If you dual boot your PC using Windows XP’s dual boot process, you can reduce the timeout period your PC uses before booting to the default OS. This can be useful if you use the same OS most of the time and don’t like the longer wait. You can always press enter and skip the wait, but why wait? To do it, here’s the procedure:

1) Locate and Open the hidden file “boot.ini” in notepad or your favorite text editor. This file will likely be in the root directory on the boot partition of your “master” HD.

2) Locate the line - timeout=30 (default is 30 seconds). Change this value to any time desired. Be careful not to choose too low of a setting or you may not have time to select your other OS’s. Also, be careful not to change other lines as this may prevent your PC from booting at all.

3) Save the file. The next time you boot your PC, the changes will take effect.