I am dual booting Windows 7 and Vista. Now, after a few botched installs, my computer boots up offering three Windows 7 choices; they are not all real. How can I edit these choices?

Windows Vista Boot Menu File

When you are building dual boot systems with Windows XP, it is the boot.ini file that needs to be edited but in Vista things change, and the new boot option tool is called BCDEdit - or BCDEdit.exe, which can be a tricky adjustment for a lot of loyal Windows users. The new BCD program improves upon the earlier BOOT.INI option and includes three different boot components; the boot manager, then operating system loader and the resume loader, and it is the boot manager that loads the different operating system listings on the boot menu. Once you get the hang of BCDEDIT, where to find it and how to use it, you will probably come to appreciate the improvements.

Log on as an Administrator

To edit the boot menu you first need to log on to the computer as an administrator, and then you can find the BCDEdit utility in the Help and Support section of your Windows operating system.

Use BCDEDIT to Remove Invalid Entries from Boot Manager

Here’s how to use BCDEdit to remove the invalid entries from your boot manager.

1. First, you need to open an elevated command prompt

1. Click the Start button
2. In the Search bar, type cmd
3. Press CTRL, SHIFT and ENTER at the same time
4. A User Account Control screen will open and prompt you to accept
5. Now, an elevated command prompt should open, allowing you special administrative abilities

1. In the command field, type bcdedit > c:\users\yourusername\desktop\bcd.txt

***substitute your Windows account user name for yourusername***

1. This will open a file called bcd.txt to your desktop
2. Double click to open the bcd.txt file - here you will see the identifier values assigned to the different operating system listings. Make a note of the values for the listings that you want to remove
3. Now, at your command prompt, type bcdedit / delete [identifier value number]
4. Repeat the steps for the other two listings, reboot the computer and your boot menu should be good to go with only one Vista entry and one Windows 7 entry

I hope this does it and takes care of your problem. If not, write us again and let us know what you have tried and we can take it from there. Good luck!

Kate Dubensky | June 19th, 2009
Tags: dual boot operating system list, Dual boot settings, limiting bootup choices
Categories: Windows

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