EasyBCD is ready for Windows 8 CP!

Last updated August 26, 2013 by Mahmoud Al-Qudsi

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview has just been released, and we are reminding everyone that EasyBCD is here to help save the day if whilst playing around with errrr, testing Windows 8 CP bootloaders get broken and PCs stop booting. And if things get too badly broken, our Windows Vista and Windows 7 bootable repair CDs should come in handy.

EasyBCD has been tested extensively with the Windows 8 beta from last year, and should work well. Depending on your Windows 8 configuration, if you wish to install EasyBCD on Windows 8 you may need to enable the .NET 2.0 Framework first. We are, of course, accepting bug reports regarding EasyBCD and Windows 8 in our support forums. Feel free to ask any general Windows 8 questions or observations you might also have. See you there!

32 thoughts on “EasyBCD is ready for Windows 8 CP!”

xpclient on March 1, 2012 at 12:14 am said:

EasyBCD has become an essential tool for Windows 8 because the graphical bootloader does not respect NTLDR-based OSes, plus, to boot into another OS, it reboots meaning double time if you have a multi-boot system. After installing Windows 8, I replace the fancy UEFI-based graphical boot shell with the text-based one which boots any OS equally fast. I will be using the graphical boot loader only on a tablet where exclusively Windows 8 will be present.
xpclient on March 1, 2012 at 2:02 am said:

Update: As of Consumer Preview, the NTLDR-based OSes are detected and added automatically to the graphical bootscreen, so that’s one improvement from Developer Preview. But it still reboots to boot into another OS which is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. Text-based boot loader FTW.
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi on March 1, 2012 at 3:53 pm said:

Interesting. Thanks for sharing that; I’m afraid I haven’t had a chance to give the CP a shot yet. Hope to do so today or tomorrow!
RpD on March 2, 2012 at 2:15 am said:

The graphical bootmenu is a fail on devices that are not limited to a touchscreen. It’s much faster to choose a text-based option with the arrow keys on a keyboard than monkeymousing around a GUI. You have to use the right arrow to get to choices other than the first two or three because the down arrow doesn’t wrap to the next column. It’s little things like that which annoy… not to mention W8CP didn’t detect my audio nor wireless, while DevPreview worked fine. Thanks to EasyBCD2.12, I can delete the duplicate ‘earlier version of windows’ that appeared for an existing XP entry.
czer27 on March 2, 2012 at 12:07 pm said:

Hi xpclient,
you write “I replace the fancy UEFI-based graphical boot-shell with the text-based one, which boots any OS equally fast”.
How to do it?

Regards
czer27
shukree on March 5, 2012 at 4:19 am said:

to czer27

just edit (by EsayBCD )any entry in BCD file, and you will be reverted to old text-based boot menu ?!
shukree on March 5, 2012 at 9:19 am said:

hi

the latest beta EasyBCD 2.2 Beta – Build 170

is fine, and editing the bcd will keep the graphical menu intact.
shukree on March 5, 2012 at 9:21 am said:

correction

to czer27

just edit by EsayBCD verion prior EasyBCD 2.2 Beta ? Build 170 any entry in BCD file, and you will be reverted to old text-based boot menu
czer27 on March 5, 2012 at 10:07 am said:

to shukree

Many thanks for your advice!
shukree on March 5, 2012 at 3:50 pm said:

again I installed windows 8 consumer Preview ,then I installed ( EasyBCD 2.2 Beta ? Build 170 ) then I added a bout 10 entries of Wims,ISOs and VHDs and unfortunately the graphical boot menu gone and replaced by old text-based boot menu.
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi on March 5, 2012 at 9:07 pm said:

EasyBCD 2.2 build 170 streamlines the setup and deployment process (no longer prompted to neither download nor install .NET, will work with v4) but does not change anything with regards to visual vs text.

I have not yet researched what causes the switch between the two, but it seems that having any non-Windows entries will force the text menu.
xpclient on March 13, 2012 at 2:31 am said:

Every time I launch EasyBCD, it adds the Neosmart RSS feed to my IE feed store. Can it stop doing that please?
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi on March 13, 2012 at 12:12 pm said:

xpclient: Uncheck that option in EasyBCD | Tools | Options and it’ll go away.
Ghost on March 26, 2012 at 8:41 pm said:

@Mahmoud Re: Switch between Graphical/Text based interface – Could this be the problem: http://www.boyans.net/BootMenuPolicy.html
“When BootMenuPolicy is set to MenuPolicyStandard(1) Windows 8 bootmgr displays the new metro style boot menu using bootux.dll.

Setting BootMenuPolicy to MenuPolicyLegacy(0) or removing that element from loader object causes bootmgr to display old text style boot menu.

If you set any other loader to be the default bootmgr object/loader old text style boot menu is displayed as element BootMenuPolicy is usually not defined for older loader objects. “
shukree on March 27, 2012 at 9:49 am said:

@Ghost

that’s true, but if i add an entry for an iso file ( for example )

using EasyBCD 2.2 Beta – Build 170 , i will be forced to text mode

even the BootMenuPolicy is set to MenuPolicyStandard(1) and not changed,

then i have to import a back up of bcd and loose the last entry i added.
half on March 29, 2012 at 4:04 pm said:

Hello. I’ve just installed windows 8 into my system.

My situation is like this:
If I boot windows 8 first, after i shut down, if i boot again, it will display the GUI bootloader. If I choose to boot windows 8, it will st8 boot into windows 8, but if I choose to boot windows 7, it will reboot and then boot to windows 7.
But after i boot windows 7, if i shut down, n want to reboot again, it will display the text-based bootloader. like usual, that bootloader STR8 boot into any os i want to boot, whether it’s windows 7 or 8. no need to reboot again.

So, how do i make so that whenever after i shut down windows 8, and then reboot, it will go st8 to the text-based bootloader, not the annoying GUI bootloader.
half on March 29, 2012 at 10:21 pm said:

UPDATED: Hello, I think I dont need the answer for the previous answer anymore. I’ve been testing something, and this is currently my problem.
Here’s the thing.
I decided to install another windows 7 OS. So, there are 3 OS in my PC. 1- The Original Windows 7. 2 – The Windows 8 CP. 3 – The other Windows 7. My problem is, whenever I shut down from windows 8, then reboot, it straight away reboot into windows 8, without going to the text-based bootloader. the only way I can manage to boot into windows 7 (original & the other one), is to use the ‘Re-create/repair boot files radiobutton’ in EasyBCD. after I’ve done so, if I reboot, it manages to go into the text-based bootloader. but if I select either of windows 7 (after I re-create/repair boot files) it need to the ‘chkdsk’ thingy. so, what a pain in order 4 me to boot into windows 7 (if I’ve boot into windows 8 be4 that).
half on March 29, 2012 at 10:31 pm said:

UPDATED: What a relief. I can now boot into any OS using the text-based bootloader. I think the problem lies within the way windows 8 shutdown. the hybrid mode.
http://neosmart.net/blog/2011/the-new-windows-8-bootloader/
I just need to disable it.
control panel -> hardware and sound -> power options -> system settings (choose what the power buttons do) -> change settings that are currently unavailable -> ‘uncheck’ the Turn on fast startup.
Colineo99 on March 30, 2012 at 6:33 am said:

Hello. I have Win 7 and Dual-booted with Win 8 on a separate hdd, which I had to clone because of a hdd fault. To make a long story short, I had to use EasyBCD v2.1.2 to delete a second Win 8 entry that was unrecognised. Subsequently I could only boot via the text bootloader. I have now installed EasyBCD v2.2.0 build 173, edited the Win 8 entry and I still only get the text bootloader. As the idea is to test out all the functions on Win 8 I would like the GUI bootlader back! I have checked that the BootMenuPolicy is set to MenuPolicyStandard(1), I have set BCDEDIT /bootems {bootmgr} off but all to no avail. Any suggestions on how to bring back the GUI bootloader (I maybe the only one here who wants it – but there you are). Incidentally, I have also tried all the different boot scenarios described above.
Satou Hirokatsu on March 31, 2012 at 7:55 pm said:

?????
Bryan on April 28, 2012 at 10:03 pm said:

After editing using EBCD 2.1 on Win 8 I lost the visual boot menu. So I had hoped uninstalling that and using the new EasyBCD 2.2 would provide a checkbox to load the visual and correct the previous overwrite. That would be a great feature !
Ok So whats the easiest way to get the Win 8 Visual boot back up?
Robert Rutter on May 10, 2012 at 10:16 am said:

It would be nice if you would add ansi codes insertion, to give the option of colorizing the boot menu……
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi on May 17, 2012 at 4:23 pm said:

Do you know if that’s supported?
Swat on June 19, 2012 at 2:08 am said:

Hello,

I’m trying to multi-boot several a windows 7 and 2 windows 8 (32 and 64 bit). I have to keep windows 7 as a main system (program compatibility issues) .I have installed the Windows 8 systems after i marked the partitions as active. Easy bcd is installed on Windows 7. Every time i attempt to access windows 8 via easy bcd i get “cannot verify signature” error. Is there a way i can multi boot a windows 7 and two windows 8 on the same computer ? TIA
Henry on June 28, 2012 at 5:50 am said:

EasyBCD has made my Windows 8 unbootable.
I have no idea how to fix it and it says the boot settings are unknown to the computer or something…
Pellet on September 16, 2012 at 1:16 am said:

I was able to get the graphical menu back by going into the ‘edit boot menu’ menu, then selecting ‘skip the boot menu’ instead of it being on ‘boot default OS after … seconds’
genius1134 on September 23, 2012 at 2:35 am said:

Thanks Pellet! Tried many things before finding your suggestion. It worked perfectly. Cheers
Sandeep on November 23, 2012 at 9:33 am said:

Hi,
My laptop came with Win 8, I upgraded the same to Win 8 Ent, installed Easy BCD 2.2 in Win 8 and then installed Windows 7 Ultimate(Now Win 7 took C drive and Win 8 was moved to D:). Now when I reboot I get the option to select the OS(Text interface) but at times it doesn?t give me to the option to select the OS and directly boots into Win 8. I have to manually go to easybcd, change the boot settings and save again, I am not sure whether I have used EasyBCD correctly as I am new to this. I clicked on edit, selected Win 8 as default OS, selected Win 7 as the second OS and clicked on ?Save Settings?. I am not sure whether I have to click on write MBR(Not sure what that is used for)Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Mahmoud Al-Qudsi on November 23, 2012 at 4:06 pm said:

@Sandeep: Please post support questions in our forums.
luay on December 3, 2012 at 10:31 am said:

thnks
Problem with latest EasyBSD on December 14, 2012 at 2:39 pm said:

Hello,
I have a dual windows7(default)/windows8 system.
If I boot windows8 than on next boot the windows 8 boot manager is active and not EasyBSD. If I choose again Windows 7, a complete new boot process is activated(30sec). If I reboot from windows 7 EasyBSD is activated and windows 7/8 is
present 4 s).

How to prevent the windows 8 boot manager from reboot in windows 8 and make EasyBSD boot instead?
nauval on January 16, 2013 at 5:40 am said:

For anybody who want the GUI Bootloader back try use:
bcdboot.exe c:\windows /d

more info here: http://staidbands.com/blog/windows/windows-8-restore-the-gui-bootloader/

The NeoSmart Files

Recovery software and more

EasyBCD is ready for Windows 8 CP!

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32 thoughts on “EasyBCD is ready for Windows 8 CP!”

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