During startup of the operating system, you can press F8 or F12 to access the Advanced Boot Options
menu and then use this menu to select one of several advanced startup
modes. These advanced modes don’t make permanent changes to the boot
configuration or to the BCD store. Tools you can use to modify the boot
configuration and manage the BCD store include the Startup
And Recovery dialog box, the System Configuration utility, and the BCD
Editor. The sections that follow discuss how these tools are used.
Setting Startup and Recovery Options
The Startup And Recovery dialog box controls the basic options for
the operating system during startup. You can use these options to set
the default operating system, how long to display the list of available
operating systems, and how long to display recovery options when needed.
Whether or not you boot a computer to different operating systems,
you’ll want to optimize these settings to reduce the wait time during
startup and, in this way, speed up the startup process.
You can open the Startup And Recovery dialog box by completing the following steps:
-
In Control Panel, tap or click System And Security, and then tap or click System to display the System window.
-
In the left pane of the System window, tap or click Advanced System Settings to display the System Properties dialog box.
-
On the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog box, under
Startup And Recovery, tap or click Settings. This displays the Startup
And Recovery dialog box, shown in Figure 1.
-
On a computer with multiple operating systems, use the Default
Operating System list to specify the operating system that you want to
start by default.
-
Set the timeout interval for the operating system list by selecting
the Time To Display List Of Operating Systems check box and specifying
the interval in seconds. To speed up the startup process, you could use a
value of 5 seconds.
-
Set the timeout interval for the recovery options list by selecting
the Time To Display Recovery Options When Needed check box and
specifying the interval in seconds. Again, to speed up the startup
process, use a value of 5 seconds.
-
Under System Failure, select Write An Event To The System Log if you
want to record events related to system failure. If you want the
computer to automatically restart after a failure, select Automatically
Restart.
-
Tap or click OK to save your settings.
Managing System Boot Configuration
The System Configuration utility (Msconfig.exe) allows you to
fine-tune the way a computer starts. Typically, you use this utility
during troubleshooting and diagnostics. For example, as part of
troubleshooting, you can configure the computer to use a diagnostic startup in which only basic devices and services are loaded.
In Control Panel, the System Configuration utility is available under
System And Security/Administrative Tools. You can also start the System
Configuration utility by pressing the Windows key, typing msconfig.exe (which normally is entered automatically into the Apps Search box), and then pressing Enter. As shown in Figure 2, this utility has a series of tabs with options.
The General tab options allow you to configure the way startup
works and are the starting point for troubleshooting and diagnostics.
Using these options, you can choose to perform a normal startup,
diagnostic startup, or selective startup. After you restart the computer
and resolve any problems, open the System Configuration utility again,
select Normal Startup on the General tab, and then tap or click OK.
The Boot tab options allow you to control the way that individual
startup-related processes work. You can configure the computer to start
in one of various Safe Boot modes and set additional options, such as No
GUI Boot. If, after troubleshooting, you find that you want to keep
these settings, select the Make All Boot Settings Permanent check box to
save the settings to the boot configuration startup entry.
Tapping or clicking the Advanced Options button on the Boot tab displays the BOOT Advanced Options dialog box, shown in Figure 3. In addition to locking PCI and enabling debugging, you can use the advanced options to do the following:
-
Specify the number of processors the operating system should use,
regardless of whether the processors are discrete socketed CPUs or cores
on a single CPU. You should use this option when you suspect a problem
with additional processors that are available and you want to identify
the problem as being related to multiprocessor configurations or
parallelism. Consider the following scenario: A computer is shipped with
a single CPU that has four processor cores. A custom application used
in-house for inventory management performs very poorly while running on
this computer, but very well on computers with single processors. You
configure the computer to boot with only one processor and find that the
application’s performance actually improves. You re-enable all the
processors and let the software development team know that the
application behaves as if it has not been properly optimized for
parallelism.
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Specify the maximum amount of memory the operating system
should use. Use this option when you suspect a problem with additional
memory you’ve installed in a computer. Consider the following scenario: A
computer is shipped with 8 GB of RAM, and you installed another 8 GB of
RAM. Later, you find that you cannot start Windows 8. You could
eliminate the new RAM as the potential cause by limiting the computer to
8,192 MB of memory.
If you suspect that services installed on a computer are causing startup
problems, you can quickly determine this by choosing a diagnostic or
selective startup on the General tab. After you’ve identified that
services are indeed causing startup problems, you can temporarily
disable services by using the Services tab options and then rebooting to
see if the problem goes away. If the problem no longer appears, you
might have pinpointed it. You can then permanently disable the service
or check with the service vendor to see if an updated executable is
available. You disable a service by clearing the related check box on
the Services tab.
Similarly, if you suspect applications that run at startup are
causing problems, you can quickly determine this by tapping or clicking
Open Task Manager on the Startup tab. You disable a startup application
by selecting it on the Startup tab and then tapping or clicking Disable.
If the problem no longer appears, you might have pinpointed the cause
of it. You can then permanently disable the startup application or check
with the software vendor to see if an updated version is available.
Keep in mind that if you use the System Configuration utility for
troubleshooting and diagnostics, you should later remove your selective
startup options. After you restart the computer and resolve any
problems, open the System Configuration utility again, restore the
original settings, and then tap or click OK.
The BCD store contains multiple entries. On a BIOS-based computer, you’ll see the following entries:
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One Windows Boot Manager entry. There is only one boot manager, so there is only one boot manager entry.
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One or more Windows Boot Loader application entries, with one for
each instance of Windows 8, Windows 7, or Windows Vista installed on the
computer. If you’ve installed Windows Server 2008 or later, there’ll be
entries for each installation as well.
On a computer running other operating systems, you’ll also see the following:
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One legacy operating system entry. The legacy entry is not for a boot application. This entry is used to initiate Ntldr
and Boot.ini so that you can boot into Windows XP or earlier. If the
computer has more than one instance of Windows XP or earlier, you can
select the operating system to start after selecting the legacy
operating system entry.
Windows Boot Manager is a boot loader application. There are other boot loader applications as well, including:
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Legacy OS Loader, identified as Ntldr
-
Windows Vista or later operating system loader, identified as Osloader
-
Windows Boot Sector Application, identified as Bootsector
-
Firmware Boot Manager, identified as Fwbootmgr
-
Windows Resume Loader, identified as Resume
You can view and manage the BCD store by using the BCD Editor (Bcdedit.exe).
The BCD Editor is a command-line utility. You can use the BCD Editor to
view the entries in the BCD store by following these steps:
-
Type cmd.exe in the Apps Search box. One way to do this is to press the Windows key, and type cmd.exe.
-
Press and hold or right-click the command prompt, and then tap or click Run As Administrator.
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Type bcdedit at the command prompt.
Table 1 summarizes commands you can use when you are working with the BCD store. These commands allow you to do the following:
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Create, import, export, and identify the entire BCD store.
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Create, delete, and copy individual entries in the BCD store.
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Set or delete entry option values in the BCD store.
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Control the boot sequence and the boot manager.
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Configure and control Emergency Management Services (EMS).
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Configure and control boot debugging, as well as hypervisor debugging.
Table 1. Commands for the BCD Editor
|
COMMAND |
DESCRIPTION |
|---|
|
/bootdebug |
Enables or disables boot debugging for a boot application. |
|
/bootems |
Enables or disables EMS for a boot application. |
|
/bootsequence |
Sets the one-time boot sequence for the boot manager. |
|
/copy |
Makes copies of entries in the store. |
|
/create |
Creates new entries in the store. |
|
/createstore |
Creates a new (empty) boot configuration data store. |
|
/dbgsettings |
Sets the global debugger parameters. |
|
/debug |
Enables or disables kernel debugging for an operating system entry. |
|
/default |
Sets the default entry that the boot manager will use. |
|
/delete |
Deletes entries from the store. |
|
/deletevalue |
Deletes entry options from the store. |
|
/displayorder |
Sets the order in which the boot manager displays the multiboot menu. |
|
/ems |
Enables or disables EMS for an operating system entry. |
|
/emssettings |
Sets the global EMS parameters. |
|
/enum |
Lists entries in the store. |
|
/export |
Exports the contents of the system store to a file. This file can be used later to restore the state of the system store. |
|
/hypervisorsettings |
Sets the hypervisor parameters. |
|
/import |
Restores the state of the system store by using a backup file created with the /export command. |
|
/mirror |
Creates a mirror of entries in the store. |
|
/set |
Sets entry option values in the store. |
|
/store |
Sets the BCD store to use. If not specified, the system store is used. |
|
/sysstore |
Sets the system store device. This only affects EFI systems. |
|
/timeout |
Sets the boot manager timeout value. |
|
/toolsdisplayorder |
Sets the order in which the boot manager displays the tools menu. |
|
/v |
Sets output to verbose mode. |
