other things, maybe.
"Kue2" wrote in message What is bitlocker ? please explain tks "MICHAEL" wrote in message System Restore sets the point automatically for you- if you have the Vista Volume checked, which it is by default. Just don't boot to XP. Unless, you have BitLocker turned on.
-Michael
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message It is not an update. Install it or not as you like. Set a System Restore point before installing any new software.
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

IE7 Beta 3 is intended for Windows XP, not for Vista.
It's basically the XP version of Vista's IE.
-Reed Rinn MVP Shell / User
"Frank Teltsch" wrote in message

Do I want to install IE7 Beta 3 on a Vista computer? Can I expect it automatically as a Vista update?
I have Beta 3 running fine under XP.

I routinely go into XP every day or every other. My Vista restore points have not been altered or deleted. I just assumed since I have restore in XP disabled that was why.

"Peter M" wrote in message

I routinely go into XP every day or every other. My Vista restore points have not been altered or deleted. I just assumed since I have restore in XP disabled that was why.

How many restore points do you have? What are their dates? Unless you have manually deleted Vista's restore points, you should have a lot of saved points.
I have System Restore off in XP. But my Vista restore points are *always* deleted when I boot to XP and then back to Vista- *unless* I have BitLocker on.
I realize that I have been told what I am experiencing is not related to BitLocker- I call bullshit. However, if you have XP and Vista on the same drive- your restore points will be erased. Well, unless.... you know what I'm about to say.
-Michael

Ahhh... okay, now I see my confusion. I didnt realize it had to be the same drive. Xp is on a partion on hd0 and vista is on hd1. Thanks for the clarification.
"MICHAEL" wrote in message

"Peter M" wrote in message I routinely go into XP every day or every other. My Vista restore points have not been altered or deleted. I just assumed since I have restore in XP disabled that was why.
How many restore points do you have? What are their dates? Unless you have manually deleted Vista's restore points, you should have a lot of saved points.
I have System Restore off in XP. But my Vista restore points are *always* deleted when I boot to XP and then back to Vista- *unless* I have BitLocker on.
I realize that I have been told what I am experiencing is not related to BitLocker- I call bullshit. However, if you have XP and Vista on the same drive- your restore points will be erased. Well, unless.... you know what I'm about to say. -Michael

When you boot XP in normal mode volsnap.sys checks a number of items created by the Volume Shadowcopy Service, including System Restore points on all volumes it can (not hidden from XP by some means) for validity as defined by XP volsnap.
There is an incompatibility between XP volsnap.sys and Vista volsnap.sys such that Vista System Restore points appear to XP volsnap.sys to be corrupted. The fact that the Vista volsnap.sys took the snapshots used by the Vista System Restore means nothing to XP volsnap.sys so it deletes the Vista SR points thinking to protect the user from trying to restore a corrupted image in XP. Remember, XP has no clue as to what Vista is.
It makes no difference whether SR is turned off on XP becasue volsnap.sys is not part of SR, it is the VSS driver. When SR wants to set a point it makes a call to VSS and volsnap.sys takes the snapshot which SR then uses in creating the restore point. Volsnap.sys runs regardles of whether or not SR ever runs.
It is worth noting that VSS does not run when XP is in Safe Mode and indeed when you are in Safe Mode you cannot set a restore point. You can restore from an existing restore point in Safe Mode so clearly SR is running in Safe Mode.
What Michael is saying is that the Vista volume must be hidden from XP to prevent the XP volsnap.sys from seeing it when XP boots up (in anything but Safe Mode). He is saying that BitLocker somehow serves this function or at least prevents volsnap.sys from deleting the Vista restore points. I don't argue that point.
The incompatibility between the XP volsnap.sys and the Vista volsnap.sys is by design in order to expand VSS's functionality in Vista. The fix would require backporting to XP and MS says that too much of XP would require rewritting and they have made the decision not to do it.
So be prepared accordingly if you plan to dual boot XP and Vista on a production machine once Vista releases. Given what I know, I don't plan to. I don't know what else is out there that could be a problem for Vista.
"Peter M" wrote in message

Ahhh... okay, now I see my confusion. I didnt realize it had to be the same drive. Xp is on a partion on hd0 and vista is on hd1. Thanks for the clarification.
"MICHAEL" wrote in message "Peter M" wrote in message I routinely go into XP every day or every other. My Vista restore points have not been altered or deleted. I just assumed since I have restore in XP disabled that was why.
How many restore points do you have? What are their dates? Unless you have manually deleted Vista's restore points, you should have a lot of saved points.
I have System Restore off in XP. But my Vista restore points are *always* deleted when I boot to XP and then back to Vista- *unless* I have BitLocker on.
I realize that I have been told what I am experiencing is not related to BitLocker- I call bullshit. However, if you have XP and Vista on the same drive- your restore points will be erased. Well, unless.... you know what I'm about to say. -Michael

Easy fix, Colin. You touched on it, but I have a dual-boot notebook set up this way:
Use a robust, third-party boot manager (I use BootMagic) and hide the Vista partition from XP and the XP partition from Vista in the preferences of each, respectively. Additionally, if you do this at the onset of installing the second OS, in this case Vista, there is no issue with boot file modifications.
The only caveat is there is no way to back-up the Vista partition from the XP partition automatically (that I have figured out yet!), but Vista's back-up utillity seems to work without remark. I have not tried this with VistaBootPro, as I have no need. Perhaps when RC1 rolls out I'll take some time.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message

When you boot XP in normal mode volsnap.sys checks a number of items created by the Volume Shadowcopy Service, including System Restore points on all volumes it can (not hidden from XP by some means) for validity as defined by XP volsnap.
There is an incompatibility between XP volsnap.sys and Vista volsnap.sys such that Vista System Restore points appear to XP volsnap.sys to be corrupted. The fact that the Vista volsnap.sys took the snapshots used by the Vista System Restore means nothing to XP volsnap.sys so it deletes the Vista SR points thinking to protect the user from trying to restore a corrupted image in XP. Remember, XP has no clue as to what Vista is.
It makes no difference whether SR is turned off on XP becasue volsnap.sys is not part of SR, it is the VSS driver. When SR wants to set a point it makes a call to VSS and volsnap.sys takes the snapshot which SR then uses in creating the restore point. Volsnap.sys runs regardles of whether or not SR ever runs.
It is worth noting that VSS does not run when XP is in Safe Mode and indeed when you are in Safe Mode you cannot set a restore point. You can restore from an existing restore point in Safe Mode so clearly SR is running in Safe Mode.
What Michael is saying is that the Vista volume must be hidden from XP to prevent the XP volsnap.sys from seeing it when XP boots up (in anything but Safe Mode). He is saying that BitLocker somehow serves this function or at least prevents volsnap.sys from deleting the Vista restore points. I don't argue that point.
The incompatibility between the XP volsnap.sys and the Vista volsnap.sys is by design in order to expand VSS's functionality in Vista. The fix would require backporting to XP and MS says that too much of XP would require rewritting and they have made the decision not to do it.
So be prepared accordingly if you plan to dual boot XP and Vista on a production machine once Vista releases. Given what I know, I don't plan to. I don't know what else is out there that could be a problem for Vista.
"Peter M" wrote in message Ahhh... okay, now I see my confusion. I didnt realize it had to be the same drive. Xp is on a partion on hd0 and vista is on hd1. Thanks for the clarification.
"MICHAEL" wrote in message "Peter M" wrote in message I routinely go into XP every day or every other. My Vista restore points have not been altered or deleted. I just assumed since I have restore in XP disabled that was why.
How many restore points do you have? What are their dates? Unless you have manually deleted Vista's restore points, you should have a lot of saved points.
I have System Restore off in XP. But my Vista restore points are *always* deleted when I boot to XP and then back to Vista- *unless* I have BitLocker on.
I realize that I have been told what I am experiencing is not related to BitLocker- I call bullshit. However, if you have XP and Vista on the same drive- your restore points will be erased. Well, unless.... you know what I'm about to say. -Michael

Some users may resort to "hiding". But it sure is much easier to be able to access any file or folder on WinXP from Vista. Yes, I have backups on an external drive. Being able to shortcut your WinXP music, documents, or picture folder to your Vista desktop makes things so simple. Heck, there are *some* programs you can run from Vista that are located in WinXP. Like Opera, LimeWirePro, NeoTrace, and others.
I do have a question. With BitLocker turned on, XP shows the Vista volume as just a drive letter. If you click on that Drive letter, a dialogue box pops up saying the volume needs to be formatted. Vista is "hidden" from XP. So, it would actually go through with the format if you confirmed it, correct? I can see some users not really understanding this, and either by accident or because they may think they are suppose to, letting XP format their Vista partition. Ouch!
Thanks for your input, Mark.
-Michael
"Mark D. VandenBerg" wrote in message

Easy fix, Colin. You touched on it, but I have a dual-boot notebook set up this way:
Use a robust, third-party boot manager (I use BootMagic) and hide the Vista partition from XP and the XP partition from Vista in the preferences of each, respectively. Additionally, if you do this at the onset of installing the second OS, in this case Vista, there is no issue with boot file modifications.
The only caveat is there is no way to back-up the Vista partition from the XP partition automatically (that I have figured out yet!), but Vista's back-up utillity seems to work without remark. I have not tried this with VistaBootPro, as I have no need. Perhaps when RC1 rolls out I'll take some time.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message When you boot XP in normal mode volsnap.sys checks a number of items created by the Volume Shadowcopy Service, including System Restore points on all volumes it can (not hidden from XP by some means) for validity as defined by XP volsnap.
There is an incompatibility between XP volsnap.sys and Vista volsnap.sys such that Vista System Restore points appear to XP volsnap.sys to be corrupted. The fact that the Vista volsnap.sys took the snapshots used by the Vista System Restore means nothing to XP volsnap.sys so it deletes the Vista SR points thinking to protect the user from trying to restore a corrupted image in XP. Remember, XP has no clue as to what Vista is.
It makes no difference whether SR is turned off on XP becasue volsnap.sys is not part of SR, it is the VSS driver. When SR wants to set a point it makes a call to VSS and volsnap.sys takes the snapshot which SR then uses in creating the restore point. Volsnap.sys runs regardles of whether or not SR ever runs.
It is worth noting that VSS does not run when XP is in Safe Mode and indeed when you are in Safe Mode you cannot set a restore point. You can restore from an existing restore point in Safe Mode so clearly SR is running in Safe Mode.
What Michael is saying is that the Vista volume must be hidden from XP to prevent the XP volsnap.sys from seeing it when XP boots up (in anything but Safe Mode). He is saying that BitLocker somehow serves this function or at least prevents volsnap.sys from deleting the Vista restore points. I don't argue that point.
The incompatibility between the XP volsnap.sys and the Vista volsnap.sys is by design in order to expand VSS's functionality in Vista. The fix would require backporting to XP and MS says that too much of XP would require rewritting and they have made the decision not to do it.
So be prepared accordingly if you plan to dual boot XP and Vista on a production machine once Vista releases. Given what I know, I don't plan to. I don't know what else is out there that could be a problem for Vista.
"Peter M" wrote in message Ahhh... okay, now I see my confusion. I didnt realize it had to be the same drive. Xp is on a partion on hd0 and vista is on hd1. Thanks for the clarification.
"MICHAEL" wrote in message "Peter M" wrote in message I routinely go into XP every day or every other. My Vista restore points have not been altered or deleted. I just assumed since I have restore in XP disabled that was why.
How many restore points do you have? What are their dates? Unless you have manually deleted Vista's restore points, you should have a lot of saved points.
I have System Restore off in XP. But my Vista restore points are *always* deleted when I boot to XP and then back to Vista- *unless* I have BitLocker on.
I realize that I have been told what I am experiencing is not related to BitLocker- I call bullshit. However, if you have XP and Vista on the same drive- your restore points will be erased. Well, unless.... you know what I'm about to say. -Michael

"MICHAEL" wrote in message

Some users may resort to "hiding". But it sure is much easier to be able to access any file or folder on WinXP from Vista. Yes, I have backups on an external drive. Being able to shortcut your WinXP music, documents, or picture folder to your Vista desktop makes things so simple.

Which is why I have my XP "My Documents" folder located on a separate partition from any operating system and not hidden, so that I may access anything I wish from either XP or Vista. In fact, this makes it so much easier to grab programs and documents from either O/S and makes for a much smaller footprint on the actual hard drive.

Heck, there are *some* programs you can run from Vista that are located in WinXP. Like Opera, LimeWirePro, NeoTrace, and others.

Have not tried this, probably because I assumed there would be some sort of regisrty issue with BootMagic renaming either O/S partition "C:\" at boot-up. I'll give it a shot with Opera.

I do have a question. With BitLocker turned on, XP shows the Vista volume as just a drive letter. If you click on that Drive letter, a dialogue box pops up saying the volume needs to be formatted. Vista is "hidden" from XP. So, it would actually go through with the format if you confirmed it, correct? I can see some users not really understanding this, and either by accident or because they may think they are suppose to, letting XP format their Vista partition. Ouch!

An interesting situation. Although the partition itself is not hidden; the data is merely encrypted. My theory, untested and uninformed as it is, is that XP sees the partition but does not recognize the scramble of bits and bytes and therefore assumes that the partition itself has not been formatted. Extrapolate that farther and yeah, it probably would go through the reformat process, because Vista and BitLocker are not running and therefore unable to stop the process. It is good to know that BitLocker encryption does indeed work!
I'll be playing with a complete test unit this weekend and try a few of the scenarios you have suggested, just to see what happens. I have not done anything with BitLocker yet.
I would suggest you report the whole SR point deletion to MSFT since dual-booting will most likely be in many people's future and the incompatibility of the Restore Points, as well as how the boot manager is currently being deployed is not acceptable.

Thanks for your input, Mark.
-Michael

"Mark D. VandenBerg" wrote in message

"MICHAEL" wrote in message Some users may resort to "hiding". But it sure is much easier to be able to access any file or folder on WinXP from Vista. Yes, I have backups on an external drive. Being able to shortcut your WinXP music, documents, or picture folder to your Vista desktop makes things so simple.
Which is why I have my XP "My Documents" folder located on a separate partition from any operating system and not hidden, so that I may access anything I wish from either XP or Vista. In fact, this makes it so much easier to grab programs and documents from either O/S and makes for a much smaller footprint on the actual hard drive.

Good suggestion.

Heck, there are *some* programs you can run from Vista that are located in WinXP. Like Opera, LimeWirePro, NeoTrace, and others.
Have not tried this, probably because I assumed there would be some sort of regisrty issue with BootMagic renaming either O/S partition "C:\" at boot-up. I'll give it a shot with Opera.

Opera seems to work fine. I really like Opera.

I do have a question. With BitLocker turned on, XP shows the Vista volume as just a drive letter. If you click on that Drive letter, a dialogue box pops up saying the volume needs to be formatted. Vista is "hidden" from XP. So, it would actually go through with the format if you confirmed it, correct? I can see some users not really understanding this, and either by accident or because they may think they are suppose to, letting XP format their Vista partition. Ouch!
An interesting situation. Although the partition itself is not hidden; the data is merely encrypted. My theory, untested and uninformed as it is, is that XP sees the partition but does not recognize the scramble of bits and bytes and therefore assumes that the partition itself has not been formatted. Extrapolate that farther and yeah, it probably would go through the reformat process, because Vista and BitLocker are not running and therefore unable to stop the process. It is good to know that BitLocker encryption does indeed work!

There are many things I like about Vista- BitLocker is one of them. Although, I wish you could use it to encrypt other drives. I would like someone to explain to me the difference between BitLocker and the encryption you can do by clicking on the properties of a file, folder, or drive, under the "General" tab their is an "Advanced" button and then an encrypt check box. AES?
I also miss the ability to scan Vista from XP when Bitlocker is on, say with NOD32. If Vista is encrypted and it gets wacked by something- you can't diagnose the problem from XP. I am using Trend in Vista, I just like having alternative options.

I'll be playing with a complete test unit this weekend and try a few of the scenarios you have suggested, just to see what happens. I have not done anything with BitLocker yet.

Would love to hear your results.

I would suggest you report the whole SR point deletion to MSFT since dual-booting will most likely be in many people's future and the incompatibility of the Restore Points, as well as how the boot manager is currently being deployed is not acceptable.

I have done so.
Microsoft is well aware of this problem.
Take care,
Michael

btw, VistaBootPro is an editor, not a manager (at least so far).
"Mark D. VandenBerg" wrote in message

Easy fix, Colin. You touched on it, but I have a dual-boot notebook set up this way:
Use a robust, third-party boot manager (I use BootMagic) and hide the Vista partition from XP and the XP partition from Vista in the preferences of each, respectively. Additionally, if you do this at the onset of installing the second OS, in this case Vista, there is no issue with boot file modifications.
The only caveat is there is no way to back-up the Vista partition from the XP partition automatically (that I have figured out yet!), but Vista's back-up utillity seems to work without remark. I have not tried this with VistaBootPro, as I have no need. Perhaps when RC1 rolls out I'll take some time.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message When you boot XP in normal mode volsnap.sys checks a number of items created by the Volume Shadowcopy Service, including System Restore points on all volumes it can (not hidden from XP by some means) for validity as defined by XP volsnap.
There is an incompatibility between XP volsnap.sys and Vista volsnap.sys such that Vista System Restore points appear to XP volsnap.sys to be corrupted. The fact that the Vista volsnap.sys took the snapshots used by the Vista System Restore means nothing to XP volsnap.sys so it deletes the Vista SR points thinking to protect the user from trying to restore a corrupted image in XP. Remember, XP has no clue as to what Vista is.
It makes no difference whether SR is turned off on XP becasue volsnap.sys is not part of SR, it is the VSS driver. When SR wants to set a point it makes a call to VSS and volsnap.sys takes the snapshot which SR then uses in creating the restore point. Volsnap.sys runs regardles of whether or not SR ever runs.
It is worth noting that VSS does not run when XP is in Safe Mode and indeed when you are in Safe Mode you cannot set a restore point. You can restore from an existing restore point in Safe Mode so clearly SR is running in Safe Mode.
What Michael is saying is that the Vista volume must be hidden from XP to prevent the XP volsnap.sys from seeing it when XP boots up (in anything but Safe Mode). He is saying that BitLocker somehow serves this function or at least prevents volsnap.sys from deleting the Vista restore points. I don't argue that point.
The incompatibility between the XP volsnap.sys and the Vista volsnap.sys is by design in order to expand VSS's functionality in Vista. The fix would require backporting to XP and MS says that too much of XP would require rewritting and they have made the decision not to do it.
So be prepared accordingly if you plan to dual boot XP and Vista on a production machine once Vista releases. Given what I know, I don't plan to. I don't know what else is out there that could be a problem for Vista.
"Peter M" wrote in message Ahhh... okay, now I see my confusion. I didnt realize it had to be the same drive. Xp is on a partion on hd0 and vista is on hd1. Thanks for the clarification.
"MICHAEL" wrote in message "Peter M" wrote in message I routinely go into XP every day or every other. My Vista restore points have not been altered or deleted. I just assumed since I have restore in XP disabled that was why.
How many restore points do you have? What are their dates? Unless you have manually deleted Vista's restore points, you should have a lot of saved points.
I have System Restore off in XP. But my Vista restore points are *always* deleted when I boot to XP and then back to Vista- *unless* I have BitLocker on.
I realize that I have been told what I am experiencing is not related to BitLocker- I call bullshit. However, if you have XP and Vista on the same drive- your restore points will be erased. Well, unless.... you know what I'm about to say. -Michael

But I kinda agree with Michael's concern. Murphy used Windows.
"Mark D. VandenBerg" wrote in message

"MICHAEL" wrote in message Some users may resort to "hiding". But it sure is much easier to be able to access any file or folder on WinXP from Vista. Yes, I have backups on an external drive. Being able to shortcut your WinXP music, documents, or picture folder to your Vista desktop makes things so simple.
Which is why I have my XP "My Documents" folder located on a separate partition from any operating system and not hidden, so that I may access anything I wish from either XP or Vista. In fact, this makes it so much easier to grab programs and documents from either O/S and makes for a much smaller footprint on the actual hard drive.
Heck, there are *some* programs you can run from Vista that are located in WinXP. Like Opera, LimeWirePro, NeoTrace, and others.
Have not tried this, probably because I assumed there would be some sort of regisrty issue with BootMagic renaming either O/S partition "C:\" at boot-up. I'll give it a shot with Opera.
I do have a question. With BitLocker turned on, XP shows the Vista volume as just a drive letter. If you click on that Drive letter, a dialogue box pops up saying the volume needs to be formatted. Vista is "hidden" from XP. So, it would actually go through with the format if you confirmed it, correct? I can see some users not really understanding this, and either by accident or because they may think they are suppose to, letting XP format their Vista partition. Ouch!
An interesting situation. Although the partition itself is not hidden; the data is merely encrypted. My theory, untested and uninformed as it is, is that XP sees the partition but does not recognize the scramble of bits and bytes and therefore assumes that the partition itself has not been formatted. Extrapolate that farther and yeah, it probably would go through the reformat process, because Vista and BitLocker are not running and therefore unable to stop the process. It is good to know that BitLocker encryption does indeed work!
I'll be playing with a complete test unit this weekend and try a few of the scenarios you have suggested, just to see what happens. I have not done anything with BitLocker yet.
I would suggest you report the whole SR point deletion to MSFT since dual-booting will most likely be in many people's future and the incompatibility of the Restore Points, as well as how the boot manager is currently being deployed is not acceptable.
Thanks for your input, Mark.
-Michael

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message But I kinda agree with Michael's concern. Murphy used Windows.
You think I learned how to do all this stuff out of curiosity? It's out of Darwinism and paranoia!