2

I have laptop with dual boot: Debian and Windows 10. Recently I had some major issues with Windows so I decided to reinstal it from scratch. I created USB stick, formatted partition with Windows and installed it. So far so good.

Naturally after OS installation GRUB got overriden and Microsoft's bootloader started. However though, at this point I see bootloader with option to run Windows 10 (from device 3) and Windows 10. I can pick the first option and then OS starts but second one results with blue screen exactly same as the one I had when I deleted OS partition but did not install new system yet.

As for Debian, not a problem. I have started from some usb rescue disc and reinstalled GRUB I was using before. Now on startup I have choice between Debian and Windows - good. But when I select Windows I get this weird boot menu from Microsoft.

How can I get rid of it?

1 Answer 1

3

Start a cmd window with administrator rights, and run the below command:

C:\Windows\system32> bcdedit /enum 

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume10
path                    \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description             Windows Boot Manager
...
default                 {current}
...
displayorder            {current}
                        {14be1fd1-9fe2-11e9-82cc-1c872ca51b8c}
...
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
...
description             Windows 10 (from device 3)
...

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {14be1fd1-9fe2-11e9-82cc-1c872ca51b8c}
...
description             Windows 10
...

You will likely see output similar to above (some lines omitted for brevity). Notice the displayorder part in Boot manager section. It should show 2 entries, with id matching 2 Boot loader sections following.

You should verify that the Windows you are running is the correct one you've just installed (not your previous installation having major issues). It would correspond to the Boot loader entry with id {current} (here I assume it's the one with description Windows 10 (from device 3), from your question). Then take note of the other Boot loader entry's id, that's the one you want to delete. To delete that, use the following command (where <other_id> is the id you want to delete, including {} ):

bcdedit /delete <other_id>

You can run bcdedit /enum again to confirm that it's gone and there is only {current} left in displayorder line in Boot manager section. From now on when you start it will go straight to your new Windows installation.


Alternatively, you can set the timeout for Boot manager to 0 (or 1, I don't remember if it would accept 0), so the Boot selection screen will be displayed only briefly before booting to the default choice.

First, you should confirm that the current Windows is the default choice, by verifying that the default line in Boot manager section is showing {current} (see above). If it doesn't, use this command to set new default:

bcdedit /default {current}

After that, set Boot manager timeout with:

bcdedit /timeout 0

You may run bcdedit /enum again to confirm that the timeout line in Boot manager section is showing 0. This method will keep most things intact if you ever need to revert them back in the future, just run the command again with larger timeout.

Also, if you are not comfortable with running the commands, you can change the default and the timeout for boot menu from within the boot menu with GUI. In that case google for "windows change boot menu timeout" or "windows change boot menu default". I will not reiterate those guides here.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .