Must select Operating System to start

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I am helping a friend with a Dell Laptop. When the system starts, he gets a window which asks him which operating system is to be started – the choices are Windows XP Pro or Windows Home – if you simply wait 20 seconds, it will start the Windows XP Pro which is what he has installed. Is there anyway to eliminate this as an option and just automatically start Windows XP Pro. He does not have Windows Home installed on the system.

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I just did a google search and found the answer. Here it is:

Right click “My Computer” Go to “Properties” Click the “Advanced” tab Click the “Settings” button under the “Startup and Recovery” section Choose the OS choice you WANT to boot under the “System startup” section’s “Default operating system” Uncheck the “Time to display list of operating systems” box Click “Ok” Your Done!, Next time you reboot, it wont give you that annoying OS choice menu! IF you chose the wrong one, dont panic, you can just hit F8 in the bootup process and there is an option to select os choices.

I followed the instructions and it worked perfectly.

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I use Easy BCD, it’s free and lets you pick what OS starts first and also lets you adjust the wait time. It does a lot of other stuff also.
I like it.

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I use Easy BCD, it’s free and lets you pick what OS starts first and also lets you adjust the wait time. It does a lot of other stuff also.
I like it.

Lots of other important stuff but also fun stuff. I renamed one entry on one system so now instead of starting Window 7, I start the Peace and Love OS…far as I know, its the only one in the Universe.

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Modifying that long delay is part of a routine to speed up boot times.

It’s been talked about quite a bit on this and other forums.
You can manually edit your boot.ini file or you can run Msconfig and go into the Boot.ini tab and change the delay time from 20 or 30 seconds to 3 seconds. I don’t think that will let you select anything less than 3 seconds.

I tried the method given in a previous post but got absolutely NOWhere with it. The method I’ve outlined here does work for me and has worked for many other users as well.

Those with a little bit of “H-a-c-k-e-r” in them would just edit the boot.ini file with Notepad and set it up the way they want.

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

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BCD simplifies things and no need to modify the boot.ini

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