Older Version Of Windows

S

suprtechme

Member
I would like to know how to remove an operating system which is no longer on my computer even though the Windows Boot Manager thinks it is. I have Windows XP home on one hardrive and Windows 7 Ultimate on another hardrive. When I boot up my computer I get Older Version Of Windows and Windows 7 as booting choices. The default operating system is Windows 7 which boots fine when the 30 seconds is up. If I choose Older Version Of Windows I get two more choices: Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro. I no longer have Windows XP Pro on my computer. I can boot into Windows XP Home OK, but I get an ntldr error if Windows XP Pro is selected. When I use EasyBCD under the ADD/REMOVE button I can only see two entries, Windows 7 and Older Version Of Windows. Is there a way to remove the Windows XP Pro entry on the second screen of the boot manager. I can boot to both operating systems fine, its just a nag that I have to go to that second boot screen when I want to use XP Home.
 
Last edited:
EasyBCD /Tools/ Edit Legacy entries
will take you to the NTLDR boot.ini which is responsible for displaying the second boot menu.
Delete the redundant line from the Operating system section and your second menu will no longer appear.
 
Earlier Version Of Windows

I would like to know how to remove an operating system which is no longer on my computer even though the Windows Boot Manager thinks it is. I have Windows XP home on one hardrive and Windows 7 Ultimate on another hardrive. When I boot up my computer I get Earlier Version Of Windows and Windows 7 as booting choices. The default operating system is Windows 7 which boots fine when the 30 seconds is up. If I choose Earlier Version Of Windows I get two more choices: Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro. I no longer have Windows XP Pro on my computer. I can boot into Windows XP Home OK, but I get "Missing or Corrupt: <Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll" error if Windows XP Pro is selected. When I use EasyBCD under the ADD/REMOVE button I can only see two entries, Windows 7 and Earlier Version Of Windows. Is there a way to remove the Windows XP Pro entry on the second screen of the boot manager. I can boot to both operating systems fine, its just a nag that I have to go to that second boot screen when I want to use XP Home.

I was given the following instructions by Terry60 from the NeoSmart Support Center to solve this problem. EasyBCD/Tools/Edit Legacy entries and delete the redundant line for Windows XP Pro from the NTLDR boot.ini. I was able to delete the line using notepad but was not able to resave the new boot.ini file. I get a message that this is a read only file. I did a search for the boot.ini file with show all hidden files option selected but was unable to find it to change it's file properties to write as well as read only. Any suggestions? Thanks
 
Thanks Terry, I did set the folder options to show all hidden files, but I guess I wasn't able to find them. I did solve my problem of removing the second boot screen by booting into Xp Home Edition, going to Start->Control Panel->System->Advanced Tab->Startup and Recovery->Settings Button->System Startup->Edit Button. This is where I found the boot.ini file displayed in notepad, deleted the line containing WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" and was able to save the edited boot.ini file. (Saved a copy of the old boot.ini under a different name just in case.) When I rebooted my computer I was happy to see only one boot manager screen showing Windows 7 and Earlier Version Of Windows. I booted into Window 7 and used EasyBCD to change the label Earlier Version Of Windows to Windows XP Home Edition on boot screen, set it to the default operating system at boot up and also the 30 second time delay to 20 seconds. I'm happy because boot up is faster and my wife is happy because she doesn't have to make any decisions about which operating system to choose if she has to restart the computer. Thanks again for your help.
 
Great to hear you got it working.

For future reference, EasyBCD -> Tools -> Autoconfigure will fix boot.ini discrepancies for you.
 
Did you change all three options. (boot files are "super hidden", just changing "hidden files" won't reveal them)
 
Yes I did change the name of the operating system, the default operating system and the delay time using EasyBCD, while logged in as administer in Windows 7. This is a great troubleshooting and repair program. I wish I had found it sooner. It may have saved formatting several hardrives and reloading windows.
 
Back
Top