Windows installations can be stored in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, which is used by the operating system to manage boot options. But what if your installation isn’t stored there? In this blog post, we’ll take a look at how to use BCDEdit—a command-line tool used for viewing and modifying the BCD store—to scan for Windows installations not stored in the BCD. Learn What Command Can Be Used to Scan for Windows Installations Not Stored in the Bcd?
What Command Can Be Used to Scan for Windows Installations Not Stored in the Bcd?
- Using BCDEdit to Scan for Windows Installations – The first step is to open an elevated Command Prompt window (right click on “Command Prompt” and select “Run as administrator”). Then, type in bcdedit /enum all and press Enter. This will list all of the entries in the BCD store. To make it easier to read, you can pipe the output through a text file using this command: bcdedit /enum all > c:\bcdedit-output.txt. This will create a text file with all of the entries in it.
- Next, use a text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad to open up the c:\bcdedit-output.txt file that was created earlier. Scroll down until you find an entry labeled “Windows Boot Loader”; this is where you will find information about any Windows installations that are not stored in the BCD. You should see something like this.
- You can see from this example that there is an entry for a Windows 7 installation that is not stored in the BCD store; this means that it will not appear when you run bcdedit /enum all from within an elevated Command Prompt window. Fortunately, you can still access it by typing bcdedit /set {current} device partition=D: into the Command Prompt window and pressing Enter; this will set your current active partition to D:, which is where your Windows 7 installation resides! If you need further help with scanning or modifying your BCD store, please consult Microsoft’s official documentation here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/bcdedit/.
Conclusion
As you can see, using BCDEdit—the command line tool used for viewing and modifying the BCD store—can be very useful when trying to scan for windows installations not stored in the BCD store or modify its settings manually without using a graphical user interface such as Control Panel or System Properties window. We hope that our blog post has been helpful in understanding how BCDEdit works and how it can be used to effectively manage your system’s boot options! If you have any questions or need more assistance, feel free to contact us anytime!