Windows NT6 Vista bootmgr

[os2fan2]

Here are some accumulated tips for booting windows vista with other Windows operating systems,

Windows vista has a new boot sector and new boot loader (bootmgr), which uses the same boot.ini as the WinNt ntldr / ntdetect.com, but is different.

When you boot vista, the previous Windows NT are placed in a sub-menu "older windows", but programs loaded by boot-sectors (eg DOS, Windows 9x, OS/2) remain unaffected. Presumably, MS is now telling us that WIndows 98 is stabler than Windows XP?

Note that the legacy menu is purely a commercial decision made by microsoft. There is no reason why a NTLDR / Ntdetect.com could have been provided that get their data from bootmgr, and then silently load the selected menu could not have been implemented. Doing it in the manner described makes anything over two years ago into legacy systems.

Anyway, here goes.

Windows 6.00.5112

Vista can only be booted from the main menu, and not from the submenu. You need the /USENEWLOADER switch to make this one work!

Windows 5.20.3790 svr Win2K3

Windows 5.10.2600 sp1 WinXP

These default from booting from the 'legacy' menu. [Don't you love it when win9x is not legacy, but win2k3 is!]. You can move these to the front menu, by copying the file %SystemRoot%\System32\winload.exe from the Vista to the XP menu.

When you do this, you can boot these versions from either the main or legacy menus.

Windows 5.00.2195 sp5 Win2k

Windows 4.00.1381 sp6a WinNT

These can not be booted from the main menu, and must be booted from the legacy menu.

Windows 9x (tested: 4.10.2222 sp 2.02)

MS-DOS (tested: MS-DOS 6.22)

OS/2

Anything that loads from a 512byte boot sector file can be booted from either the front or back menu.

BOOTSECTOR

You can write a bootsector for MS-DOS, Win9x, WinNT or VISTA by using bootpart.exe from http://www.winimage.com/ .

Vista also ships with programs fixfat.exe and fixntfs.exe, which do the same thing.

The way that Windows Vista install boots, it would not have been hard to provide a command prompt option at the main menu, because it installs in a WinPE session, and a single file would effectively provide both emergency boot and install, as it was in the days of MS-DOS, OS/2, and most respectible linuxen.

It just means that microsoft is still needs to be dragged kicking and screeming into the nineties.

Wendy

[Malisk]

I wonder what feature needed Microsoft to use a new bootloader in the first place. :huh:

Even if they change in the kernel, that shouldn't need a new boot sector. Hmm...