Using Windows Boot Manager
Now that your system can boot to one or more
operating systems other than Windows 8, you need to know how to control
your OSs. You do this using the Windows Boot Manager, which is a menu
of the operating systems installed on your PC.
By default, Windows Boot Manager appears
automatically when you start your PC. However, you can also invoke
Windows Boot Manager from within Windows 8 itself by following these
steps:
1. Press Windows Logo+I to open the Settings pane and then click Change PC Settings.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Under the Advanced Startup heading, click Restart Now. The Choose an Option screen appears.
4. Click Use Another
Operating System. The Choose an Operating System screen appears, which
is the Windows 8 version of Windows Boot Manager.
The screen you see depends on your dual-boot
setup. For example, if you’re dual-booting with Windows 7 or Windows
Vista (or both), you see a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2.
If you’re dual-booting Windows 8 with either (or both) Windows 7 or
Windows Vista, you use this startup screen to choose which operating
system you want to load.
If you’re dual-booting with Windows XP or earlier, you see a screen similar to the one shown in Figure 3. Again, notice that the BCD simply refers to the legacy OS as “Earlier Version of Windows.”
Figure 3. If you’re dual-booting Windows 8 with Windows XP or earlier, you use this startup screen to select an operating system to boot.
If you invoke
Windows Boot Manager at startup and you do nothing at this point,
Windows Boot Manager will automatically boot the default OS—usually
Windows 8—after 30 seconds. Otherwise, you click the operating system
you want to boot.
