In the boot menu when the computer starts, the second operating system is displayed if several working operating systems are installed, for example, Windows 7 and XP, or if Windows 7/8 was reinstalled without formatting the system partition. How to remove the extra (unnecessary) OS and remove or configure the selection option, read this article.
How to remove the second OS from boot?
1. Open the “Start” system menu (Win key).
2. In the line “Search for programs...” type - execute.
3. Click on the “Run” icon that appears at the top of the menu bar.
4. In the new window, in the “Open” field, enter - msconfig. And then click on the “OK” button or press the “Enter” key.
5. In the “System Configuration” settings, open the “Download” tab.
6. Select the Windows you want to get rid of from the list.
Note. When choosing, pay attention to the labels. Next to the working OS (current) the status “Current operating system” is indicated. And next to an inactive one, as a rule, there is no additional information (explanation).
7. Click the “Delete” button, and then “Apply” and “OK”.
8. After closing the “System Configuration” window, in the additional “System Settings” window, select “Reboot”.
If all operations in the instructions were completed correctly, when the PC is restarted, neither the boot menu nor the other OS will be visible.
Using the Command Line
If you are an experienced computer user and know how to work with the command line (CMD.exe), you can use the integrated software tool BCDEdit.
The /deletevalue parameter to this directive removes the selected item from the load. More details about BCDEdit parameters and its capabilities can be found on the official Microsoft website - technet.microsoft.com/ru-ru/library/cc709667(v=ws.10).aspx.
How to delete a second Windows folder?
If for some reason there are two Windows folders on the system partition (one working and the other not) and the boot menu is not displayed at startup, to remove the operating system, follow these steps:
1. Determine which Windows folder belongs to the working OS (currently active):
- press Win+R;
- in the “Open” field enter - %windir%;
- Click “OK” (the contents of the Windows folder will open, which does not need to be deleted);
- remember this folder (additionally, look at its properties - creation date, size, number of files).
2. Go up to the directory above: click on the top line of the “Disk C” window (system partition).
3. Find the old or broken Windows folder. Once again, additionally compare its properties with the working one (so as not to confuse it!): Right-click → Properties. And then drag it to the trash or delete it through the context menu (right button → Delete).
How to customize the boot menu?
1. Press the Win+Break key combination.
2. Go to the “Advanced options...” section.
3. In the “System Properties” window, on the “Advanced” tab, in the “Boot and Recovery” block, click the “Options” button.
4. In the settings panel, you can change the OS that boots by default and the time the boot menu is displayed when the PC starts.
They are not rare. However, not everyone can remove one of the two operating systems. Some people continue to work with several operating systems at once.
When the “eight” from Windows appeared, not everyone was in a hurry to remove the “seven”; a popular solution was to install two versions, this made it possible to check the functionality and ease of use, and, if necessary, remove an unnecessary option. Some remained on the “native” Windows 7, while others opted for the new edition.
There is no point in working with two operating systems at once. A powerful computer allows you to install at least 7 series of OS, the amount of hard drive memory can cope with such a task, but this will not be useful. But on outdated equipment this will already affect the speed of operation, and even freezes are possible. In each case, it is necessary to remove unnecessary Windows from the computer, but how to do it?
Some users, when they see such a problem, are sure that it is easy to solve; they need to format the partition of the extra OS and the task is completed. In fact, this will not solve the problem, but will only hide it, because the bootloader will continue to work. You also need to erase the OS from the boot window.
Why are there multiple operating systems on one computer?
- In most situations, the problem occurs due to the installation of several operating systems on one computer. As already mentioned, some do this to test the operating system, but inexperienced users do it by mistake, after which for a long time they do not even notice the “duplicity” of their PC;
- Another reason why you have to select an OS every time you boot is the incorrect installation of Windows. When a person forgets to format a hard drive before recording a new OS, the process will occur on top of the previous Windows.
As a result, a selection window appears at startup, but in fact, only one OS is running on the computer
The second variant of the problem is not so serious; you can remove the “false” OS line from the selection window. Also, the choice of operating system by boot is eliminated by installing the working version by default.
How to remove a second operating system from your computer
If the download starts with selecting the operating system each time, then this is not critical. You can remove the operating system from your computer through the command center. The method is suitable for different versions of Windows (including 7 and 8), and is performed in four steps:
- After turning on the PC, you need to enable the command line (Win and R keys). In the input line of the “Run” menu, enter the command “msconfig” and confirm the actions by pressing the “OK” button (or press “Enter”);
- Next comes editing the Windows 7 boot menu.
- Before you remove the old Windows, you need to select the extra lines (when the operating system was installed a couple of times and did not follow the recommendations, then there can be 3-4 lines at once) and delete them.
- At the next stage, the application will offer to restart the device. Experts advise not to put off this action until later; the system needs to promptly make some changes to the OS boot record.
This is how it turns out to remove the second Windows 7 at startup; after turning it on, a window with two options will no longer appear. By default, the series of operating systems that was installed last will start working (At this time, the previous Windows publishers will no longer exist, there were only entries in the boot window).
You need to be vigilant during formattingAfter you succeed in removing the old Windows 7 from your computer, the logical question arises what to do with the partition where the old OS was stored. In such situations, it is advised to simply format the section, and in the future leave the necessary electronic documents there.
First you should check everything that is stored there. In particular, there should be folders with program files, user accounts and a Windows folder. When you had to remove the second operating system, the partition will not be on the C drive.
Important! The procedure will erase all data from the local disk memory. For example, if the deletion took place from the system drive C, then all desktop files, “My Documents” folders, etc. will go away forever.
How to remove one of the two operating systems for Windows 7 (no different for version 8)
It is advised to remove the old Windows after installing the new one by working in the menu of the system that will remain on the computer. The procedure is also possible with the old version (a kind of self-removal), but it will be easier. For example, when you need to remove previous versions of Windows 7, but leave the “eight” (although the process does not differ between 7 and 8).
You can remove the second Windows 7 at startup along with the partition. The Disk Management function is suitable for this; it works the same on Windows 8 and 7. First, right-click on the partition to be deleted, then you need to select the “Delete volume” line.
At the final stage, right-click on the existing partition and select “Extend volume”Thus, the volume of the partition's memory will increase at the expense of the previous one.
This is how you can remove an operating system through the command line, if there are two of them. Even inexperienced owners will be able to remove the second operating system. Still have questions? Let's ask!
WATCH THE VIDEO
It happens that users install two operating systems on their computer at the same time. But over time, one of them ceases to be needed. And then the question arises of how to remove the second operating system Windows 7, XP or another version. For example, you can find out how to remove Windows 7 from a laptop by following this link. Well, now let's return to the process of removing the second operating system.
Editing boot.ini
The boot.ini file is responsible for loading the OS. It contains information about windows settings, boot timeouts, and much more. If you edit this file, you can remove the unnecessary operating system from the boot menu.
In order to do this, you need to go into the OS that you are going to leave. Next, find the My Computer icon. You need to point at it and right-click. From the drop-down list, select Properties. In the window that opens, we need the Advanced tab. Now select Download and setup, and click on the Options button.
After this, a new dialog box appears in front of the user. In it you need to select the Edit item. Now boot.ini opens in front of us. It will appear in the Notepad application. First, let’s save a backup copy of this file by clicking Save As and renaming it to Boot.old.
Close the resulting document and re-open boot.ini following the steps described above.
Now you need to remove the line that contains information so that two systems to choose from appear in the boot menu. Next, save the changes. To do this, click Save As. We leave the original name. Now close all windows and restart the computer. After this, there should be only one system in the menu at boot.
How to remove windows xp
Each version of the operating system has its own characteristics. Therefore, how to remove a second Windows 8 operating system will differ from manipulations with XP. Let's take a closer look at how to perform this operation in Windows XP. In case you need it again, then .
So, we boot into the OS that we want to leave on the computer. Next, you will need to change the settings so that the operating system that we will still have will load. To do this, right-click on My Computer. In the menu, click Properties. As for previous manipulations, we go to Advanced - Parameters. Here we mark the desired operating system and click OK.
Now we go to the directory of the partition where the operating system that is planned to be removed is installed. Here you need to delete the Windows folder. In addition, select Program Files and Documents and Settings, and press Delete. In this case, a warning may appear several times stating that the files are system files, are open only for reading, etc. If you still decide to get rid of the second operating system, then feel free to delete them. Problems can arise if you select the wrong partition, but they are easily fixed. To ensure that the name of the remote OS no longer appears in the menu when booting, edit boot.ini as indicated above. As you can see, how to remove a second Windows xp operating system is not as difficult as it seems. Accordingly, it will not be possible to enter the remaining one in the usual way. In this case, you will need to resort to a boot disk. You can read about how to create a boot disk yourself. You can also use any file manager. Don’t forget to edit boot.ini after you boot the system. After you finish all the manipulations, you should definitely restart the computer, only after this the changes will be saved in the settings.
How to remove system selection at boot, what settings do you need to go to for this? Hello friends! This question is asked very often on the site. For example, you installed a second operating system and when you boot the computer, a menu for selecting operating systems lasting 30 seconds immediately appears. Of course, such a menu will not be useful to everyone, since many people do not need the old operating system and therefore many users try at all costs to get rid of the unnecessary menu downloads.
How to remove system selection at boot
In this case, you can go in two ways, the first is, which is used in the Windows Vista operating systems, and, and it is described in another article. The second way is much easier and any user, even a beginner, can handle it, so I propose to consider it here.In our article I will tell you how to remove the system selection when loading Windows 7, Windows 8 and.
How to remove the system selection from the Windows 7 boot menu when booting
Start - Run
Another way to remove the choice of operating systems when loading Windows 7
Start-->Control Panel-->right-click on “Computer” and select “Properties”
then "Advanced system settings"
Uncheck the box "Display a list of operating systems" and click OK. Apply. OK.
Right-click on the Start menu and Run
Enter the command msconfig in the input field
In the window that opens, go to the Download item. We see two operating systems. Our current default operating system is second on the list. We don’t touch it, go to the first one and select it with the left mouse, click on the Delete button, then Apply and OK.
That's it, now when you boot Windows 8 there will be no choice of operating systems.
Another way to remove the choice of operating systems when loading Windows 8
Right-click in the left corner of the desktop and select “Control Panel”
Then System and Security.
System,
