June 9, 2012 at 01:28[Personal experience]: Fix a lost boot on F8 in Windows 7
Disclaimer: don't wait for revelations. I had a problem, I couldn’t either google or get a solution - I had to decide for myself. Someone from the guru may seem obvious, someone may come in handy.
Recently, there was a task to restart the computer with Win7 in Safe Mode. Everything is as usual: Restart, list of boot options, F8 ... and nothing! Pressing F8 instead of displaying a menu with Safe Mode options and other tweaks just loads Windows in the usual way. Mess!
The collective mind through Google Search suggested that you can boot into Safe Mode via MSConfig.exe: start it, go to the Boot tab, select the desired boot option and put a daw in front of Safe Mode. We try - it works! We finish things in Safe Mode (we clean out the Outpost that has not been upgraded), run MSConfig again, uncheck the Safe Mode checkbox and return to normal life.
The problem was successfully circumvented, but not resolved - we understand further. After meditating on the screen with boot options, I noticed that there was no “Press F8 for Advanced Boot Options” message. Interesting ... Let's go delving into the collective mind again: to achieve a similar effect, they offer to patch ntldr or install some third-party programs - this is not an option. We look at MSConfig (Boot -> Advanced Options, as if in tune) - nothing. But MSConfig does not show the line of boot parameters (well, boot.ini is no longer in Win6.x, and there are no lines either) - look at bcdedit.exe:
Why is it advancedoptions = No? Edit: bcdedit.exe / set advancedoptions 1 , reboot - we get into Advanced Boot Options! Hurrah? We reboot again - again we get to Advanced Boot Options!
It turns out, or they are always inaccessible, or always appear at boot time - not at all what you need. Reading the bcdedit help revealed another option: bcdedit.exe / deletevalue advancedoptions removes the forced enable / disable Advanced Boot Options and allows the user to choose - this is it!
Perhaps someone else will come in handy if you suddenly notice that the F8 does not work. Or, as protection against playful user pens (in XP I still had to patch ntldr). It should work exactly the same in Vista, but did not check. I wonder what other tricks can be done with a Windows bootloader?
Recently, there was a task to restart the computer with Win7 in Safe Mode. Everything is as usual: Restart, list of boot options, F8 ... and nothing! Pressing F8 instead of displaying a menu with Safe Mode options and other tweaks just loads Windows in the usual way. Mess!
The collective mind through Google Search suggested that you can boot into Safe Mode via MSConfig.exe: start it, go to the Boot tab, select the desired boot option and put a daw in front of Safe Mode. We try - it works! We finish things in Safe Mode (we clean out the Outpost that has not been upgraded), run MSConfig again, uncheck the Safe Mode checkbox and return to normal life.
The problem was successfully circumvented, but not resolved - we understand further. After meditating on the screen with boot options, I noticed that there was no “Press F8 for Advanced Boot Options” message. Interesting ... Let's go delving into the collective mind again: to achieve a similar effect, they offer to patch ntldr or install some third-party programs - this is not an option. We look at MSConfig (Boot -> Advanced Options, as if in tune) - nothing. But MSConfig does not show the line of boot parameters (well, boot.ini is no longer in Win6.x, and there are no lines either) - look at bcdedit.exe:
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {1f0916c9-1973-11e0-9dde-cfa935f5faf7}
recoveryenabled Yes
advancedoptions No
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {1f0916c7-1973-11e0-9dde-cfa935f5faf7}
nx OptIn
Why is it advancedoptions = No? Edit: bcdedit.exe / set advancedoptions 1 , reboot - we get into Advanced Boot Options! Hurrah? We reboot again - again we get to Advanced Boot Options!
It turns out, or they are always inaccessible, or always appear at boot time - not at all what you need. Reading the bcdedit help revealed another option: bcdedit.exe / deletevalue advancedoptions removes the forced enable / disable Advanced Boot Options and allows the user to choose - this is it!
Perhaps someone else will come in handy if you suddenly notice that the F8 does not work. Or, as protection against playful user pens (in XP I still had to patch ntldr). It should work exactly the same in Vista, but did not check. I wonder what other tricks can be done with a Windows bootloader?