Using BCDEDIT to Customize the Startup Options
The System Configuration Utility makes it
easy to modify BCD store items, but it doesn’t give you access to the
entire BCD store. For example, the Boot tab doesn’t list any legacy
boot items on your system, and there are no options for renaming boot
items or changing the order in which the boot items are displayed in
the Windows Boot Manager menu. For these tasks, and indeed for every
possible BCD task, you need to use the BCDEDIT command-line tool.
Note that BCDEDIT
is an Administrator-only tool, so you must run it under the
Administrator account (not just any account in the Administrators
group). The easiest way to do this is by running a Command Prompt
session with elevated privileges, as described in the following steps:
1. Press Windows Logo+X. A menu of power user commands appears.
2. Click Command Prompt (Admin). The User Account Control dialog box appears.
3. Either click Yes or type an administrator password and click Yes. The Command Prompt window appears.
Table 1 summarizes the switches you can use with BCDEDIT.
Table 1. Switches Available for the BCDEDIT Command-Line Tool
To help you understand how BCDEDIT works, let’s examine the output that appears when you run BCDEDIT with the /enum switch on a system that dual-boots Windows 8 and Windows 7:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
integrityservices Enable
default {current}
resumeobject {14d214f2-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71}
displayorder {current}
{14d214ef-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 8
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {14d214f4-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71}
integrityservices Enable
recoveryenabled Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {14d214f2-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {14d214ef-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71}
device partition=D:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {14d214f0-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {14d214ee-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71}
nx OptIn
Here’s another example from a system that dual-boots with Windows XP:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
integrityservices Enable
default {current}
resumeobject {bdf44e81-cad5-11e1-b38b-cbbdd9e7fb08}
displayorder {ntldr}
{current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 8
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {bdf44e83-cad5-11e1-b38b-cbbdd9e7fb08}
integrityservices Enable
recoveryenabled Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {bdf44e81-cad5-11e1-b38b-cbbdd9e7fb08}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
As you can see, this BCD store has four entries: one for Windows Boot Manager, one for a legacy Windows install (on partition C:), and two for Windows 8 installs (on our test machine, partitions D: and G:). Notice that each entry has an Identifier
setting, and these IDs are unique to each entry. All IDs are actually
32-digit globally unique identifiers (GUIDs), such as the one shown
earlier for the first Windows Boot Loader item:
14d214f4-caf4-11e1-b73a-83d46d071b71
The other entries have GUIDs as well, but by default BCDEDIT works with a collection of well-known identifiers, including the following (type bcdedit id /? to see the complete list):
• bootmgr—The Windows Boot Manager entry
• ntldr—An entry that uses a legacy operating system loader (NTLDR) to boot previous versions of Windows
• current—The entry that corresponds to the operating system that is currently running
• default—The entry that corresponds to the Windows Boot Manager default operating system
• memdiag—The Windows Memory Diagnostics entry (deprecated in Windows 8)
If you want to see the full GUIDs for every entry, add the /v (verbose) switch:
bcdedit /enum /v
It would take dozens of pages to run through all the BCDEDIT switches, so we’ll just give you a few examples so you can get a taste of how this powerful utility operates.
Making a Backup Copy of the BCD Store
Before you do any work on the BCD store, you
should make a backup copy. That way, if you make an error when you
change something in the BCD, you can always restore the backup copy to
get your system back to its original state.
You create a backup copy using the /export switch. For example, the following command backs up the BCD store to a file named bcd_backup in the root folder of drive C:
bcdedit /export c:\bcd_backup
If you need to restore the backup, use the /import switch, as in this example:
bcdedit /import c:\bcd_backup
Renaming an Entry
The names that Windows Boot Manager assigns
to the boot applications leave a lot to be desired. For a legacy
operating system entry, for example, the default Legacy (pre-Longhorn)
Microsoft Windows Operating System name is overly long and not
particularly descriptive. A simpler name, such as Windows XP Pro or
Windows 2000, would be much more useful. Similarly, all Windows 8
installs get the same name: Microsoft Windows, which can be quite
confusing. Names such as Windows 8 Home Premium and Windows 8 Ultimate
would be much more understandable.
To rename an entry using BCDEDIT, use the following syntax:
bcdedit /set {id} description "name"
Here, replace id with the entry identifier (the GUID or the well-known identifier, if applicable) and replace name
with the new name you want to use. For example, the following command
replaces the current name of the legacy operating system entry (ntldr)
with Windows XP Pro:
bcdedit /set {ntldr} description "Windows XP Pro"
Tip
GUIDs are 32-character values, so typing them by hand is both time-consuming and error-prone. To avoid this, first run the bcdedit /enum
command to enumerate the BCD entries, and then scroll up until you see
the GUID of the entry with which you want to work. Pull down the system
menu (click the upper-left corner of the window or press Alt+Spacebar),
select Edit, Mark, click-and-drag over the GUID to select it, and then
press the Enter key to copy it. Begin typing your BCDEDIT command, and when you get to the part where the identifier is required, pull down the system menu again and select Edit, Paste.
Changing the Order of the Entries
If you’d prefer that the Boot Manager menu entries appear in a different order, you can use BCDEDIT’s /displayorder
switch to change the order. In the simplest case, you might want to
move an entry to either the beginning or the end of the menu. To send
an entry to the beginning, include the /addfirst switch. Here’s an example:
bcdedit /displayorder {a8ef3a39-a0a4-11da-bedf-97d9bf80e36c} /addfirst
To send an entry to the end of the menu, include the /addlast switch instead, as in this example:
bcdedit /displayorder {current} /addlast
To set the overall order, include each identifier in the order you want, separated by spaces:
bcdedit /displayorder {current} {a8ef3a39-a0a4-11da-bedf-97d9bf80e36c} {ntldr}
Installing Windows 8 Components
Like a hostess who refuses to put out the
good china for just anybody, Windows 8 doesn’t install all of its
components automatically. Don’t feel insulted; Windows is just trying
to go easy on your hard disk. The problem, you see, is that some of the
components that come with Windows 8 are software behemoths
that will happily usurp acres of your precious hard-disk land. In a
rare act of digital politeness, Windows bypasses these programs (as
well as a few other nonessential tidbits) during a typical
installation. If you want any of these knickknacks on your system, you
have to tell Windows 8 to install them for you.
The good news about installing features is
that Windows 8 makes it easy to add any of those missing pieces to your
system without having to dig out the installation media (wherever it
may be) or (shudder) trudge through the entire Windows installation
routine. That’s because when Windows 8 was foisting itself upon your
PC, it was thoughtful enough to also deposit the files necessary to
install the features on your hard drive. They reside in a special
folder in a compressed format so they don’t take up much room. You must
tell Windows 8 to decompress them, which sounds hard, but it’s not. You
just have to follow these steps:
1. Press Windows Logo+W to open the Settings search pane, type features, and then click Turn Windows Features On or Off. The Windows Features dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4. The Windows Features dialog box helps you add the bits and pieces that come with Windows 8.
2. If a component has a plus sign (+), it means it has multiple subcomponents. Click the plus sign to see those subcomponents.
3. Activate the check box beside the component you want to install.
4. Click OK. Windows 8 installs the feature.
