Windows 7 Bootloader Made Easy with EasyBCD

Written by: Pranav Thadeshwar • Edited by: Heather Marie Kosur
Updated May 27, 2010 • Related Guides: Windows 7 | Windows | Windows Vista

Want to dualboot Windows 7 or Vista with Linux? Installed Hackintosh and need to boot into it from the Windows bootloader? Want to backup your Windows bootloader before you edit or change settings? EasyBCD is a free application which will do all of the above. Let's take a look at it.

Introduction

Introduced with Windows Vista, BCD (Boot Configuration Data) and Windows Boot Manager are together a completely new bootloader and configuration system. The new boot manager was a result of supporting EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), a replacement of the BIOS that is present on all IBM-compatible desktops, with the newer versions of Windows. Along with the new bootloader comes a new way of dealing with entries in the bootloader.

Unlike the older NTLDR which referred to boot.ini in the System Volume, the new bootloader refers to SystemVolume\Boot\BCD for its boot entries. Editing this file can be done through the command-line by using the command "bcdedit," but we'll be using a third-party GUI application which does a much better job and lets you configure and boot other operating systems like Linux through the Windows bootloader.

EasyBCD

EasyBCD is a completely free application by NeoSmart Technologies which helps you configure the bootloader entries stored in SystemVolume\Boot\BCD. The main window consists of a list of buttons on the left and the current bootloader entries on the right. The application allows you to change various things like the default OS to boot, the bootloader menu timeout, and other advanced and low-level settings which can be useful for troubleshooting or system administration. Although not officially supported in Windows 7, you can safely work with it without having to fiddle with compatibility settings or anything else.

click to enlarge

The main advantage of EasyBCD is the ease with which you can add, remove, or edit entries in the bootloader menu. Go to the Add/Remove Entries section and you can add, edit, and install various bootloaders to boot Mac and Linux installations and Windows PE images. It's as easy as selecting the relevant type of bootloader you need and clicking on "Add Entry" after specifying the relevant options for that entry.

Options available to dualboot with Linux are Grub, which will have to be configured from the Linux tab and accepts the partition on which the Grub bootloader is installed, and NeoGrub, which installs a Windows' version of Grub so that you can edit and work with it from Windows itself.

WinPE (live version of Windows for system administration) images and folder-hierarchies can be booted from the Windows bootloader using EasyBCD. All you have to do is specify the location/path of the folder/image file that has to be booted. You can also add entries for legacy versions of Windows like Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME.

Another great feature about EasyBCD is that you can backup your bootloader settings and reinstall the bootloader in case of errors.

Conclusion

All in all, EasyBCD is a tiny but incredibly usefully application for working with your bootloader. Owing to its ability to work so well with Linux partitions, I have been using it on my dualboot laptop for quite some time now. And the good thing about it is that it will hide in a corner without annoying you, but the moment you need to change your bootloader settings (which shouldn't be very often), it comes to the rescue.

niki singleton Jul 19, 2011 8:40 PM

linux

Hi - I rather stupidly, decided to trial Linux (Ubuntu 11.04) - but instead of running it alongside my current operating system... Windows 7 ... replaced Windows 7 completely. I then decided I preferred Windows 7-and as I have the Windows 7 operating cdrom-presumed it was just a case of changing boot sequence, and reinstalling windows 7 over/instead of Linux. No such luck.... will the repair disk you are selling 'work??!!' ie. will it override the boot sequence replaced by Linux, which prevents the Windows7 rom from starting-up. Hope this makes sense!!!

sanni dawud Mar 26, 2011 11:44 AM

h p

how do i update my windows7

Scott Sep 27, 2010 11:42 AM

No Boot Menu

System starts and boots directly to XP without a boot menu.

I have 3 partitions on one drive.
XP on Part 1
Win 7 on Part 2
Data on Part 3

BCD indicates that Win 7 is the default with a 20 second time out.

Any idea why the bootloader is being ignored ?

Jiwan D. Jain Sep 7, 2010 4:20 AM

win7 3 times & XpP 1 time loaded- remove 2 win7

Win 7 is loaded 3 times by mistake of pressing Add 3 times in add list. i want to remove 2 extra time it happened as it look bad.

Yanto Aug 26, 2010 12:17 PM

remove windows boot manager

Hi guys..Previously i got my notebook which come with windows 7 to dual boot with hackintosh..then i have deleted the hackintosh and remove the hackntosh from the list which make me left with my windows 7..the problem here is that everytime i restart my computer the windows boot manager still show up with 1 choice only which is windows 7..so is it possible to make the windows boot manager not to appear and automatically boot my windows 7 like oreviously before i installed hackintosh?...thanks

Wyle L. Jul 3, 2010 10:38 PM

Re: Jawad Hussain (xp over windows 7)

The problem you have is that Windows is usually installed on drive C:\. Your XP is installed on Drive F. The driver installer thinks tries to install to Drive C (where it thinks windows is installed, but it is not). One thing you could do to try and fix this is to change the drive letter names. This forum post will help you: http://www.petri.co.il/change_system_drive_letter_in_windows_xp.htm I hope this works for you!

Jawad Hussain Jun 27, 2010 1:50 PM

Xp over Windows 7

Dear All,

how are you. I hope you are fine and in good health. i installed win xp on windows 7 and i faced a couple of problems. First is i cannot boot windows 7 now as the system by defaults boots from xp. Another problem is i am seeing a drive named System reserved (C:) which is of 100 MB. Now according to the person from whom i bought by new Lenovo G550 laptop he installed a pirated windows 7. i also know that windows 7 created a 100 MB partition so whenever i try to install any driver it says that not enough disk space on C. Free some diskspace which makes sense as 100 MB is nothing. I hope u get my point. Before installing Xp i was seeing three drives i-e C, D and E but now i am seeing C, D , E and F and F is the drive on which i installed the windows xp. Please reply ASAP. I read all of the above stuff but couldnt make out the solution

Thanks for replying in advance

Jawad in distress

Allah Hafiz

sam Jun 6, 2010 2:59 PM

configure windows 7 bootloader

currently i am using win7 ( c:\ ) then i installed win server 2003 ( g:\ ) after that i cannot boot the win 7 i is directly going to win server
then i again installed win 7 in c drive afterward win 7 is not booting

plz help me to boot both the os give some solution

Razi Apr 23, 2010 9:02 AM

Edit BCDBOOT to boot to .vhd in DVD

Im just thinking about booting from my .vhd that i'm already copy to dvd. I'm booting to it from Win 7 dual boot before. Now please give me an advise to use Easy BCD to configure how to set BCDBOOT to make it available booting to .vhd inside DVD.
Thanks in advance

maffiakillen@hotmail.com Jan 10, 2010 4:55 PM

Dear M. AlQudsi

Ofcourse there are always some bugs. I think this BCD using MS-DOS and the commands are free from bugs but when you giving commands through a software it will be some various bugs. Mahmoud! My question is: Are there sirious bugs in 1,7,2 ?? Or should I be a member of NEO forum just for the case to download the beta version. And what will happen next, taking charge? wondering. Regards

James Shinall Dec 7, 2009 10:16 PM

hidden partitions

hello,

i'm looking to use a bootloader to auto boot a primary partition (ntfs for windows 7), and also while loading, with a key combination similar to dells ctrl+f11, booting a hidden partition in the case that that windows partition was destroyed. The ultimate goal is to have the norton ghost recovery cd on the hidden partition, with all the image files necesarry to restore the windows partition, and the 100mb system partition that windows 7 creates. Then I would plan to automate that process through the autoexec.bat on the hidden partition, so possibly you only get "are you sure" dialogue, and then it restores the image, and reboots. I have looked for a bootloader that will do this, but i'm new to the bootloader scene, so i'm not sure if this one will already do something like that. basically..looking for a small delay while booting, with maybe a message that says "press ctrl+f11 to load BOOTLOADER OPTIONS", and if nothing is done, a "default" partition is loaded. But I want it to be able to see the hidden partition should I press the appropriate key combo. Sorry if i Over explained what i'm looking for, or underexplained..not sure how to exactly describe what I want.

Thanks for the help in advance,

James Shinall
dex3985@hotmail.com

Mahmoud Al-Qudsi Dec 3, 2009 1:30 PM

EasyBCD 2.0

Hi Tom, Pranav:

I'm the lead developer of EasyBCD and we're currently working on version 2.0 which has a huge number of new features, bug fixes, and various improvements.

Tom, download a copy of EasyBCD 2.0 from http://j.mp/EBCD2 and try using that to fix your dual-boot. Accept the default options and allow it to auto-configure everything. If that doesn't work out, please open a support thread at http://neosmart.net/forums/ and the support team will be more than happy to help.

Sincerely,

Mahmoud Al-Qudsi
Director,
NeoSmart Technologies

Tom Dietrich Nov 26, 2009 1:02 AM

Hello,
I'm pretty familiar with Windows, etc. I've used Easy BCD previously for dual-booting with Vista and XP. I've also used GRUB previously for dual booting XP and Linux. Now I'm trying to quad-boot. I've got Vista on a SATA hard drive all by itself. Have an IDE data drive in there, no booting OS on that drive. I installed a new SATA hard drive, partitioned it, and installed Windows 7. Set that to be default boot in BIOS. Booted fine. Installed Ubuntu to 2nd partition. During the Linux install it placed GRUB on HD0. I'm not sure which HD it saw as HD0, could have been the IDE data drive, or the Vista drive, not sure. Installed EasyBCD in Windows 7. Created the menu entries for Linux, but it won't boot, cannot find GRUB. Tried to add the entry for Vista, but that won't boot either. Haven't tried switching BIOS to boot Vista drive yet, but I'll do that next. Just wondering why EasyBCD isn't letting me boot any of the other OS except Win 7. I know this is more complicated with the multiple hard drives, multiple partitions, but I"m sure it can work. Guess I could install OS X and allow Chameleon to be my boot loader. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Tom

Windows 7 Bootloader Made Easy with EasyBCD

Introduction

EasyBCD

Conclusion

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