How to edit windows boot.ini file

Boot.ini file is among most important file in your system which tells the system how to boot and then load your operating system in to primary memory.So improper editing in this file may hamper your system's proper booting process.So avoid unnecessary editing of this file.If you look at the windows xp boot.ini file then you will find something like this.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect

If you want to perform some kind of editing in this one of the most important file in your system then first of all you must at least a little bit knowledge about boot.ini file.Here is the short description about windows xp boot.ini file.

The First line [Boot loader] just states the Booting Process.

timeout=30 is the time that will be provided to you to select from the list of OS’s installed. This works only in case you have multiple OS’s installed. It can be reduced easily, but make sure you give enough time to react upon it. 10 Seconds is the appropriate time.

The third line says multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect. multi(0) tells us the IDE on which the drive is attached to. Usually its Primary only. disk(0) shows the number of Hard disks mounted. rdisk(0) tells us from which disk it is booting. In case of SCSI drives, it might not show up. partition(1) tell that on which Logical partition the OS is installed on.

After that it says “Microsoft Windows XP Professional” that is the name that shows up on the OS selection page. You can put your own name there as well.This was the editable part of Boot.ini file.

Mainly editing in booting file is done either for changing the name of operating system which appear during booting process or for changing the booting time.There are two simple ways for doing them

1:By using MSCONFIG:
Open run and type MSCONFIG then click on boot.ini tab and edit the name and whatever you want to edit.Editable parts are highlighted in red.


2.By using system properties:Right click on my computer icon on desktop-->Properties then select advance tab and under that click on settings under startup and recovery and then edit the desired option.


Though this procedure is very simple but if you have any query regarding this process or you have another method for this then share it with us by comments.

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