How-To Remove an OS from Windows Dual Boot Config

A few weeks back I explained How-To install Windows 7 in a Dual-Boot Configuration using a VHD file like the Windows 7 System Drive. A few days later I explained how to make Windows 7 in a Dual Boot scenario the primary boot OS. Now after receiving about 20 emails the topic from readers, I guess it’s time to explain how to undo or delete the Windows 7 Dual Boot configuration . My guess is the testing is done and they are going to wait for the Gold bits for Windows 7.

So, let’s get right to it! For your convenience, I’ve included not only the Step-By-Step How-To but also a Step-By-Step How-To groovy Video!

How-To Remove an OS from Windows Dual Boot Config Screencast Video

How-To Remove an OS from Windows Dual Boot Config [Step-by-Step]

1. Boot into the NON Windows 7 OS (original OS before you installed Windows 7 as a dual-boot). For most people, this would mean booting into your Vista install however I’m going to guess there might be a few who set up a Dual-Boot config with Windows 2008 also (me for instance).

2. Click Windows Start button and Type msconfig and Press Enter (or click it with mouse)

2. Click Boot Tab, Click the OS you want to keep and Click Set as default

3. Click Windows 7 OS and Click Delete. Click OK

What you just did was remove Windows 7 from the Windows Boot manager so now it will no longer show up when you boot the computer. Essentially, the computer is no longer a Dual-Boot System (2 Windows Versions installed).

The next steps are to just simply delete the Windows 7 VHD file.

Once you delete the Windows 7 VHD file all remnants of Windows 7 will be GONE. Hopefully, this is how you installed Windows 7. If not, you will need to go to the System drive you installed Windows 7 and manually delete all the files and folders there. Be careful not to remove anything needed by the current/original OS you want to keep. If you didn’t install Windows 7 in a VHD file, hopefully, you installed it on its own Drive so you can just format it.

23 Comments

How do you do this in XP?

@Ledon – Hey there… I actually don’t have a Windows XP box anymore but I’ll look for a VM image and dig into it this weekend.

Hi,
Thanks for this information, but when I start MSConfig again after a reboot, it says on the general tab ‘boot selectively’.
When I change this back to ‘Normal’, there will be a boot menu and Windows 7 is set as default again.
So, these does not seem to be a permanent solution.
Is there a permanent solution?

@Gerdo – Before you start on Step 2, goto the General Tab and make sure Normal Startup is selected. Then on the Boot tab set the OS you want as default then try checking the box on the bottom right (Make all boot settings permanent).

Hi, thanks for guide. What about if you want to keep Windows 7 but erase original OS I.e. XP, but not have Windows 7 on a virtual drive? Do you have to reinstall windows 7 fresh or is there a guide/way to convert the VHD to just primary drive. ??

Boy you Guys do things complicated
here is my way
control Panel
System
Advanced
system startup settings
Edit
delite or just type “rem” timeout=30
File
save as boot ,yes replace it

ellow i hope someone could help me i have a big problem on my netbook
i install ubuntu on my netbook but i has already a window 7 so i run a unetboot to do the dualbooting i successfully do the dualbooting but when i shutdown my netbook and restart it wont boot to any of the window and on the screen appear something like this

no module name found aborted
operating system not found

huhu this thing suckss me..can anyone tell me what to do?
do i need it to repormate my netboook
i have so many files and document that havent save… plsss am begging you guyzzz pls help me…

i have multiboot system but when i check for it in system configure ,it shows only a single os

@Swathy – What are the 2 OS’s you have on Dual boot?

same problem for me..ubuntu and windows 7

@mrGroove I have installed windows server 2008 on c: and later Redhat 5 on d:
The problem is that redhat did not create a dual boot and i can only boot from redhat.
How do I force it to create a dual boot to include server 2008

hello to all…is their someone who can help me about my problem? my problem is this… i have a laptop with a VISTA OS and i was make it to dual boot(i install WINDOW 7) But, a few days after i notice that it was run slow, so i decide to delete a WINDOW 7. but, when i restart my computer, the system will still asking which OS do i use..

QUESTION: what will i do to stop the system asking about to choose the OS “””i mean, to run the system continue without asking? because the other WINDOW is already exist..””in short–to run the system originally””””like what they did before, when it was a single OS, like a new Buy….
i hope you get/understand clearly……………..
“looking forward”

hi i too have 2 os ie windows 7 and vista but wen i msconfig i can see only one…plz reply

I have Windows XP(D:) and Windows 7(C:)& on my PC. I need to remove Win 7. But if I format C: my boot config file will be deleted and XP wont work. What to do ?

Hi guys. My pc is a dual boot device. I have windows vista and linux. i just wanna format windows OS, without having any effect on linux. The reason for format is every time when i try to install any thing in windows it prompts for admin password.
my cousin forgot it. can u guys please suggest me to over come this?

hi i had two xp os and two win 7 os’s i want just one xp and one win 7. how can i have them.

A tha khawp mai! (A very good post!!)

i have installed xp and sabayon linux, my primary os is sabayon.how do i remove sabayon linux os without effectin xp?

Hi !! I have a Vista – Win 7 dual boot configuration in two different hard drives. in my boot manager win 7 is my default OS !? (had vista installed first). Win 7 is on drive C and Vista on drive E, (this because i installed win 7 over Xp) so now I want to remove Vista from my system keeping only one OS. Question is ! If I follow your instructions but erase Vista instead of Win 7, will it work ? or do I get a broken boot menu ? Cause if I just disconnect the E drive and boot I get an error message that says something like: can not find operating system. So if anyone can help ? Thanks in advance !

thanks man 🙂 it works

Is this possible with windows 7 and windows 8 ? I want to delete windows 7..

I started with Win XP. A couple of years ago, XP was giving me such a big headache, I thought I should check for corrupt system files by inserting an XP Setup disk into the CD drive.

For some reason, I aborted the procedure, but I was left with a dual-boot menu on startup — my normal XP Home, and some abbreviated XP. Every time I booted, for the last few years, I had to babysit the computer through the POST*, wait for the dual-boot menu, change the selection to the “original XP Home,” and then hit enter. Without intervention, it would try booting into the newer XP entry by default, and Windows would fail to load. So I had to babysit the computer through the POST so I could select the “proper XP” in the dual-boot menu.

*POST — “Power Up Self Test;” the BIOS stuff before Windows actually starts loading.

I had googled the problem a few times over the years, but nothing worked until today, thanks to Goovypost’s step-by-step.

There are a half-dozen additional, cryptic lines in my computer’s MSConfig that Mr. Groovy doesn’t show in his Step-By-Step. But one line in my MSConfig had text that matched the desired entry in the dual-boot menu — the one I needed to become Default. I was able to select that line and click on “Make Default.” And viola, no more dual boot! Thanks Mr. Groove!

Regarding those other lines in my MSConfig, I was unable to select any of the other lines. If I clicked on any other line, the line that I needed to be selected would highlight, anyway. If that makes any sense. Anyway, I recognized the line I needed because it included a phrase that matched the valid entry in the dual-boot menu, and I was able to highlight it and click Make Default.

So, nice to finally be done with that Dunsel* dual-boot screen, and not have to babysit the computer through the POST, anymore.

*Dunsel — describes a part which serves no useful purpose.

If I didn’t babysit the computer, it would always “automatically” choose the invalid XP entry from the dual-boot menu, and then fail to boot.

One thing I did over the years was to increase the “timeout” before the computer would automatically select the invalid XP entry. It started at 30 seconds or something like that, and if I didn’t intervene, it would try to boot the invalid entry, fail, and sit there and do nothing. That’s why I was forced to babysit.

I was able to increase the timeout from 30 seconds to 999 seconds. Sorry I don’t remember how I did that; maybe it was a function in MSConfig? At least if I turned my back for a minute during the POST, I’d still have a chance to select the correct dual-boot entry when I had 999 seconds to catch it.

On that note, if I understand correctly, there are some entries around the web describing methods to reduce the dual-boot-menu timeout to 0 seconds. The suggestion was deadly for me because I needed time to choose the non-default dual-boot item. With the timeout period set to 0 seconds, I was left with No Time to make the proper dual-boot selection. Then, I was locked out of my computer, or at least I could never get a chance to select the desired non-default dual-boot menu item.

That happened to me. Zero seconds, and the only thing my computer could do was the “invalid boot.” Out of desperation, I danced on the F8 key after starting the computer, and after the POST I was able to get some selection that included getting back into the dual-boot menu. Maybe it was the “Last Valid Startup” menu item that got me a valid boot-up. Then I think I was able to go back into MS Config and change that 0-second-timeout to the Maximum Allowed Value.

But I did want to dope-slap the person that suggested reducing the timeout to Zero seconds and giving me one big, extra headache. I guess if the default dual-boot selection is your desired selection, then Zero seconds is a good thing. But a Zero-second timeout is not a good thing if the desired dual-boot selection leads to a failed boot-up. People suggesting a Zero-second boot-up should consider that when they’re giving advice.

How to remove Earlier Version of Windows from Boot Menu; Disable Choose an operating system screen

This post shows how to disable or skip Choose an operating system screen on Windows 10. You can remove Earlier Version of Windows from the boot menu in Windows 10/8/7. You can remove it after uninstalling one OS from a dual boot computer. If you have two versions of the Windows operating system installed on a computer, and you uninstall one of them, then in the boot menu, you should not see the entry for the earlier version. But at times, you still see both versions being offered on the screen.

This issue may occur even after using the new installation for several days. At every startup, you need to select the current operating system’s name and hit the Enter button to boot into your system. If you want to remove Earlier version of Windows entry from the boot menu, here is the solution to do it using BCDEDIT.

Remove Earlier Version of Windows from Boot Menu

Open Command prompt with administrative privilege.

If you are using Windows 7, you can search for cmd in the Start Menu, right-click on the exact result and select Run as Administrator. If you are using Windows 10/8.1, you can open that by pressing Win+X and selecting Command Prompt (Admin).

After opening the command prompt with admin privilege, enter the following command, and hit Enter.

This will help you know the currently installed and registered operating system(s) on your PC.

Disable Choose an operating system screen on Windows 10

BCDEdit or Boot Configuration Data Editor Tool is a useful built-in tool that can even help you change Boot Menu Text when dual-booting the same version of Windows.

You will see an entry, which says Windows Legacy OS Loader. In the description, you will see Earlier Version of Windows. If you can see it, you will be able to delete this entry, by entering the following command and hitting Enter.

It doesn’t take a long time. Just after hitting the enter button, you will get a Success message that looks as follows:

The change will be reflected immediately.

You can restart your PC to check whether the unnecessary entry has been removed or not.

TIP: EasyBCD is a free boot editor software some of you may want to check out. Also, check out Advanced Visual BCD Editor & Boot Repair Tool.

Related reads:

1. How to change the default operating system
2. Choose an operating system screen missing.

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Sudip is a student who loves to engage with the latest technology & gadgets. Apart from writing about all things technology, he is a Photoshop junkie and a football enthusiast.