Talk:Windows Boot Manager

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Template:WP ʃ reviewed Cwolfsheep 15:54, 8 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm just a bit confused

How exactly does this whole system differ from NTLDR? It just seems to me like they renamed the binary, changed the configuration file format, and made it compatible with EFI. Now, the last of those is rather significant, but does it really need a whole article to say "Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server will support booting from EFI?"—Kbolino 08:19, 23 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In the new scheme, the "loading" part of the process is handled by a separate file (winload.exe); besides requiring an obvious change of name (since what replaces NTLDR does not "load" any more), it opens wide arrays of new possibilities to branch to other things than just WinLoading, and does not require any more hacks like the use of chain-loading of variants of SetupLdr.bin to launch the recovery console, or the various /win9xxx flags. The design is an order of magnitude more clean. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Does the new boot process preclude chainloading a Vista partition? If so, why?

I do not understand the question. The new scheme, like the older, certainly can boot Vista (and even recent xp/2003) kernel directly from various partitions, and certainly can chain-load arbitrary boot records, including one that mimics the VBR from another partition. A different problem is to boot a volume which is not marked as active, something which has traditionnaly been difficult with MS booting programs. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Apprently it does preclude chainloading (i.e. putting something else on the MBR). It is briefly mentioned here http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=55415 (found via http://blogs.sun.com/moinakg/ )

It is certainly possible to boot Vista with a different code in the MBR that the one MS put without asking while installing the operating system. Of course the disk signature should be preserved, but again this is not a new requirement. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Further rumour suggests you *might* be able to use something else on the MBR if you are not using BitLocker/TPM - http://www.multibooters.co.uk/cloning.html

Fact is that with TPCA, the full content of the MBR is part of the chain of trust; so if one OS is in control of the TCPA chip, and registered the OS version of the MBR, it is now impossible to install any other software there without defeating the whole chain. There is nothing specific to Vista here. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

multi boot

i just bought a computer with vista in it. however, i also want xp in it as well. is there a way i can install xp, and still have vista work. it is my understanding that once you install an older operating system on top of a newer one, the newer one stops working. at least that was the case when i installed windows 2000 on top of xp. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.139.242.103 (talk) 11:40, 6 April 2007 (UTC).[reply]

It is possible, you can put another operating system on another partition. The basic idea is to set the destination partition as the active partition (using diskpart) so the boot loader is written to that one. Then you can use bcdedit to fix up the Vista partition. In order for vista to allow installing XP from it, you will have take ownership of %windir%\apppatch\sysmain.sdb and rename it. Then run the installer directly (i386\winnt32.exe).

It is possible (at least with BIOS systems) to use any third party bootmanager in the MBR (like XFDISK). By doing so the MBR resident bootloader(and bootmenu) is completely independent of all installed operating systems and may be restored any time later from floppy, USB or CD if one of the operating systems behaves bad and overwrites the MBR (Windows normally behaves bad, Linux askes where to put the booltoader(MBR or Partition); Partition would be the correct answer here. This is true for Ubuntu alternate CD or Debian installer; The 'graphical installers' of newer versions possibly behave as bad as Windows)). This also avoided to fiddle around with the new Vista's bootmanager. This worked for running Vista,XP and several Linuxes from a multiboot.ChristianKranich 07:42, 25 October 2007 (UTC) graphical versions have an advanced tab for choosing where to place mbr.[reply]