How to use bcdedit in windows 7

Boot Configuration Data (BCD) files provide a store that is used to describe boot applications and boot application settings. The objects and elements in the store effectively replace Boot.ini.

BCDEdit is a command-line tool for managing BCD stores. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including creating new stores, modifying existing stores, adding boot menu parameters, and so on. BCDEdit serves essentially the same purpose as Bootcfg.exe on earlier versions of Windows, but with two major improvements:

• Exposes a wider range of boot parameters than Bootcfg.exe.
• Has improved scripting support.

Below will give you a simple instruction about how to use bcdedit in windows 7.

1.Go to Start Menu-All Programs-Accessories,then right-click Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator,because Administrative privileges are required to use BCDEdit to modify BCD

2.Type bcdedit and press enter ,then bcdedit will show the boot entries on your computer

3.You can run bcdedit /? to see the manual of command bcdedit

C:\windows\system32>bcdedit /?

BCDEDIT - Boot Configuration Data Store Editor

The Bcdedit.exe command-line tool modifies the boot configuration data store.
The boot configuration data store contains boot configuration parameters and
controls how the operating system is booted. These parameters were previously
in the Boot.ini file (in BIOS-based operating systems) or in the nonvolatile
RAM entries (in Extensible Firmware Interface-based operating systems). You can
use Bcdedit.exe to add, delete, edit, and append entries in the boot
configuration data store.

For detailed command and option information, type bcdedit.exe /? <command>. For
example, to display detailed information about the /createstore command, type:

bcdedit.exe /? /createstore

For an alphabetical list of topics in this help file, run "bcdedit /? TOPICS".

Commands that operate on a store
================================
/createstore    Creates a new and empty boot configuration data store.
/export         Exports the contents of the system store to a file. This file
can be used later to restore the state of the system store.
/import         Restores the state of the system store using a backup file
created with the /export command.
/sysstore       Sets the system store device (only affects EFI systems, does
not persist across reboots, and is only used in cases where
the system store device is ambiguous).

Commands that operate on entries in a store
===========================================
/copy           Makes copies of entries in the store.
/create         Creates new entries in the store.
/delete         Deletes entries from the store.
/mirror         Creates mirror of entries in the store.

Run bcdedit /? ID for information about identifiers used by these commands.

Commands that operate on entry options
======================================
/deletevalue    Deletes entry options from the store.
/set            Sets entry option values in the store.

Run bcdedit /? TYPES for a list of datatypes used by these commands.
Run bcdedit /? FORMATS for a list of valid data formats.

Commands that control output
============================
/enum           Lists entries in the store.
/v              Command-line option that displays entry identifiers in full,
rather than using names for well-known identifiers.
Use /v by itself as a command to display entry identifiers
in full for the ACTIVE type.

Running "bcdedit" by itself is equivalent to running "bcdedit /enum ACTIVE".

Commands that control the boot manager
======================================
/bootsequence   Sets the one-time boot sequence for the boot manager.
/default        Sets the default entry that the boot manager will use.
/displayorder   Sets the order in which the boot manager displays the
multiboot menu.
/timeout        Sets the boot manager time-out value.
/toolsdisplayorder  Sets the order in which the boot manager displays
the tools menu.

Commands that control Emergency Management Services for a boot application
==========================================================================
/bootems        Enables or disables Emergency Management Services
for a boot application.
/ems            Enables or disables Emergency Management Services for an
operating system entry.
/emssettings    Sets the global Emergency Management Services parameters.

Command that control debugging
==============================
/bootdebug      Enables or disables boot debugging for a boot application.
/dbgsettings    Sets the global debugger parameters.
/debug          Enables or disables kernel debugging for an operating system
entry.
/hypervisorsettings  Sets the hypervisor parameters.

C:\windows\system32>

4.How to changes the title of the boot menu entry.The following command change the title to Windows XP from “Earlier Windows Version”

C:\windows\system32>bcdedit /set {ntldr} description "Windows XP"
The operation completed successfully.

5.How to change the timeout on showing boot menu

C:\windows\system32>bcdedit /timeout 5
The operation completed successfully.

6.How to change the default OS to boot first with

C:\windows\system32>bcdedit /default {ntldr}
The operation completed successfully.