EasyBCD

EasyBCD is a program that was developed by NeoSmart Technologies. It is used to configure and customize the new boot loader of Windows Vista. EasyBCD can be used to create a multi-boot configuration between Windows Vista/7/8 and previous versions of Windows, and Linux, BSD and Mac OS X.

Supported Operating Systems

EasyBCD modifies the Windows Vista/7/8 bootloader to add support for other entries. Windows NT, 2000 and XP are supported by loading their boot loader NTLDR ( " Chainloading "); DOS, Windows 3.x, 95, 98 and Me are loaded using modified versions of IO.sys and the Windows 9x boot sector; Linux and BSD are either loaded by the control of the boot process to GRUB and / or LILO is passed, or by using the own NeoGrub module of EasyBCD ( which is based on GRUB4DOS ); Mac OS X is finally loaded using the Darwin Bootloader.

Features

Bootloader

EasyBCD has a number of features that relate to the boot loader. These can be used to repair the boot loader and configure. In the "Manage Bootloader " section of EasyBCD, it is possible between Windows Vista and the Windows XP boot loaders in the Master Boot Record ( BOOTMGR and NTLDR ) to choose while Windows is running. EasyBCD also provides the ability to secure the BCD ( Boot Configuration Data ) configuration files and restore, for example for a backup or for testing.

In the " Diagnostics Center" ( Diagnostic Center ), it is possible to reset a broken BCD store, and to automatically generate the necessary entries for the current operating system. Also from there you can look for missing or damaged boot files, search and restore it when needed. In this way, also the Windows Vista BCD boot loader to be installed.

EasyBCD can be used to change the drive to boot from, to rename the entries in the bootloader or to change their order, and to existing entries to be amended so that they point to a different drive.

Windows

EasyBCD supports a number of different Windows entries, and can be used to install and configure the following operating systems:

  • DOS 6.x
  • Windows 95 -Me
  • Windows 2000/XP/2003
  • Windows Vista / Server 2008
  • Windows 7
  • Windows 8

Depending on the version of Windows that is added in EasyBCD, may be available certain other options. So it is for example possible to enable support for unsigned drivers on 64-bit Windows Vista installations on or off, adjust that to boot into Safe Mode, and Data Execution Prevention / disable the NoExecute bit.

Windows PE

Windows PE 2.0 is supported by a separate module in EasyBCD. EasyBCD can boot into two different Windows PE 2.0 systems:

  • Compressed Windows PE WIM (Windows Imaging Format ) images
  • Windows PE partitions

EasyBCD supports booting from WinPE 2.0 WIM images that are stored on any local partition. , By providing the path to the WIM file EasyBCD automatically reconfigures the BCD, to add support for the WIM format. It can also be in a Windows PE boot the file system that was unpacked in the root of a mounted drive.

Linux / BSD

EasyBCD can boot Linux and BSD on the following two ways:

  • Chainloading GRUB / LILO / etc.
  • NeoGrub

The traditional Chainloading method creates an image of GRUB / LILO boot sector on the local hard disk, and loads that image at boot time to load the second boot loader ( Chainloading ), which should already be configured to boot into Linux or BSD.

EasyBCD also offers NeoGrub, a customized version of Grub for DOS, which can be configured by the file C: \ NST \ menu.lst created in which the standard GRUB syntax required information for Into the boats in each Linux or BSD partitions are listed.

Mac OS X

EasyBCD can the Mac OS X Darwin bootloader loaded by Chainloading to load the OS X, which resides on another partition or another physical drive. It is not necessary that Darwin is installed in the boot sector of the OS X partition.

Software maintainer Shareware Freeware LILO (boot loader) Windows Vista startup process NX-Bit Darwin (operating system)
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