Is it possible to have two ways to boot up XP on my laptop: one that has my security, etc. enabled for going online, and a different one where only the programs I need for editing are loaded? Sorry if I'm not wording this correctly tech-wise. Thanks. Derek
XP allows multiple accounts (each with its own unique applications and settings) but virus protection will be enabled for all. I suppose you could manually disable it for an edit only account but you are better off with a dedicated editing machine. I could be overlooking an anti-virus that is account specific (in which case someone will chime in with the correct information) but given the nature of anti-virus applications I don't think so.
Derek,
An alternative, which I use, is to install multiple operating systems. During boot, you choose which OS you want. On my main desktop, I actually have 4 XP OS's installed--one for only video editing. I also have 2 OS's installed on an old laptop of mine--in that case, Win98 and XP. The only downside is the additional storage requirement for your 2nd OS.
I actually have 2 separate HDD drives -- one for each of my XP boot setups. I prefer to keep the two setups as isolated as possible inside one box. At any rate.....I've got two separate XP boots installed, one for normal everyday use, one just for DAW/NLE use.
All of this works great...except on occasion when some setting change modifies the BOOT.INI file incorrectly. Just make sure you back up your BOOT.INI file and memorize what's inside it, in case you need to recreate it. I have never lost anything....I just can't boot into one or the other until I fix the BOOT.INI file.
My entire DAW/NLE install (XP, Sonar 4, Vegas 6, SF 8, CD Arch, & DVD Arch, GigaStudio 3 Ens, plug-ins, etc.) is less than 6GB and I've cut the services running count down to 23. It's very smooth and very fast.
Norton runs only on the main system boot; but it's capable of scanning all of the HDDs. I can also use Ghost (from the main system boot) to back, up any drive to any other drive or to my external backup-specific FireWire HDD.