Windows 8 Consumer Preview Dual Boot with 7

S

Saltgrass

Active Member
I saw the comments made in December about the Windows 8 boot loader, and wanted to share some observations from the new release.

The Boot loader does not reboot when Win 8 is selected, but does when Win 7 is selected. Changing the options for Win 7 to be the default OS, causes the Win 7 boot menu to be displayed and no rebooting is required going into either system. I understand the trick to disable the Metro UI no longer works, so perhaps it is related to that.

Once you set Windows 7 as the default, you no longer have the Win 8 boot loader menu to change it back. Using BCDedit to set Win 8 as default again, got the Win 8 menu back. Looks like msconfig.exe might also be able to change the default.

Do you know what the following BCD entries are and what options they may have?

allowedinmemorysettings (is set to 0x15000075)
bootmenupolicy (is set to Standard)
isolatedcontext (is set to Yes)

Also, IE 10 needs the Standard Editor in this, and other forums, or you will not be able to use the enter/return key when typing.
 
The reason why you get the reboot when selecting Win7 from teh new graphical boot interface that is with Win8 is that it uses the new UEFI. That is something that was not around previously, hence why it requires the system to restart to boot into non UEFI based systems. Since Win8 is still based on EasyBCD, that is why you can still use the text based version of the BCD to boot without reboots. Cause it just triggers the boot sequence.

It has nothing to do at all with Metro or the lack of ability to disable it. It has everything to do with the Graphical Interface now added. Microsoft made notes of this as they are trying to secure the boot loader to try and help prevent Windows from being hacked before startup. At the same time it will also hinder the dual boot process of *NIX as it doesnt use UEFI at all and with OEM machines, they manufacturer will have full control on if they want to disable the UEFI or not. So those machines might never be able to dual boot with anything but Windows.

Yes IE10 does require the Standard Editor, that is a flaw of the build, not of the forums. You could just install your own browser and use that as well.
 
Mak 2.0 said:
The reason why you get the reboot when selecting Win7 from teh new graphical boot interface that is with Win8 is that it uses the new UEFI. That is something that was not around previously, hence why it requires the system to restart to boot into non UEFI based systems.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, but I have been running a UEFI Windows 7 system for almost a year....so it is booting into another UEFI install with Windows 7.

I would have to think the Win8 boot is taking the system almost all the way into Win 8, so when it goes to another system, it has to unload all the stuff it already loaded.

And I knew the IE 10 situation was its problem, just advising...
 
Yes, that is the posting I was referring to originally. Since is seems to be now incorrect, I wanted to start some updated info in case you could get some insight into the process. I like my system using the old boot menu since the system does not have to reboot depending on which OS I choose.

It’s a subtle change as the boot menu is not shown the second time around, but the PC actually reboots after making the selection.
Click to expand...
I was assuming you were referring to both OS selections and not just the other OS.

I am not asking for help..just sharing :smile:
 
I am not asking for help..just sharing
Click to expand...

Yep, I understand. And I appreciate it!

I haven't tried Windows 7 CP in a dual-boot yet, just by itself. According to others, it now correctly detects NTLDR-based previous OSes at least, which is quite an improvement since the beta which made it look like only Vista+ was officially supported out of the box by the new bootloader.

Addendum:

BTW, the dynamic changing of the bootloader from old to new based on the default OS is new in the CP, right? I didn't figure out how it worked with the beta, but I'm pretty sure that after using EasyBCD, I had the text menu with Windows 8 as the default.
 
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I only ran the Developer's Preview for one day and dumped it. So I can't be much help as to the differences.

I do remember I asked you almost a year ago if EasyBCD was going to be getting into the UEFI realm and you said, at that time, no.

But, just as before, if you need any research done, let me know.
 
Ah, you're the UEFI person... Hello :smile:

It seems with Windows 8 UEFI will become more of a reality. I'm considering rolling out UEFI support in EasyBCD for whatever comes after v2.2.

I haven't done any experimentation on actual UEFI hardware, but here's what's odd: I have many reports from people that EasyBCD "works" w/ the UEFI systems.. and then there are others that tell me that EasyBCD won't even start/display their OSes. Have you ever been able to get EasyBCD to basically work?
I know there's a lot of stuff that's hard-coded with MBR references and will break with GPTs, etc. but I'm wondering if basic features like reordering or renaming work OK enough in the current versions?
 
Well, first test. Win 8 and Win 7 on separate drives and originally installed as independent UEFI installs.

Was booted into Windows 8 and started EasyBCD..

The Overview screen could see no boot entries. The Detailed view showed the entries as they were.

Edit Boot Menu - No entries detected - which made it impossible to remove any entries.

The Boot loader for Windows 7 was added normally and works. (still showed nothing in the Overview)

Other observations:

Windows 8 does not install .Net 3.5 by default.

The Blue, Boot Menu/Options screen, encountered during a dual boot initial install does not appear if you just install Windows 8 by itself.

No response is expected unless questions come up.

Forgot..using latest beta version.
 
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