Yes, m' dear... I ran 3 OSes on my rig before without issue, so if you have enough hard drive space to create another partition, you can install Win 7 on your PC alongside the others. 

Given there are some major UI changes in Win 7, there would be some necessary updates to SKS6 to accomodate them... though I imagine that Stardock would ultimately release a new version to take better advantage of Win 7's features.

MS has not released any firm indication of pricing as yet... let's just hope they take harder financial times into consideration and put a fair/reasonable price on it.  However, the 'basic' edition will be a limited release to emerging markets and you're unlikely to see it unless it comes pre-installed on an OEM machine. Price-wise, you would most likely would want to go with Win 7 Home Edition over the Professional Edition... these will be the two mainstream retail versions, with the more expensive Win 7 Ultimate Edition likely to be an 'order in' option.

Hope this helps.

Excellent answer! I would think you'd need a fast HDD and a separate drive for data leaving "just" the OS's and programs on another drive.

I prefer to have my OSes on separate drives, rather than all on the same one.  When I had XP, Vista Ultimate 32bit and Vista Home premium x64 on my current rig, each OS was installed on the first partition of 3 separate HDD's, with my backup, data and storage drives situated on the remaining partitions I created.  I guess I like multi-booting this way because if the primary OS drive goes down - heaven forbid - it doesn't take the other OSes down with it and I can still access my PC without having to reinstall Windows.

Currently I have the Win 7 beta x64 and Vista Home Premium x64 on my main rig, with XP on my second rig, but when Win 7 goes gold I will most likely dedicate this rig to it, dual boot Vista Home Premium x64 with XP Pro on my second and build a third rig from upgraded parts for Vista Ultimate.

Hmmm...this looks very right....I was always taught to have programs in one place and data on another drive. I have only one OS installed, and didn't see the need (for myself) to have more than one...in fact, I've never had more than one. but does it really matter if you're backing stuff up as one should?

Is there a particular advantage in having more than one installed, Mark? I'm wondering...you know...the chances that something will go wrong go up when things multply and get more complicated.

Well i guess one advantage would be having greater backwards compatability: ie, running XP alongside Vista for older apps and games that don't run on Vista/Win 7.  Another is having access to your PC via a second OS if/when the primary OS becomes unstable, crashes  or is infected with a virus, etc.

As for things getting more complicated, well the OSes are independent of each other and essentially don't know the other is there... meaning that when you're logged into one it recognises the other OS drive as containing data but not as a conflicting system drive.  So no, having a second OS should not complicate matters any more than having just the one.

Thanks mate....excellent and extremely convincing arguments to me. I'm thinking of networking my old desktop (XP) with my laptop (Vista Home Premium). Being a total noob at that I'll probably just use the networking wizard in my Vista machine...unless you have a better/different idea....I'd be grateful. (you're not yrag so you can't call me 'd-head'  - which was awfully funny, btw).

Thanx again, Cap'n.

Yes you are - Win 7 beta stops working August 1st 2009 - not upgradeable to release version.

boo windows 7, why don't fix up vista, and revive xp , get linux (any version) and see if they will sell 7

yes it did, thankyou very much!!!

Windows7=Vista SP3 MS just needed a way to charge people all over again for it. "Hey,lets rename it and put it in a new box,the suckers will never know"

Ahhhh....but they didn't fool the Wiz! Poof that 7 Wiz! (but not 7 of 9)!

I'll wait for the 7/11 Edition,it comes with a Slurpee and a chili dog.

"Available soon at a convenience store near you"

If you really do believe that then clearly you know nothing about Windows 7.

And how is this different from all the people still bashing Vista without ever trying it? I just though I would go ahead and jump on the 7sux bandwagon early.

I've never had a problem with Vista on my laptop, but I am skipping Vista on this machine and will just build a new one (x64) for 7.

Yeah, networking your laptop and PC would allow access between the two... providing both are working and turned on.  The disadvantage to networking between machines is that if one OS/machine stops working, the other can't see it.  I suppose this is the advantage to dual booting... because the second OS is on the same machine, access to its files is always there, even though it isn't actually running.

Having said that, I'm far from being an expert (my preference takes into account the worst case scenario and allows for the easier recovery option) so please don't let me deter you from going the networking route.  Not that I ever need to use it much, but I have networked my primary and secondary machines, just in case.  Besides, having a second machine means you're not keeping all your eggs in the one basket, so networking has its advantages, also.

Aw c'mon, now why should yrag have all the D-head priveleges around here?  Think of it as a term of endearment.

Um, Vista IS being fixed with SP2...

Furthermore, XP has truly passed its use by date, and Jurassic Park provides us good reason as to why the dinosaur should NOT be revived.  We need to be going forwards, not backwards... and Linux is as mainstream as an OS as a back alley in a small town.  Nope, neither of these are viable options to Win 7, which is quite good (even in beta) and is the future of computing.

You're most welcome, kit... er, Vampothika.  I'm pleased to have been of assistance to you.

They should sell WINDOWS 7 as a single edition, and then sell all those things they add for "free" in all those stupid editions as separate addons.

There's no reason to sell all these editions, it's the same OS with a bunch of different apps...