Uninstalling Windows 8 developer preview

tesselode

Member
I want to dual-boot the Windows 8 preview, but before I do that I want to make sure I can uninstall it. If I use EasyBCD in Vista to rewrite the bootloader to the MBR, will I be able to safely delete the Windows 8 partition?
 
Yep. You probably won't even to do that much - all you'll have to do in reality is just remove the Windows 8 entry from EasyBCD to format that partition.
 
Does Windows 8 install its own bootloader, or does it just use the Vista bootloader? Because if so, I think I would need to rewrite the Vista bootloader to the MBR...
 
It will install its own bootloader, but it will install it to the Vista partition. The Windows 8 bootloader will still work to boot into Vista after Windows 8 is removed.
 
If you turn the active bit off for Vista before you install W7, it will put its bootloader with W8 (and not auto dual boot it with Vista. You can then boot W8 by default and add a Vista entry. The BCD in Vista will remain separate and unchanged.
But as CG says, it's not important. Vista/7/8 all use the same MBR/bootmgr/BCD. It's just the release number gets higher. Older can have problems booting newer because of digital sigs, but you should have no problem with the newer version remaining behind.
You never need to rewrite the MBR unless a different bootmanager (XP, Linux, 9x) has altered it.
 
You never need to rewrite the MBR unless a different bootmanager (XP, Linux, 9x) has altered it.

Thanks for the info but is the last bit really true? I have installed W8 but I haven't seen my old "W7" boot menu again, only the new W8 blue boot menu. Am I missing something here? Do I have to push a button to view the old "W7" boot menu?
 
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The new blue menu is the same old one with a different look.

Ok thanks, but how come the new blue menu does not reflect the entries in easy BCD? I see only W8, W7, and Vista. Not XP, Ubuntu and so on.

/edit
Saving the setting in Easy BCD brings back the "old" W7 bootmenu and all the entries, but you loose the new blue bootmenu (ok by me)
 
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Yep. We're working on that, but it appears that in its current state, the new menu does NOT support non Windows 7/Vista entries.
 
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