Editing Multi-booting (section)

==Usage==
Multi-booting allows more than one operating system to reside on one computer; for example, if a user has a primary operating system that they use most frequently and an alternate operating system that they use less frequently. Multi-booting allows a new operating system to configure all applications needed and migrate data before removing the old operating system, if desired. Another reason for multi-booting can be to investigate or test a new operating system without switching completely.

Multi-booting is also useful in situations where different [[Computer software|software]] requires different operating systems. A multi-boot configuration allows a user to use all of their software on one computer. This is often accomplished by using a [[Booting#Second-stage boot loaders|boot loader]] such as [[NTLDR]], [[LILO (boot loader)|LILO]], or [[GNU GRUB|GRUB]] which can boot more than one operating system.

Multi-booting is also used by [[software developer]]s when multiple operating systems are required for development or testing purposes. Having these systems on one machine is a way to reduce hardware costs.

Multi-booting also allows a user to switch between private and work dedicated systems to maintain access integrity and separation between the two user environments, even if the same operating system is used for each of them.

A possible alternative to multi-booting is [[virtualization]], where a [[hypervisor]] is used to host one or more [[virtual machine]]s running guest operating systems.