Disable complete bootmenu with EasyBCD?

R

Raysy

Member
Hi guys :smile:
I searched the forum and checked the FAQ, but I did not found an answer to my question:

Can I disable the windows boot menu with EasyBCD?

I'm running Vista and made another partion on my harddisk for the Windows 7 RC. The installation of Win7 created a windows boot menu and put Win7 as the default installation. I wasn't happy with the Win7 RC and will make an Inplace-Upgrade, when the Win7 Final is out. So I deleted the Win7 partition on my harddisk.
Now I got a menu with a Win7-default entry, that does not work, because I deleted Win7 and a Win Vista entry, that I want to be used in Future automatically.
I deleted the Win7-entry with EasyBCD 1.7.2 and made Win Vista my default. But still both entries are shown, when I reboot!
My EasyBCD overview says this:
There is one entry in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows
Click to expand...
In "Global Settings" EasyBCD states "Default OS: Windows Vista" and in "Add/remove Entries" only "Windows Vista" is shown.

Perhaps it's not allowed to deleted an entry, if there a only two choices, as a one-choice-bootmenu would not make sense?!
So how can I delete the win7-entry correctly? And can I disable that bootmenu with EasyBCD (or the command line)?

Any help appreciated.

I attached the configuration .BCD in a zip file.
 

Attachments

  • Recovery.zip
    467 bytes · Views: 4
Hi Ray, welcome to NST.
Is Vista shown as "active and "system" in your Disk Management ?
There's a chance you're still using the W7 BCD if W7 installed to empty space and created itself an unlettered extra boot partition.
You can suppress the menu by simply setting timeout(0). It will take the default without offering a choice.
 
Thanks for your replies, but I think there is the danger to lock myself out.

My bootmenu boots Win7 automatically and fails, if I do nothing. EasyBCD says Vista is my default system, but it is not.
If I set the timeout to 0 seconds or switch off the bootmenu via the command line, wouldn't I been locked out?!

I typed "bcdedit" at the command line and got this
Windows-Start-Manager
---------------------
Bezeichner {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale de-DE
inherit {globalsettings}
default {default}
resumeobject {7a198eda-6184-11dd-8a10-fb82c5bc8917}
displayorder {default}
{current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows-Startladeprogramm
-------------------------
Bezeichner {default}
device unknown
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale de-DE
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {66dc4901-ec93-11dd-abc5-ad7722a38062}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice unknown
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {66dc48ff-ec93-11dd-abc5-ad7722a38062}
nx OptIn

Windows-Startladeprogramm
-------------------------
Bezeichner {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale de-DE
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {7a198eda-6184-11dd-8a10-fb82c5bc8917}
nx OptIn
Click to expand...
 
If W7's not booting you need to correct that using W7's DVD and startup repair. If you'd perfer using Vista for your default entry you can change that on the Bootloader Management page in EasyBCD. Getting rid of the bootmenu either by forcing it not to show or setting the timeout to 0 won't allow you to select which OS you would like to use, it well just boot the default entry automatically. If you need to get into both OSes, you should instead set the timeout to something shorter like 5 seconds or so, not to make the boot time too long, but to give you enough time to boot another OS that isn't the default entry at boot time if that is what you would want to be able to do.
 
Please post a screenshot of your Disk Management display, so we can see where the flags are.
(use the paperclip icon in "go advanced" under the quick reply box to attach a .jpg captured with snipping tool)
 
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This is my harddisk (see attachment). For Win7 I splitted up C: and created a fourth partition. After deleting the Win7-partition, I rezized C: back to it's original size. F: was always my data-partion, the left one is WinRe, the Vista recovery partition. This harddisk is the only fixed harddisk installed in my PC.
 

Attachments

  • Harddisk.JPG
    Harddisk.JPG
    37 KB · Views: 12
Last edited:
That all looks fine. There shouldn't be any scope there for finding a redundant BCD, so I don't know why EasyBCD shows one thing and BCDedit shows something completely different.
You should be able to change the default and delete the redundant entry with BCDedit, but I've no idea where EasyBCD is finding the information it's manipulating, if it's not the "live" BCD

This is one for Guru to explain I think.
 
Solved

I found a solution. There's a freeware GUI for bcdedit called BCD Editor. It's small and stand-alone. I could change the default boot-OS and deleted the entry of Win7.
The author renamed BCD Editor BellaVista, but the download link to BellaVista v 1.0.0.6 is unfortunatly broken. You only get a 404 error.
Here is a direct link to the BCD editor 1.0.0.230 (122kb). It's of 2007, but it worked for me.
<EDIT>Author fixed the link<EDIT>

I wrote
Perhaps it's not allowed to deleted an entry, if there a only two choices, as a one-choice-bootmenu would not make sense?!
Click to expand...
Windows skips the menu, if there's only one entry.
 
Last edited:
Raysy,
If you are planning on installing Windows 7 when Windows 7 is available to all consumers October 22nd then you do not need to keep the Windows 7 RC Partition. You can simply format the partition it now (which will remove it from boot) and install Windows 7 after you purchase it. You will not be able to make an in place upgrade from Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 GA (General Availability).
Also, if you are planning on purchasing Windows 7 when it is released it may be helpful to know you don't have to wait until October to reserve your copy of Win 7! You can pre-order your copy of Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional today. For more information, see the Windows 7 Pre-Order offer page here: http://tinyurl.com/nldc8p
Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team
 
Jessica,
I know that I can't upgrade from Win7 RC to Win7 final and, as written, I'm planning to do a InPlace upgrade of my Vista to Win7. I have already preordered Win7 (there was a promo).
 
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