How to Change an Operating System Boot Order?

If you have recently installed a new OS on your system then, you would have to change the boot order of the OS, to set the default OS on your system. However, before going into the details about changing the boot order, first let’s understand what is a boot order?

What is Boot Order?

When you boot or start your system, the system will look for the boot order to refer to the device or OS information to boot. That means the boot order is the order of devices listed in BIOS from which the computer looks for the information about the Operating system to load at the start up. The one which is set as default will be loaded first.

Hard drives, flash drives, floppy drives, optical drives, and network resources are all typical devices that are listed as boot order options in the BIOS. After the POST, BIOS will attempt to boot your system from the first device or OS that is listed in the boot order. If that device is not bootable, BIOS will attempt to boot from the second device listed, and so on. Similarly in case of OS, the one which is made as default will appear first in the boot order, and thus the BIOS will boot from this default OS.

Why you need to change the Boot order?

When you installed new OS on your system which already contains an operating system, then your computer contains multiple operating systems. Now, if you wish to make this new OS as the default among the others then you will have to change this boot order.

In case you are wondering about finding the easiest way to change the boot order, there is no need to worry and your search ends here. This page illustrates you the easy way to change the boot order without manually changing any settings under boot.ini or any other file.

Steps required changing an OS boot order

  1. First Click on “Start” button and then hit the “Control Panel” button on your computer. Then select “System and Maintenance” option, followed by "System"
  2. Now click on “Advanced System Settings” which is located under the “Tasks” menu situated on the left side of the window.First Click on “Start” button and then hit the “Control Panel” button on your computer. Then select “System and Maintenance” option, followed by "System"
  3. In case you are prompted for an administrator password or any confirmation, then just provide the password or answer the confirmation message
  4. Click on the “Advanced” tab, and then, under “Startup and Recovery” option, click “Settings”
  5. You will receive a “System and Recovery” menu.
  6. Then, under the “System Start up” menu, in the “Default Operating System” list Select the operating system you want to boot first from the list or for which you want to change the boot order
  7. Click "OK" and save your settings.

Now, you have changed the OS boot order on your computer. Additionally, you can also change the time duration for which it shows to change the booting OS. Just restart your system and now the boot order should have changed. It’s very simple isn’t it??

One important point, before beginning with the process takes the backup of the data from your hard drive. This is because, in case you face any interruption like power failure at the midst or you encounter errors, then you might lose your vital data from the system. A single mistake will result in huge loss of data. Thus, if such instances occur and you don’t have the data backup you will lose your entire data. Scared!! Don’t panic, there is a remedy for this situation also. As soon as you lose your data, make use of the Remo Recover Windows software, you will easily get back your entire lost files. Remo Recover Windows is the best application available in the market in order to perform unbootable hard drive data recovery.  However, take data backup and follow the above explained steps and to change an operating system boot order.

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Tony Landry

Tony Landry is a Web Content Editor at Remo Software. He loves to write, edit, and manage content for users trying to troubleshoot and fix problems on Windows, Outlook, storage drives and Cloud storage networks.

He has published more than 200 articles in Remo Software blog. He actively engages in research and problem-solving techniques to consistently generate great web content. Fixing various hardware problems on computer and storage devices along with a great knack for fixing Outlook errors, Tony is also the fun-time IT guy for all his work friends. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and enjoys cycling.

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