If you're dual botting, you have to install the operating systems in order of their age. For example, the first step is to partition your hard drive. Then install Windows Me on one partition. Then install Windows XP on a second partition as normal.

Doing this should automatically set up a boot manager for both operating systems. In case it doesn't follow the following steps from within WinXP. Similar steps can be used from within Win98.

In Windows XP, right click on My Computer and go to properties. When System Properties opens up, go to the Advanced tab and then click on Startup and Recovery. Where it says "Default operating system" click to edit the boot.ini file manually. Make sure there is an entry for both operating systems you have installed. In addition, select a default OS. In addition, select how many seconds (default=30) you should have to choose an OS before the default OS is automatically loaded.

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect


that is what I see when I open the .ini file with notepad.I don't know how to edit.I am runing only xp and got backups of win98 and winme in d drive while c is the main drive of mine.i wnat to get linus redhat too but seeking advice.

As cscgal said, the order in which the operating systems should be installed is by age (oldest version first). Your Win ME/98 installs won't recognize XP, and might not even like installing to/running from any drive other the Primary Master.

In terms of your mention of Redhat, the usual drill is to install (again, by age) any Windows versions first. When you run the Redhat installer, it will detect those operating systems and configure its own bootloader (Grub, by default) to handle the booting of all the operating systems.