Question about "Skip the boot menu" Option

jakfish

Member
I've set up EasyBCD 2.2 to dual boot Windows 7 and Lubuntu 12.04 on separate partitions of a 120GB SATA drive.

Since I predominately use Lubuntu, I would like to automate the computer's boot process and go directly into Lubuntu upon powering up the machine.

If I choose "Skip the boot menu" option, is there a manual way of bringing it back? Perhaps holding down the Shift key, or some other stroke?

Many thanks for any advice,
Jake
 
No.
but if you tick Linux as "default" and set timeout low (not zero), you will go directly to Linux with barely a flicker of a menu.
However you will still have the option with a well-timed intervention to choose W7 if you wish.
The skip option is really only there to deal with cases of minor corruption in the BCD, if entries have been added/deleted and upon returning to a single OS, a menu is presented when there is no choice to be made.
Don't ever tick that box if you have multiple BCD entries.
 
Hi, Terry60,

I'm grateful for your prompt help. Your solution was what I was leaning towards, but I wanted some veteran advice.

Can I assume that even if there was a one-second timeout, a user could still access the boot menu simply by moving the Up and Down arrows on the keyboard as the machine boots?

My amateur testing so far shows that once the boot menu has been scrolled, the countdown stops and a user has all the time needed to make a choice.

Right now, I have the boot menu set to four seconds.

Again, thank you for your post,
Jake
 
Yes, as soon as you touch an arrow key the countdown stops, so you have as long as you want to go through a list of choices.
You just need to be present during that timer interval with a finger poised ready to stop the clock.
 
Thank you again for your help. One last thing: if something went awry, and easyBCD simply went to Linux partition right off, would it possible to edit an easyBCD file on the Windows 7 partition through Linux and restore the boot menu?

Much obliged for your assistance,
Jake
 
You can skip the boot menu and still dual-boot with iReboot. Problem is, that doesn't work from Linux.
 
It's not EasyBCD controlling the boot. It's MS bootmgr which is displaying the menu and then chaining to the appropriate boot loader.
And unless you set timeout to zero it can't inadvertently skip to Linux.
Even if you did set it to zero, you can still use BCDedit commands from a W7 Installation or repair disc to undo the mistake.
Make yourself a copy now if you don't own a W7 DVD.
Control Panel > Backup & Restore > Create repair disc.
 
I wanna skip the boot menu but i dont know if it will stay on a black screen, I have no other entries and i have deleted the disks of the other operating systems.
 
If there's only one entry in the BCD, MS bootmgr doesn't display a boot menu because you have no options to choose from.

If you only have one OS and bootmgr still displays a single choice boot menu, that indicates that there's some corrupt data in the BCD which is confusing bootmgr, though not problematic enough to make the boot fail.

You can simply "skip boot menu" but that will circumvent the menu as the name suggests without getting rid of the corrupt data.

As a proper fix
EasyBCD > BCD Backup/Repair > Reset BCD configuration
This will clean all entries from the BCD and warn you in big scary letters "NOT TO REBOOT YOUR SYSTEM YET"
Don't ignore the warning (many people have, then come here pleading "I didn't think it really meant it !")

Then add your W10 entry again to the empty BCD , save it and then check in "view settings" that everything is back as it was before you started, before you next boot.

You should never need to use "skip boot menu" on a clean BCD unless you have boot options which you don't want the end-user to see or be able to use, Don't ever use it if Windows is not the default OS, or you will have no way to undo it and reveal the secret options later.
 
If there's only one entry in the BCD, MS bootmgr doesn't display a boot menu because you have no options to choose from.

If you only have one OS and bootmgr still displays a single choice boot menu, that indicates that there's some corrupt data in the BCD which is confusing bootmgr, though not problematic enough to make the boot fail.

You can simply "skip boot menu" but that will circumvent the menu as the name suggests without getting rid of the corrupt data.

As a proper fix
EasyBCD > BCD Backup/Repair > Reset BCD configuration
This will clean all entries from the BCD and warn you in big scary letters "NOT TO REBOOT YOUR SYSTEM YET"
Don't ignore the warning (many people have, then come here pleading "I didn't think it really meant it !")

Then add your W10 entry again to the empty BCD , save it and then check in "view settings" that everything is back as it was before you started, before you next boot.

You should never need to use "skip boot menu" on a clean BCD unless you have boot options which you don't want the end-user to see or be able to use, Don't ever use it if Windows is not the default OS, or you will have no way to undo it and reveal the secret options later.
Dont know how to add back entries.
 
If there's only one entry in the BCD, MS bootmgr doesn't display a boot menu because you have no options to choose from.

If you only have one OS and bootmgr still displays a single choice boot menu, that indicates that there's some corrupt data in the BCD which is confusing bootmgr, though not problematic enough to make the boot fail.

You can simply "skip boot menu" but that will circumvent the menu as the name suggests without getting rid of the corrupt data.

As a proper fix
EasyBCD > BCD Backup/Repair > Reset BCD configuration
This will clean all entries from the BCD and warn you in big scary letters "NOT TO REBOOT YOUR SYSTEM YET"
Don't ignore the warning (many people have, then come here pleading "I didn't think it really meant it !")

Then add your W10 entry again to the empty BCD , save it and then check in "view settings" that everything is back as it was before you started, before you next boot.

You should never need to use "skip boot menu" on a clean BCD unless you have boot options which you don't want the end-user to see or be able to use, Don't ever use it if Windows is not the default OS, or you will have no way to undo it and reveal the secret options later.
I uninstalled it then installed it
 
 
If you've broken the windows boot, you can't fix it with EasyBCD because that's a Windows .NET application which runs from a working Windows OS.
You need to read this
 
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