Text boot menu took over GUI boot menu

examiner

Member
I encountered a peculiar problem while using EasyBCD either version 2.1.4 or the Beta 2.2 Build 177, after several times successfully boot up either Windows 7, Windows 8, or ubuntu from Windows 8 GUI boot menu. I added the ubuntu boot entry via EasyBCD.

But surprisingly after I ran EasyBCD again, selected "Edit Boot Menu" and selected "Save Settings" without making any changes, subsequent system reboots showed only the text boot menu. I could recover the GUI boot menu only after performing Windows 8's "Refresh Your PC".

I was able to reproduce the scenario multiple times with either version of EasyBCD.
 
You cant add Ubuntu to the GUI Windows Loader of Windows 8. It is locked down by UEFI and cant be modified to add anything but older versions of Windows to it. You will have to go with the text based version or have 2 boot menus. 1 of GRUB and from there select Windows to get the GUI.
 
You cant add Ubuntu to the GUI Windows Loader of Windows 8. It is locked down by UEFI and cant be modified to add anything but older versions of Windows to it. You will have to go with the text based version or have 2 boot menus. 1 of GRUB and from there select Windows to get the GUI.

But, I am able to do that believe it or not!!! Perhaps, setting the default boot selection to Windows 8 did the trick. I don't know.

The problem I encountered only occurred when I did those things with EasyBCD after successfully booting from each of the 3 OS from the GUI Windows Loader of Windows 8. In other words, after I did "Refresh your PC", I have been able to reboot either Windows 7, Windows 8, or ubuntu with the GUI menu multiple times. The problem is reproducible.
 
What it sounds like to me is that when you did the "Refresh my PC" option from within Windows 8, it took the boot loader as it was and just gave it GUI options. The issue here is that this option is not a viable one. As the "Refresh my PC" option restores the system to factory settings basically and people will lose all apps they have installed. The only apps kept are those downloaded from the Windows Store. Unless they changed this from the Consumer Preview, that option wasnt even working properly and it did a complete restore. So basically if people want the GUI, they would have to reset their Win8 install to as it was when they first installed it losing everything they have done since. All customizations and installed apps would be gone.

So while some might find this useful, others will not think it is a solution as they are not willing to take the time to reinstall everything as it was. Glad you got the GUI, but by default there is no way to add anything but Windows to the GUI.
 
Let me reiterate the problem which I encountered for the sake of clarification. When I boot up my PC, I can select to boot from Windows 8 or Windows 7 through a GUI. In that GUI, I can also select another entry which bring up a second text menu within which I can select to boot ubuntu. So, there are two menus, one being graphical and the other one being textual.

But, after I bring up EasyBCD again, select "Edit boot menu", select "Save Settings" without making any changes, and exit EasyBCD, I would no longer get the Windows 8 GUI boot choices; both menus became textual. As stated previously, the problem occurred on the latest beta as well as the latest stable release of EasyBCD. The problem is reproducible. It is resolvable by Windows 8's "Refreshing your PC" feature.
 
Last edited:
Yes, we are aware of this issue.

Certain operations in EasyBCD trigger a reversion to the older text-based (fast) menu. This may be resolvable without refreshing the install by running the following:

bcdedit /bootems {bootmgr} off

It has not been confirmed.
 
Back
Top