how do i get rid of the 2 choices in the OS selection?

[deh707]

i was thinking of re-installing windows xp, but on the last step before it actually starts reinstalling, i decided to cancel.

so now i'm left with 2 options everytime i restart or turn on my notebook:

Please select the operatiing system to start:

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Setup

how do i make it so, when i press the ON button on my notebook, it loads directly to the desktop, instead of having to choose which OS i want to start.

i want to get rid of the option "Microsoft Windows XP Setup"

[ozymango]

This should be pretty easy -- once your computer has booted, right-click on the "My Computer" desktop icon (or the "My Computer" icon on your Start menu, if you don't have a desktop icon), scroll down to the bottom of the menu that'll appear, left-click on the line that says "Properties," and you should see a bunch of tabs on a menu that says "System Properties."

Left-click the tab "Advanced," and you'll get a menu screen with "Startup and Recovery" options at the bottom. Click the "Settings" button in this section.

This will take you to the yet another menu and at the top, there will be a line that says "Default operating system" and, under that, there should be an entry that says "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" or words to that effect. And just beneath that, should be a checkbox next to "Time to display list of operating systems." Leave the checkbox set but set the time to "0" seconds (use the little arrows next to the time display).

Then next time you reboot the computer, it'll start right up and not give you the multiple options. You could also manually edit the boot.ini file but unless you know what you're doing you can really screw things up in there. Anyway, this should fix it no problem. Also this way you can easily change the settings later if you decide you want to reinstall Windows after all. Good luck!

[deh707]

thanks, ozymango.

[ukb007]

Hi, ozymango.

YOUR ANSWER WAS INFORMATIVE. My default operating system is:

"Windows XP Professional /fastdetect"

Time to display list of operating systems: 30 secs.

Questions are:

1. no list is displayed in my computer; Win XP starts without asking.

2. why should I have 30 seconds as the time to display list of operating systems, why not 2 seconds? What happens during those 30 seconds?

Thanks.

[jimmalenko]

@deh707:
If you want to get really technical, you should probably click the Edit button, and delete the entire line that references Microsoft Windows XP Setup. This will get rid of it for good.

All ozymango's advice did was tell it not to give you a choice and just use the top one. While effectively doing the same thing, the Setup option would still remain if you ever bumped that timeout out again. The method I described above will remove it completely, irregardless of your timeout. I realise that ozymango was probably just trying to protect your PC, but if you only remove that one line and don't touch anything else, you shouldn't have any problems and it will be gone for good.

@ubk007:
The 30 seconds is designed to give you a choice between OS's should you have a dual-booting system. If you only have one option then XP doesn't bother prompting you about it.

[ukb007]

Thanks, jimmalenko.