how to get a virtual XP in windows vista

hey all! i have original windows Vista installed on my laptop but i am getting few problems in it. Like when i attach some external devices to it like web camera, it does not detect it. when i turn on the blue tooth device, it ask to install the blue tooth device but i was not provided with any disk of drivers. I was thinking if i could install any other operating system virtually on this current Vista operating system but i do not know the exact way to do it. I plan to have the win XP virtually on my machine. Can anyone help me with exact steps? Thanks

here ya go

http://lifehacker.com/238071/geek-to-live-…with-virtual-pc

thanks a million. i wasted whole one hour searching for it but failed but you did it. You do not know how badly i needed that. May be i was not putting the right words Anyways thanks to forums

Hate to dampen your enthusiasm, but unless the host operating system (Vista in your case) recognizes the device, it is not going to be recognized by the client (Windows XP) Virtual Machine. If you think about it, this makes since as the virtual machine gets all it's services, including hardware device access, from the host. I'd be glad to be proven wrong on this as I have an old HP Scanjet 4300C I would love to use in a XP VM under Windows 7 but have never had any luck at all.

Troublemaker…

Do not tell me that :'( aaaaaan i was sooo much happy. SO what could be the other solution? do i have to install a dual boot? is that easy? can anyone give me some easy solution to this please

Dual boot is one possibility but I'd avoid it unless you absolutely need to do so. If you do, this is an excellent tutorial on doing so by Brink (Shawn): Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Covers both cases. Win 7 installed first or XP installed first.

Provide the manufacturer and model number of the devices you are having problems with and I (or someone else) can try to help find a driver that will work with Win 7 for you.

Thanks a lot. that is so sweet of you seriously but i feel so lucky to find a friend who will help me practically with this

Going from my own personal experience, installing W7 first and then installing XP is not a good idea and can cause some frustrating boot problems, as noted in several of the replies to Brink's "Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP". XP first and then W7 is a much better idea and works like a charm. Doing it the other way around can be headache material. W7 recognises XP (if XP is installed first) and sets the MBR up to allow a choice between the 2 OS. XP does not recognize W7 and when installed after W7 a MBR conflict eventuates.