BCDEdit (RIP Boot.ini)

In Windows XP, if you wanted to control the boot behavior of your computer, you would edit the boot.ini file. By editing this file, you could control dual boot behavior, such as the default operating system and how many seconds you see the selection screen to choose an operating system. When a Windows XP computer would boot, the NTLDR would load the operating system based on the options you set in the boot.ini.

Windows Vista no longer uses a boot.ini file (or, for that matter, NTLDR). Instead, bootmgr.exe (the NTLDR replacement) reads configuration data from the Boot Configuration Database (BCD). BCD options can be modified from the command line using bcdedit.exe. Syntax for this command can be found here. If you want a GUI tool to edit the BCD, NeoSmart provides EasyBCD, which can be downloaded here. EasyBCD allows you to change the same configuration settings as bcdedit with an interface that is easier to use.

This information pertains to the following courses:

Course 5118: Maintaining and Troubleshooting Windows Vista Computers

Comments

[Reacher]

EasyBCD is a nice GUI tool for managing the Vista bootloader without headache, and even has one-click support for dual-boot "profiles" for Linux and OS X.

Nifty tool, check it out: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1