Geoff Chappell - Software Analyst
A machine on which Windows Vista is installed may present a Windows Boot Manager menu in text mode at start up to offer a choice of operating systems or of configurations in which to start an operating system. When the current selection in this menu corresponds to an installation of Windows Vista, the menu advises that the F8 key may be pressed to “specify an advanced option for this choice”. Doing so calls up an Advanced Boot Options menu.
The Advanced Boot Options menu can also be made to persist for an operating system. Set the BCD element advancedoptions to true in the corresponding osloader application object. Once done, whenever this object is selected from the Windows Boot Manager menu, the WINLOAD.EXE that runs for the selected operating system starts by presenting the Advanced Boot Options menu.
The effect of selecting from the Advanced Boot Options menu is to start the operating system as if one or more BCD options had been set (but without editing them into the BCD store). The following table shows the correspondence, which for some reason Microsoft seems not to document:
| Menu Entry | Option | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Safe Mode | bootlog | true |
| quietboot | true | |
| safeboot | Minimal (0) | |
| sos | true | |
| Safe Mode with Networking | bootlog | true |
| quietboot | true | |
| safeboot | Network (1) | |
| sos | true | |
| Safe Mode with Command Prompt | bootlog | true |
| quietboot | true | |
| safeboot | Minimal (0) | |
| safebootalternateshell | true | |
| sos | true | |
| Enable Boot Logging | bootlog | true |
| Enable low-resolution video (640x480) | vga | true |
| Last Known Good Configuration (advanced) | lastknowngood | true |
| Directory Services Restore Mode | safeboot | DsRepair (2) |
| sos | true | |
| Debugging Mode | debug | true |
| Disable automatic restart on system failure | nocrashautoreboot | true |
| Disable Driver Signature Enforcement | oslnointegritychecks | true |
| Start Windows Normally | quietboot | true |
As with additions to the Edit Boot Options menu, some additions may have been acted on already, if only partially, and may therefore not have exactly the same effect as when loaded from the BCD store. The oslnointegritychecks option is not permitted to persist in the BCD store, so that the only (known) way to activate it is through the Disable Driver Signature Enforcement entry on the Advanced Boot Options menu.