Windows Vista has a different bootup configuration than earlier versions of Windows. Instead of using a simple Boot.ini file as in Windows XP, Vista has a special Boot Configuration Data (BCD) database to hold all the relevant bootup parameters, and to allow compatibility with new bootup methods. However this change also makes boot configuration and editing much more tricky. Editing the boot configuration is particularly important if you’ve installed a dual boot setup of Vista as covered in the previous chapter. For the most part, you should not need to edit or alter the Vista boot configuration unless you’re troubleshooting a system problem, attempting to use more than 4GB of RAM, or you want to alter specific parameters or repair a dual boot or multiboot setup. There are several ways you can view and modify your Vista boot configuration, and each is covered in more detail below.
BCDEDIT
BCDEdit is a built-in command line tool for altering the boot configuration in Vista. To use it, open an Administrator Command Prompt (see the Vista Usage Notes chapter). The full list of BCDEdit command line options is in this Microsoft Article. Given it is a more complex tool to use, it is not recommended that you edit the boot configuration this way – I recommend using the tools below instead, at least to start with.
The easiest method to alter your basic bootup options is to go to Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings, or go to Start>Search Box and type “systempropertiesadvanced” (without quotes) and press Enter. Then click the Settings button under the ‘Startup and Recovery’ section of the Advanced tab.
In the Startup and Recovery box, under System Startup if you want a Boot Menu to be shown when your PC first loads with a list of all installed Operating Systems, tick the ‘Time to display list of operating systems’ box and in the box next to it choose how many seconds you want the Boot Menu to remain on screen before it automatically loads up the default OS. If on the other hand you don’t want a boot menu to be shown at all, and want the default OS to load up straight away, untick the box.
The ‘Time to display recovery options when needed’ box should be ticked, and a reasonable amount of time entered, such as 15 seconds or more. The recovery options menu will only appear if you run into problems with Vista, and its features (such as Safe Mode) are covered under the Backup & Recovery chapter.
MSCONFIG
Another way to alter the boot configuration is to use the Microsoft System Configuration utility (MSConfig). Go to Start>Search Box and type “msconfig” (without quotes) then press Enter. Go to the Boot tab of MSConfig and you will see under the ‘Boot Options’ section there are several options for altering the way your PC boots up. These are primarily used for troubleshooting purposes. Highlight the install of Windows Vista you wish to alter then you can select one of these options to apply to it:
Safe Boot: If selected, the next boot will be into Safe Mode, as detailed under the Backup & Recovery chapter. Default Safe Mode is called Minimal; ‘Alternate Shell’ is Safe Mode with Command Prompt instead of GUI; ‘Active Directory repair’ is Safe Mode with GUI and Active Directory; Network is Safe Mode with GUI and Networking features enabled.
No GUI boot: Removes the default Windows Vista ‘scrolling bars’ startup screen when booting up, replaces it with the Aurora image. See the Graphics & Interface chapter for more details on how to customize the boot screen.
Boot log: Records all bootup information in a logfile stored under your \ Windows directory as Ntbtlog.txt.
Base video: Boots up Vista using the standard Windows graphics drivers rather than the specific video driver for your graphics hardware.
OS boot information: Shows the names of all the drivers as they’re being loaded during bootup.
The Timeout value in the box on the right is the same as the ‘Time to display a list of operating systems’ setting covered under ‘Startup and Recovery’ further above – it controls how long the boot menu for multiboot systems is shown.
If you click the ‘Advanced Options’ button you will see more advanced bootup options for troubleshooting:
Number of processors: If you have a multi-core CPU, you can tick this option and manually force all, some or only one of the processors (cores) on the CPU be detected and used by Windows.
Maximum Memory: Allows you to manually force Windows to only use a certain amount of RAM on your system, up to and including your full physical RAM amount. Amount entered is in KiloBytes (KB).
PCI Lock: Stops Windows from dynamically assigning system resources to PCI devices. The devices will use the BIOS configuration instead.
Detect HAL: Forces Windows to redetect the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) in case your hardware is incorrectly being detected/reported.
Debug: Starts Windows in debugging mode, with a range of options as to where to write the debug output.
Once done selecting which bootup options you wish to apply to the boot configuration, click the Apply button then OK, and these option(s) will come into effect on next boot. Should you wish to apply any permanently, you can tick the ‘Make all boot settings permanent’ box. Generally I recommend using MSConfig to test a boot option, and then using BCDEdit or VistaBoot Pro to make it permanent.
THIRD PARTY TOOLS
Aside from the built-in tools above, there are a range of third party tools you can use to do what is covered above more easily and more safely.
VISTABOOT PRO
VistaBoot Pro is a tool for editing the boot configuration in Vista using a graphical interface and does not require detailed knowledge of how the BCD works. Upon installation you will be prompted to make a backup of your BCD database, which is strongly recommended before you do anything else. Should anything undesirable occur with the BCD, you can click the ‘Backup/Restore Center’ button and restore your original backed up BCD files.
VistaBoot Pro has a range of functions, but we’ll cover only the major ones here. On the main ‘View Settings’ screen in VistaBoot Pro you can see a summary of the data held in the BCD. If you have a dual or multiboot setup, you should see all the operating systems listed with the correct drives shown. You can expand this display by clicking the Detailed or All buttons at the top of the text display area. The information here is useful for troubleshooting, and also gives you an idea of the kind of data held in the BCD.
If you want to alter these entries, click the ‘Manage OS Entries’ button. Here you can set the default OS and the timeout, though these are best altered using the normal Vista Startup and Recovery options as covered further above. Of use for multibooters, you can rename the OS entries which show up in the Boot Menu. By default, Vista insists on calling your older Windows operating system ‘Earlier version of Windows’ in the Boot Menu, and it calls Vista simply ‘Microsoft Windows’. To help prevent confusion and make things neater, click on each OS listed and tick the ‘Rename selected operating system’ checkbox – new options will appear allowing you to provide a new name and also change the drive letter if necessary. For example I’ve renamed my listed OSes so that one says ‘Windows XP’ and the other says ‘Windows Vista’. You can also add a new (Windows) OS listing here by ticking the ‘Add new operating system entry’ option and filling in the details. Finally, you can change the order in which the OSes are l
isted by highlighting the relevant OS and using the up or down arrows to the right.
The ‘Advanced Settings’ include various advanced features which the MSConfig utility can also accomplish, and these are described further above. Some additional useful features you can use VistaBoot Pro for are:
Disable Vista Driver Signing: By default the 64-bit version of Vista only allows signed drivers to be installed. Ticking this option attempts to override that limitation – has no impact on 32-bit Vista editions. Note that this method has been disabled by Microsoft in recent updates, so this option is unlikely to work if selected.
Physical Address Extension: If ticked, this option enables Physical Address Extension (PAE) in Vista. This is necessary for correct memory detection if you have more than 4GB of RAM in the 32-bit version of Vista.
Data Execution Prevention: Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is on by default, but can be turned off by unticking this option. DEP is covered in detail in the PC Security chapter and usually should not be disabled.
Finally, the ‘System Bootloader’ section of VistaBoot Pro allows you to attempt to fix any problems with the Vista bootloader, or to uninstall it if you’ve removed Vista or the other OS from a dual boot system. By default, simply deleting/reformatting/removing one of the OS drives or partitions in a dual boot configuration will cause startup problems since the bootloaders are interdependent. This option lets you to remove the relevant bootloader before deleting that OS so that you can boot into the other OS as normal.
VistaBoot Pro is a very useful tool for easy BCD editing, however if in doubt do not alter any settings, and if you wind up seriously damaging your BCD or any other Vista boot files, use the Startup Repair functionality of Vista to fix the problem (See the Backup & Recovery chapter), or see the instructions here.
EASYBCD
EasyBCD is another free automated utility which makes editing the Vista boot configuration much easier. However it is virtually identical to VistaBoot Pro in terms of its major features and functions, so it will not be covered in detail here. You can use either utility to achieve much the same results.
BOOTDISKS
As mentioned in this Microsoft Article, Windows Vista does not use Boot Disks any more; the original Vista DVD is effectively a boot disk. If you’re having problems booting up Windows, you can boot up using the original Vista DVD then use Startup Repair to automatically detect and repair any issue preventing proper Windows startup. You can also access the DOS Command Prompt in the Vista Recovery Tools if necessary. Details of these functions are covered under the Backup & Recovery chapter.
If you still want to create a Vista bootup floppy disk, you can do so according to the details here. If you want to start up your PC in very basic DOS mode and the Command Prompt mode of the Vista Recovery Environment is not appropriate for some reason, there are a range of bootdisks you can download here.
Ultimately there really shouldn’t be a reason to alter your boot configuration under normal circumstances so I would approach the use of the tools in this chapter with caution.
Hi, good post. I have been pondering this issue,so thanks for posting. I will likely be coming back to your posts. Keep up the good work
You’re welcome