Adjusting Windows Dual Boot Menu     View/Save PDF     (23.8KB)

For: Dual boot between Win9x/WinMe and Win2000 Prof/WinXP Home

Published: 10Mar01 | Last Updated: 13Sep01 | Status: Discontinued

If you are you running dual boot Win9x and Win2K/XP and would like to modify the Windows Boot Menu so your computer automatically boots to a particular operating system after a minimum of delay:

  1. Boot to Win2K.
  2. Right click My Computer.
  3. Click Properties | Advanced | Startup and Recovery.
  4. Under System startup select the Default operating system you want your computer to boot to.
  5. For the Display list of operating systems for x seconds setting, reduce the number of seconds to say, 3-5.

    Important Note: DO NOT set the number of seconds to zero and/or uncheck the box, Display list of operating systems. If you do so, in either case, you will be UNABLE to boot to the operating system NOT selected as the Default in Step 3 above. And if in Step 3 you selected Win9x, you will NOT be able to boot to Win2K, thus making it impossible to reverse the changes apart from editing the file, boot.ini. Because of this, I strongly suggest simply reducing the number of seconds to 3-5.

  6. Click OK | OK.