installing vista 2000 computer

I've triend installing vista on an 2000 machine (Not upgrade). The installation informed me that it'll move the Win2000 files to Windows.old
When setup finished, the Windows entry on the Boot.ini remained and i could boot into 2000 along side with vista.
It only transffered the "Program Files" folder into windows.old - meaning, the 2000 system will boot (Because it's WINNT and not Windows) but will have no programs installed.
Is this the default behavior? if so, what is it good for ?

Hello,
Dual-booting 2 operating systems from the same partition is not supported.
The reason your Program Files directory was moved to Windows.old was because Windows Vista needed to create that directory itself and didn't want to delete the one that was already there.
This is in case you have data that you need to copy over to the new installation.
- JB

But why does vista keep the WINNT Folder and let me Boot to a Half-working win2000 - surely this is not necesary and even annoying...
"Jimmy Brush" wrote:

Hello,
Dual-booting 2 operating systems from the same partition is not supported.
The reason your Program Files directory was moved to Windows.old was because Windows Vista needed to create that directory itself and didn't want to delete the one that was already there.
This is in case you have data that you need to copy over to the new installation.
- JB

You're right, I don't think Vista should allow the option of booting into the other operating system if it installed over it.
The only things I can think of is that Microsoft hasn't gotten around to changing that behavior, or they keep that in there to assist in manual uninstallation.
- JB

Vista doesn't delete anything when it installs.
If it tries to create a directory and there is a directory with the same name already there, it moves that directory to windows.old. It is a very gentle, non-destructive installer. :)
Since the Vista installer doesn't create a directory called WINNT, it doesn't touch the one that is there.
- JB

Hope they change this soon.
thanks for your reply
"Jimmy Brush" wrote:

Vista doesn't delete anything when it installs.
If it tries to create a directory and there is a directory with the same name already there, it moves that directory to windows.old. It is a very gentle, non-destructive installer. :)
Since the Vista installer doesn't create a directory called WINNT, it doesn't touch the one that is there.
- JB