Manage Your Dual Boot PCs

I recently set up one of my test PCs to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. Since I installed Windows Server 2008 last, that's now the default OS. So the PC automatically boots into Server 2008 unless I intervene at the boot menu. But I'd prefer that it boot into Windows 7 by default, which means I need to tinker with the boot configuration. If you maintain your own dual or multi boot computers, either personally or on the job, here's a quick look at how to tweak their configuration.

Windows XP and earlier OS versions let you access the multi boot parameters, or the Boot Configuration Data, or 'BCD,' through a simple text file called boot.ini. Changing your default OS and other boot settings was a relatively simple matter of editing boot.ini in a text editor such as Wordpad. To access the boot.ini file in Windows XP, right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Advanced tab. Under Startup and Recovery, click on Settings and then click on Edit. That opens the boot.ini file in Wordpad where you can edit its parameters. Here's a brief Microsoft Support document that explains how to edit the boot.ini file.

With the debut of Windows Vista, Microsoft (News - Alert) jettisoned the boot.ini file and started to provide access to the BCD through an executable file called bcdedit.exe. Vista and the Windows operating systems that debuted afterwards, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, also use bdcedit. This command offers you a greater variety of options for tweaking your boot settings than does boot.ini. But since bcdedit is a command line program, it's more awkward to use.

To check your boot settings on a dual boot PC running Windows Vista or a later OS, you'll need to open a command prompt to run bcdedit. But bcdedit requires administrative rights, so you'll need to open a command prompt with admin privileges before you can run it. To do this, click on the Start Button. Go to All Programs and click on Accessories. In the Accessories list, right-click on the Command Prompt shortcut. From the right-click popup menu, select Run as Administrator.

Now you can type bcdedit at the command prompt to view its data and make any changes. You'll see the Windows Boot Manager and Boot Loader information identifying your partitions and their boot configurations. To view a list of all the commands you can run with bcdedit, type bcdedit /?. This Microsoft page also shows you the different commands and options for bcdedit.

But making changes through bcdedit isn't exactly user friendly. For example, if I want to change the default boot partition from Windows Server to Windows 7, I first need to find the GUID for Windows 7, which is the unique ID number assigned to the operating system. The command bcdedit /enum shows me the GUIDs for my two boot partitions. I then run the command bcdedit /default {GUID number}. Not quite brain surgery, but as I said, not very user friendly.

Fortunately, a company called NeoSmart Technologies offers its own utility that paints a nice, friendly GUI on top of the bcdedit command. EasyBCD lets you view and tweak every parameter of your boot configuration through a well-designed interface. Instead of wrestling with command line settings, you just point and click to choose the options you need. For example, changing your default boot partition is a simple matter of clicking on the radio button for the OS you want. EasyBCD is free to download and use, but NeoSmart wouldn't mind a donation if you find the program useful.

With the release of Windows 7, I think more people are running dual boot configurations as they try to transition from Windows XP. Those of us who need to maintain test PCs with different client and server operating systems also are apt to run multi boot machines. Hopefully, I've provided some helpful advice here on how you can manage and change your boot configurations when you need to juggle multiple operating systems.