How to Remove “Earlier Version Of Windows” in Windows 7 Bootloader with “bcdedit” command line utility

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If your computer has more than one OS installed natively on the system and Windows 7 is one of them, the chances are, you will see the options to boot into other “Earlier Version Of Windows” option during the system startup.

So what if the previous Windows OS (doesn’t matter if it’s Windows Vista, XP, 2000 or even older edition) is already removed from the system but for some reason the boot loader didn’t get updated? You basically are seeing this option showing up every time when you turn on the machine.

Here’s how you can delete the unnecessary boot loader entries and straight boot into your Windows 7

Firstly, you need to boot into Windows 7.

Open up the command prompt and type “bcdedit”. Make sure you are running the command line as Administrator.

bcdedit remove Windows Legacy OS Loader - How to Remove “Earlier Version Of Windows” in Windows 7 Bootloader with “bcdedit” command line utility

Here is an example, everybody might have different results when you type the command. Basically, it lists out all the OS that has registered to the Windows Boot Manager. For instance, as you can see, there is an entry called “Windows Legacy OS Loader”, the identifier of which contains the value “{ntldr}”. From this, I can tell the Windows Legacy OS Loader used to load Windows XP on this system, since the value of ntldr is default for winxp bootloader.

Now type bcdedit /delete {ntldr} /f

deletebcdeditf2 - How to Remove “Earlier Version Of Windows” in Windows 7 Bootloader with “bcdedit” command line utility

After you see the message “The operation completed successfully”, and restart your computer, you will not see this boot option any more during the next startup.

“bcdedit” is a powerful command line utility that manages your Windows boot loader. You can not only clean out unnecessary boot entries, but also can create new boot entries manually as well. For more information about how to use the tool, simply type bcdedit /? for help. But be more careful about what you will be doing there, as any entry deleted through this command will be extremely difficult to recover.

79 COMMENTS

  1. Will this work on Windows XP as well? I tried some time ago to dual boot XP with Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope and it did NOT work whatsoever. And to this day, Linux Ubuntu appears on my boot loader. Will this work to remove that on the XP machine?

    • in short no, This will not work. If you try to type the command “bcdedit” in your Windows XP you will find its not a recognized command.

      “bcdedit” is a utility that comes with Windows Vista and up

      However that said, there is other ways you can edit the bootloader in Windows XP

      Cheers

  2. Great information. Followed the steps and it got rid of “Earlier Version of Windows”. Still boots to the same screen, but it appears there was a third alternative. Now the boot manager screen has two choices: “Windows 7” and “Microsoft Windows Recovery Console”. Can you please tell me how to rid Boot Manager from the last entry so it boots straight into Windows 7? You are so appreciated. Thanks in advance.

  3. ohhh u r my hero >>> but 🙁 before i read it i did Right clik my computer-> properties-> advance seting-> advanced-> startup and recovery-> settings-> choose default operating system: windows 7 –> then change time to display list of operating system to zero >>> then i cant logon into windows 7 or xp(Earlier Version Of Windows) so what i have 2 do now>> plz give me the solution

  4. I noticed that is on the same partition (D:) as . If I removed the entry and format drve D: will this screw up the boot of windows seven?

  5. the detail given that how to delete previous version of window is not helpful
    me follow all the steps but at the end when i restart my computer it again shows two version ,,
    plz tell me any another way to remove the previous version…

  6. Thank you so very much. It removed the other boot option. One thing i want to know is that weather the old windows is completely removed from my computer?

  7. Im having issues removing boot up xp that i had on a previous hdd. I have windows 7 installed and on automatic boot it still looking for windows xp.I got into bcdedit and its not showing in there either.Where would it be comming from?

  8. When iam tried the “bcdedit” command .The command prompt showed “The boot configuration data could not be opened. Access is denied” this line. what is the error?
    plz give replay
    thankyou

  9. after typing “bcdedit”….,
    it says that the boot configuration data store coul not be opened.
    What to do next…???
    Plz Help…..
    thanks…!!!

  10. hey it still shows “earlier version of windows”
    i istalled win xp in a partition of h, but now i have deleted that partition, but it still shows it

    • You should run bcdedit in the command prompt windows, find the name of extra “identifier”, and delete it instead of {ntldr}.

    • This method is easier
      You can go to the my computer.properties then
      Advanced System Settings (in the left pane), then Startup and Recovery. You
      can select the default OS and UNcheck the Time to display list of
      operating systems. That will automatically startup the default with no
      delay..

    • your current OS was windows xp??this command work in windows 7 or higher version OS,u may copy “bcdedit.exe” to XP “windowssystem32” from win7 “windowssystem32bcdedit.exe”,then try again

  11. This method is easier
    You can go to the Control Panel, System, Advanced System Settings (in the left pane), Startup and Recovery. You can select the default OS and UNcheck the Time to display list of operating systems. That will automatically startup the default with no delay.

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