Understanding Dual Booting in Vista

Up until VISTA build 5231 we have had the new VISTA LOADER and for XP, 2000, 2003
and Win 98 the all known NTLDR called NT Loader or NT Bootloader and the mirror
of that is BOOT.INI...

First loader: VISTA loader called bootmgr, a "BOOTMANAGER"
Second Loader: NTLDR (XP,2003,98...)

VISTA looks in its "DATA STORE", were the new entries will be hold.
In the beta state of VISTA we have only two programs, which can help us:

To run bcdedit you must run it from windows dos prompt, Please press START and RUN, and if you havnt already put the "run" command on your start menu right-click Taskbar, Properties, Start Menu, Start Menu Customize, check Run command, and now it will appear. Now that its there, you need to right click on the "run" button and hit "Run as admininstrator" and type in: command and press OK.

Then type BCDEDIT & Hit "enter"
It will then run and spit out a bunch of data on the screen:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
Identifier: {bootmgr}
Type: 10100002
Device: partition=C:
Description: Windows Boot Manager
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Default: {871d699a-68d1-11da-9f30-eb66f9279051}
Display order: {legacy}
{871d699a-68d1-11da-9f30-eb66f9279051}
{d3e15d7c-66fb-11da-83c4-f23116dca051}
{77e994d8-64b9-11da-afd6-cd1e42667751}
{748c9ce4-6497-11da-b587-ba41a6a3f856}
{6bde53aa-630a-11da-b591-bb4bd04c9f19}
{d9b222a6-5f5b-11da-8e9c-87c5457d571e}
{eafe9a2c-558c-11da-86bb-9237c2e1a919}
{3ffee100-4b31-11da-b300-e812ef50ad19}
{eda3906c-438e-11da-b934-f4ecbe0a3419}
{4f964faa-3d7a-11da-bb88-b7df6f4d4219}
Timeout: 3

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
Identifier: {legacy}
Type: 10300006
Device: partition=C:
Path: tldr
Description: Legacy (pre-Longhorn) Microsoft Windows Operating System

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {871d699a-68d1-11da-9f30-eb66f9279051}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=H:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: en-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
{5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2}
Windows device: partition=H:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {d3e15d7c-66fb-11da-83c4-f23116dca051}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=H:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: en-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
{5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2}
Windows device: partition=H:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {77e994d8-64b9-11da-afd6-cd1e42667751}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=H:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: en-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
{5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2}
Windows device: partition=H:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {748c9ce4-6497-11da-b587-ba41a6a3f856}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=D:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Windows device: partition=D:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn
Detect hal: Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {6bde53aa-630a-11da-b591-bb4bd04c9f19}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=J:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Windows device: partition=J:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn
Detect hal: Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {d9b222a6-5f5b-11da-8e9c-87c5457d571e}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=J:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Windows device: partition=J:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn
Detect hal: Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {eafe9a2c-558c-11da-86bb-9237c2e1a919}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=J:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Windows device: partition=J:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn
Detect hal: Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {3ffee100-4b31-11da-b300-e812ef50ad19}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=J:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Windows device: partition=J:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn
Detect hal: Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {eda3906c-438e-11da-b934-f4ecbe0a3419}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=J:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Windows device: partition=J:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn
Detect hal: Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
Identifier: {4f964faa-3d7a-11da-bb88-b7df6f4d4219}
Type: 10200003
Device: partition=J:
Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Description: Microsoft Windows
Locale: ENG-US
Inherit options: {emssettings}
{dbgsettings}
Windows device: partition=J:
Windows root: \Windows
No Execute policy: OptIn
Detect hal: Yes

To see all the commands of BCDEDIT type "BCDEDIT /?" and hit enter, these are all the options you have to work with. But before doing anything you need to backup your bootloader files.

Make a folder on the root of the drive in which vista is installed, call it anything but I am going to use "backup" and I created it on the C drive, change yours accordingly.

Then in the dos prompt type:
bcdedit /export "C:\Data\BCD Backup" (w/ quotes)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delete Double Entries in bootmgr

In the next step we will wipe out the double entries. (Always use your ownidentifiers!)

Here is an exert from what the BCDEDIT spit out when I first ran it, The one I want to delete is in bold because its an extra.

I want to delete the second (red) one:
Identifier: {d3e15d7c-66fb-11da-83c4-f23116dca051}
So in the command line I type: bcdedit -delete {d3e15d7c-66fb-11da-83c4-f23116dca051}
Oce you do that, your all set and its now deleted, do the same for any others you may have.

Changing the description can be quite handy since by default, they show up as:
"Microsoft Windows" meaning Vista
and
"Legacy OS" meaning any other windows OS, as you can see not very descriptive.

To change a description of any of them just use the same identifier in which we used to delete them, choose the identifier cooresponding to the OS you want to change the description of.(What was printed on the screen when you first typed in "Bcdedit", use whatever the Identifier of that OS is, it may showup as {ntldr} or {legacy} or a series of #'s)

EX:
bcdedit -set {748c9ce4-6497-11da-b587-ba41a6a3f856} DESCRIPTION "Name of Vista OS!"

Changes the description of the Vista OS w/ identifier {748c9ce4-6497-11da-b587-ba41a6a3f856}

When you want to just change the description of the default vista OS from "Microsoft Windows" you dont need to use an indentifier since it will come up by default. Just type:

And it will change the description from "Microsoft Windows" to "Windows Vista 5308"

bcdedit -set {legacy} DESCRIPTION "Legacy (pre-VISTA) XP, 2000, 2003, WIN98x"

And it will change the description from "Legacy OS" to "Legacy(preVista)Xp,2000,2003,Win98x" or whatever you would like to put in the quotes.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starting XP/2000/20003/98x automatically

You can change what OS boots up by default using the command
"BCDEDIT /Default <id>
This command sets the default entry that the boot manager will use when the
time-out expires.

<id> Specifies the identifier of the boot entry to be used as the
default when the time-out expires.

The following command sets the specified entry as the default boot manager
entry:

The following command sets the legacy Windows loader (Ntldr) as the default
entry:

Just change the ID to the cooresponding identifier which was spit out and you used for deleteing & renaming the description like before.

Change the oder in which OS are listed:
To change the order in which os's are listed on the boot screen simply use:

bcdedit /displayorder Which Sets the display order of boot menu items for example:

You just order the identifiers after the /displayorder in the order you want them to appear.

To set the default operating system which you would like to boot when the time expires on the boot loader type:

Of course you need to change "identifier" to the correct identifier such as {current}(Currently used OS) or {ntldr}(Usually Legacy OS) or {bunch of #'s}(Could be vista or a legacy OS) as explained above.

This command set the amount of time to wait in seconds before boot manager selects a default entry.

<timeInSeconds> specifys the amount of time in seconds it will wait for you to manually chose an OS or boot the default. Very Simple.

If you ever encounter any problems using any of the above statments, you can always just typ bcdedit /? for a list of all of bcdedits commands. You can also type bcdedit /? /displayorder to get help commands on a specific command (just replace /displayorder with whatever it is you want help on)

I decided to combine both topics as they cover similiar things. You can view the original topic here:

knightcrawler (3/15/2006)

Edit the Windows Vista Boot Menu Options - BCDEDIT

Click start>All Programs>Accessories>Right Click on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator

Then type BCDedit.exe

Introduction

In Windows Vista, the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store contains boot

configuration parameters which control how the operating system is started in

the Windows Vista and Windows Server Code Name "Longhorn" operating systems.

These were found in the boot.ini file in previous versions of Microsoft

Windows. To edit the Windows Vista Boot Menu Options, the Boot Configuration

Data Editor - BCDEDIT is used.

The Bcdedit.exe command-line tool can be used to add, delete and edit entries

in the BCD store which contains objects. Each object is identified by a GUID

(Globally Unique Identifier). Every drive or partition on the system will have

its own GUID and could be {legacy} (to describe a drive or partition on which a

pre-Windows Vista operating system), {default} (to describe the drive or

partition containing the current default operating system), or {current} (to

describe the current drive or partition one is booted to), or for example

{c34b751a-ff09-11d9-9e6e-0030482375e7} (to describe another drive or partition

on which an operating system has been installed).

Bcdedit.exe is located in the \Windows\System32 directory of the Windows Vista

partition and can be accessed only from the Commad Prompt which is found on

the Windows Vista start menu at Start>All Programs>Accessories

Command-line Help

bcdedit /? Shows all commands one is able to use

bcdedit.exe /? CREATESTORE Shows detailed information for the command

CREATESTORE or any other command available in bcdedit as shown when running

bcdedit /? followed by the particular command more information is required for.

bcdedit or bcdedit /enum all Shows the current structure of your boot

configuration data.
The GUID tags {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} of all Windows

installations present on your computer will be displayed.

Create a Backup

It is strongly recommended that one creates a backup of the BCD store before

making any changes to it.

bcdedit /export "D:\BCD Backup\Bcd Backup" Creates a backup to a pre-created

folder, in this case “BCD Backup” on drive D:

bcdedit /import "D:\BCD Backup\Bcd Backup" Restores the backup previously

created

Making Changes to the Boot Configuration Data

bcdedit /set {legacy} Description "Windows XP Professional SP2" Changes the

text description of the “Legacy” OS line in the boot menu. The quotation marks

must be included in the command

bcdedit /set {current} description "Windows Vista Build 5308 x86" Changes the

text of the boot menu line for the Vista or non-Vista installation one is

currently booted to, from the default "Microsoft Windows" or other description

to that shown in the quotation marks

bcdedit /set {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} description “Windows Vista

Build 5270 x64” Changes the text of the boot menu line for any other Vista

installation. One must use the GUID for that particular installation as shown

when one runs the bcdedit or bcdedit /enum all command

bcdedit /default {current} Sets the current Windows installation one is booted

to as the default Windows boot OS

bcdedit /default {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} Sets the referenced

Windows OS as the {default} Windows boot OS

bcdedit /default {legacy} Sets the legacy (Windows XP SP2) OS as {default} boot item

bcdedit /displayorder Sets the display order of boot menu items for example:

bcdedit.exe /displayorder {legacy} {current}

bcdedit /timeout 15 Changes the default 30 second time-out of the boot menu to

15 seconds or any other value inserted.

Correcting changes to the Partition/Disk structure

Where a partition or a hard drive has been added or removed and has caused the

partition/disk structure to change, this can be corrected by running these

commands in the order shown:

X:\>X:\boot\fixntfs.exe -lh -all (Where X: is the drive/partition on which the

folder "boot" is to be found)

bcdedit /set {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} device partition=X: Changes

boot partition of the OS whose GUID is indicated. (Where X: is new

drive/partition required). Must be used together with the osdevice command

below

bcdedit /set {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} osdevice partition=X:

Changes boot partition of the OS whose GUID is indicated. (Where X: is new

drive/partition required). Must be used together with the device command above

Msconfig - System Configuration Utility

The System Configuration Utility (msconfig) is accessible from the Windows

Vista start menu, Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System

Configuration. It has limited funcionality as regards the BCD store however,

with the only relevant functionalities being to change the default boot

operating system, to delete a boot menu item and to change the timeout display

period of the boot menu.

CAUTION: Making incorrect or invalid changes to one's BCD store can result in

the system no longer booting and only those comfortable with using command line

entries and who understand the inherent risks of making a mistake should do so.