Is it possible to remotely reboot a PC with dual boot and pick OS?

[Basil]

I have a remote PC on my home (wired) network dual booting XP and Win 7 pro. I use Remote Desktop to view the PC from others on this network. Is it possible to reboot the Xp / Win7 PC remotely and choose which OS loads? I suspect not as until it boots into the OS I believe Remote desktop doesn't run. Any workarounds please? Thanks

 

[samuria]

It is possblebut not simple and needs other software ftp://ftp.wayne.edu/ldp/en/Remote-Boot/Remote-Boot-3.html

 

[johnhoh]

Your dual boot details, including what is the default boot drive, are contained within the Boot Configuration Data File which can be viewed and/or modified with bcdedit.exe which comes with windows.

To do what you are saying just create a batch file and put it on the remote computer. Call it bootOS1.cmd. It will set your boot OS then re-boot into that OS. The batch file should contain two lines, like this:

bcedit /default {identifiercodedetails}
shutdown /r

where the identifier code corresponds to the OS you want to boot. You obtain the identifier code using the bcdedit command (wthout arguments) as shown in this video.

How to set an Operating System as default (bcdedit, Windows) - YouTube.

Make two such batch files, bootOS1.cmd and bootOS2.cmd where they each have one identifier code, the code for the OS you want to boot from next. Then all you have to do is click on one or the other file and it will modify the BCD to change the default boot drive, then do a restart using shutdown /r. I'm assuming you can use teamviewer to remotely click on these batch files. But you don't really need teamviewer because you could just use psexec which is part of pstools

PsTools - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs

the command to execute on your primary machine to execute the batch file on the remote machine is

psexec \\remotecomputername c:\path\bootOS1.cmd

 

[Basil]

Thanks, looks a nightmare to a simpleton like myself, I'll run upstairs and reboot manually I think.... I believe I could get myself in a whole heap of grief attempting to add this stuff, but many thanks for the info johnho!

 

[johnhoh]

That makes sense, plus the stairs are better for your health. No doubt, repeatedly editing the Boot Configuration Data File using remotely executed batch files is a deep-level hack not advisable for anyone but those willing and able to get way down into the weeds, but when an OP's question reads so much like google search I like to spell out the answer for those others down the road who may want to take on the challenge and will see your question as the first hit of their search.

 

[TekWiz2021]

Boot Remotely into different OS like Win7 & Win10

What you can do is go to the run line....

msconfig

under boot change the default to say Win7
reboot the PC... If TeamViewer is set to run you can log in
then when you are done
you can go again to the run line
type

msconfig
change the default back to Win10
and if you have TeamViewer set to run you can log in
to Win10

Maybe that will work for you.