Windows 7 - Default Operating System - Change Default Boot OS

**Brink**

How to Change the Default Operating System to Start in Windows 7

Information

If you dual boot with one or more operating systems installed other than Windows 7, then this will show you how to change the default operating system to start in the Windows Boot Manager.

EXAMPLE: Windows Boot Manager
NOTE: This is the boot screen where you select what operating system that you would like to start. By default, you have 30 seconds to choose another operating system before the default operating system will start automatically.

Option One

Through Startup and Recovery

1. Open the Start Menu.
A) Right click on the Computer button on the dark right side and click on Properties.

B) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Open the Control Panel (All Items view) and click on the System icon.

3. In the left blue pane, click on the Advanced system settings link. (See screenshot below)

4. Close the System window. (See screenshot above)

5. Under the Advanced tab, click on the Settings button under Startup and Recovery. (See screenshot below)

6. Under System Startup, select a operating system from the drop down menu to be the new default operating system, then click on OK. (See screenshots below)

7. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 5)

Option Two

Through System Configuration

1. Open the Start Menu.
A) In the search line, type msconfig and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

B) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Open the Control Panel (All Items view) and click on the Administrative Tools icon and System Configration.
A) Close the Administrative Tools window.

3. Click on the Boot tab. (See screenshot below)

4. Select another operating system that is not set as the Default OS to be the new default operating system instead. (See screenshot above)

5. Check the Make all boot settings permanent box, and click on OK. (See screenshot below step 3)

6. Click on Yes to confirm. (See screenshot below)

7. Click on the Restart button. (See screenshot below)
WARNING: This will restart the computer immediately. Make sure you save and close anything open that you do not want to lose first.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

**Cashis** · 06-12-2009

Is there a way for when ya dual Booting the same OS to change the name of one so ya can tell em apart,like for instance mine come's up with
Windows 7
Windows 7

one is 32 and the other is 64 is there a way i can add say (32)and(64)to the appropriate ones?

**Brink** · 06-12-2009

Hello Cashis,

Yep.

Dual Boot - Change OS Name in Windows Boot Manager

Hope this helps,
Shawn

**Cashis** · 06-12-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by Brink

Hello Cashis,

Yep.

Dual Boot - Change OS Name in Windows Boot Manager

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks again mate

**Brink** · 06-12-2009

You're welcome.

**dw96** · 11-02-2009

Saved my life! Great tutorial! Thanks a lot!!!

**Brink** · 11-02-2009

You're most welcome Stefan.

ah802 · 12-18-2009

I installed Windows 7 on a SATA drive within an XP system, it made a nice boot choice menu. I had some issues with an XP install on C:, and reformatted... lost that nice boot menu, now I don't have access to that independent G: drive or anything windows 7 other than to see the files. It's not considered a bootable drive in Bios as it needs the sata drivers to be loaded first and short of re-installing is there any help? A simple boot loader program pointing to the drive doesn't seem to work.. but perhaps I'm not pointing correctly? A Win 7 repair tells me boot manager is missing bu there is no repair. Would EasyBCD for XP do the trick?

**Brink** · 12-18-2009

Helllo Ah802,

Yes, you should be able to use EasyBCD to repair the boot file by adding Windows 7 to it.

ah802 · 12-18-2009

Looks like Vista is what it wants.

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 5 seconds.
Default OS: Windows XP

Entry #1

Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

Entry #2

Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {b62341f0-ec0d-11de-933a-0026540b8e54}
Drive: F:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

but in the root of c: I find

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

and no boot loader on boot., so can I simply add this with notepad?

multi(0)disk(2)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 7" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect