Solved Dual boot Windows 11 & Windows 11 causes a double restart before loading boot manager

Goal: To get Windows Boot Manager to load up instantly without a second restart and having two different Windows 11 installs on two separate SSD's.
Potential Solution: Install a third party boot manager and not use Windows Boot Manager

Hello, I am having an issue with installing Windows 11 on two different SSD's. I want one for work purposes and I want the other for gaming. I first install Windows 11 on my primary SSD the "Samsung 980 PRO" and after I install drivers and update windows. I move onto installing Windows 11 on a separate SSD "WD_Black SSD" and install drivers and update windows.

After the BIOS posts it will do a second restart and a second BIOS POST before loading the Windows Boot Manager.
I have disabled "Fastboot" in the "Power Options" on both OS's which yes technically speeds up the boot process but the issue is the double restart. I have also gone into each OS's and removed the Hard Drive Letter so the OS's can't see the drive anymore, we all know it still can but it removes it so you cant send data to it in the File Explorer.

One drive will have multiple partitions (EFI System, Recovery Partition) like we all are accustom to while the second install of Windows is just one straight partition throughout the entire drive with no EFI System and Recovery Partition on it.

It seems the main partition with EFI System and Recovery Partition is loading first and needs to load these things before the Windows Boot Manager will display.

This causes a double restart when you select the OS that does not have EFI System and Recovery Partition in it since it needs these to boot up properly. I might be wrong in the way I describe it or how it functions so forgive my ignorance in this subject, I would greatly appreciate any advice and/or help in this matter.

I have done many installs of Windows 11 dual boot config playing with the settings in Windows 11 and the BIOS and I was able to get it booting fast last week with no double restart but like an idiot I didn't document it and when I wanted to do a clean install of Windows 11 what steps I thought I remembered are not working and now I regret it badly because this seems to be a ongoing issue with nobody ever able to solve it. Hell, at this point I am questioning if I had it working the way I did but I am almost positive that I messed around enough with the settings that it stopped the double restart and just went straight into the Windows Boot Manager (Blue Screen).

At this point I'm at a loss for words and that is why I am posting here with hopefully some help from you experts I can solve this problem I have that has wasted a lot of my time trying to figure out. Maybe I should just use a third party boot manager with hopes that will fix everything. I just want the PC BIOS to POST one time and one time only and go straight to whatever boot manager it has.

I believe maybe the solution is any boot manager that is NOT the Windows Boot Manager as that seems to be causing the issue. I could be wrong but I really need some help here please as it is very frustrating dealing with a double restart, double BIOS POST just to get a measly Boot Manager to load. If this is the suggestion, which boot manager should I use and which one is the best one (fastest) boot manager and that doesn't need me to install Linux on one of the drives? If the best solution is install Linux on one of the drives well then I have no choice but to go that route. (I would need to buy a third SSD and install it for Linux) Nothing against Linux as I know coming from the server space how important it is, but basically all the software I use and have become familiar with is on Windows and I need two Windows 11 installs with complete different programs on each one and each Windows 11 on separate SSD's. That is what my objective is. Thank you in advance for your input.

My PC Specs:
Intel i9 (12 Gen)
ASUS ROG Strix Z690-F Gaming WiFi
Corsair Vengeance DDR5 64GB 5600MHz
ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC Edition
Samsung 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4
WD_BLACK SDD
Scythe Mugen 5 Rev.C

This is a new PC build and my last one lasted around 10 years with a i7 2nd Gen CPU. I know big mistake buying ASUS gear as I came from using MSI with no issues and I have many found memories of using ASUS in the 90's and it being rock solid, sadly it looks those days are behind us and ASUS is not the brand it used to be. Mistake on my part for not doing proper research before buying the hardware.

Welcome to 11F. By Boot Manager I assume you mean Boot Menu. I think by removing the drive letters your boot configuration data is confused as to which OS to load first. Open a Admin command prompt and type

Post a screenshot of your results in your reply.
It should look similar to mine as I dual boot WIN10/11.




Next type Win+r enter msconfig
Select Boot tab
and post a screenshot on your reply



Next post a screenshot of Disk Management

NeoGeo said:

This causes a double restart when you select the OS that does not have EFI System and Recovery Partition in it since it needs these to boot up properly.

Click to expand...

This is normal behavior as the boot manager will "pre-load" the default OS so when selecting it on the Boot Menu the lockscreen appears immediately.

Since the default OS is "pre-loaded" selecting the secondary OS will initiate a reboot to load that OS.

NeoGeo said:

This is a new PC build and my last one lasted around 10 years with a i7 2nd Gen CPU. I know big mistake buying ASUS gear as I came from using MSI with no issues and I have many found memories of using ASUS in the 90's and it being rock solid, sadly it looks those days are behind us and ASUS is not the brand it used to be. Mistake on my part for not doing proper research before buying the hardware.

Click to expand...

By that logic, my ASUS board would have the same issue, which it does not.

Oh, and there's nothing to set in BIOS in order to set up a dual boot system.

Hi there
@Scott

correct.

@NeoGeo

If you've got multiple versions of Windows installed and the boot manager menu appears it's quite normal for another "restart" -- you shouldn't have to press any further keys as the restart will boot into the correct version of Windows - even if it's on another SSD / Disk etc.

E.G The default boot (the basic Windows boot) gives me this selection :


Now if I choose an OS it restarts and boots into the selected OS.

Where you have to be careful is if you have say a LINUX OS or another bootable (non windows or default external device) then you need to select the windows bootmgr option -- the system will still boot into the correct windows OS.

Note whether you use physical vhdx files or basic partitions for the windows installs its the same. I use vhdx files as it's easier to maintain and my windows systems aren't always that large anyway.

The vhdx files are non UEFI basic MBR type partitions -- I've a single UEFI partition on the main boot disk.

I created the vhdx files via diskpart create vdisk file=xxxxx etc, attach vdisk, create a primary partition and then install windows on the vhdx file via dism /Apply-Image. Then I install the boot loader via assigning the 100M main efi partition as say letter S, and then bcdboot Q:\windows /s S: /f UEFI where say Q is the vhdx disk you installed windows on.

Note -- as these are vhdx files you can have any number of them subject to your device space limitations.- the MBR limitation of only 4 primary partitions doesnt apply in this case as all windows sees are its own disk as say C: and the rest as vhdx files and not "Classical partitions" or even disks unless you "attach them" via diskpart.

if your multiple windows systems have their own EFI partitions then you won't get the 2nd restart and you'll have to select from the computers firmware bios what you want to boot.

Cheers
jimbo

If you want to avoid bootux, change to the grown up boot menu.

SIW2 said:

If you want to avoid bootux, change to the grown up boot menu.

Click to expand...

???
What's the grown up boot menu !!!

Cheers
jimbo

To get Windows Boot Manager to load up instantly without a second restart

Click to expand...

bootmenupolicy legacy. The little blue squares is the kindergarten menu.

legacy does not load that blue squares stuff.

SIW2 said:

bootmenupolicy legacy. The little blue squares is the kindergarten menu.

legacy does not load that blue squares stuff.

Click to expand...

@SIW2 is right! The legacy boot menu doesn't pre-load anything, so it boots into whatever you choose without a restart!

I always use the grown up boot menu.

I want to thank you Scott, jimbo45 and SIW2 for replying to the thread. I was messing with rEFInd and long story short wasn't able to do exactly what I wanted to do but I did learn some new things which is a plus. Now I have to agree with SIW2, if I want a boot loader I want one that supports Legacy OS's because this Windows one won't see any other OS except Windows and after all I have been through I actually dislike that blue Windows boot menu.

I'm no expert but I can tell that Windows is making changes automatically in the BIOS when it comes to boot sequences, it will priorities Windows over everything else and kick any other OS to the curb like Linux which really rubbed me the wrong way. (Wintel Partnership Anyone, lol) I installed a third SSD installed Linux and then configured rEFInd and when I installed Windows 11 afterwards it would boot straight to windows and I had to manually go into the BIOS and select the rEFInd boot manager when before Windows 11 was installed it was #1 but Windows forced it down to #2 and put Windows in the #1 boot spot. That was it for me, I knew right then this blue screen Windows boot menu was absolute garbage and now SIW2 has confirmed that.

So thank you because now I will mess around with bootmenupolicy legacy and hopefully resolve my problem once and for all.

I will post my progress when I've had time to play with this after work. I greatly appreciate all the replies, you guys really were very helpful.

Scott, I have nothing but great things to say about ASUS because the brand was very reliable to me in the past (90's era). I'm just saying from these videos I saw on YT that it seems ASUS needs to do a little better as of late. Nothing against them, every large corp has it's issue and nobody is perfect.

So I tried to bring back the legacy boot menu with this command in CMD.

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

and it worked for a little bit and then BAM I was hit with the blue screen of death (my version currently : windows boot menu). I modified the "Boot Configuration Data" on both Windows 11 installs with the above command and still the same problem. Like if Windows 11 detects it and forces the blue screen Windows Boot Menu over the legacy one.

I'm not crazy but it feels I am fighting Windows for control of my new system and I will not let it win.

I suppose the next step is install Windows 11 one SSD at a time installed on the motherboard. Because the 2nd install of Windows 11 doesn't have any of the boot partitions on it and it depends on the first one so maybe by installing Windows 11 with just one SSD connected to the motherboard at a time it would give a proper complete install of Windows 11 with all it's boot partitions on both drives instead of just the first one when both SSD's are connects to the motherboard. Not sure if this will fix the issue but if it doesn't work I will do the above with rEFInd. I kind of like the option of having a another OS that isn't Windows on my PC so a legacy compatible boot menu seems like the best options for me but only time will tell if it works out the way I want it to.

Or maybe I need to install two different instances of Windows 11 on the same SSD and perhaps that will resolves everything and I could be done with all of this madness.

SIW2, did you do anything different than just the above CMD command? Are your OS's on different drives or just one drive partitioned up for each OS? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

NeoGeo said:

So I tried to bring back the legacy boot menu with this command in CMD.

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy standard

Click to expand...

Substitute standard with legacy

bcdedit /set “{current}” bootmenupolicy legacy

bootmenupolicy standard is what @SIW2 refer to as the blue square, kindergarten boot menu, lol.

Here's what my legacy boot menu looks like

Scott, here are the screenshots you asked for. I would gladly entertain any solutions you may suggests.

Thanks for that suggestion Scott, I will try that right now.

I'm not sure why I looked this up in google only to input the wrong instruction. Boy I feel like an idiot.

So I changed the bcd to

bcdedit /set “{current}” bootmenupolicy legacy

and it worked for one restart and aftwards the Blue Windows Boot Menu came back. Should "Fast Boot" be disabled in the Control Panel > Power "Settings"?

Is there any specific protocol to follow? I'm stunned how it works one moment and then after another restart it goes back to the Windows Boot Menu (Blue Screen). Should I only be doing it on the default OS only instead of doing it in both Windows installs?

Okay, now it works every time I restart the PC. Will be testing doing shutdowns off and on for both Windows 11 installs to make sure this thing is working properly. I have no idea why it shows that blue screen boot menu after the first restart but now it's working just fine.

Dammit, after first shutdown the dreaded blue screen returned. What is up with this? I did 2 different restarts on both Windows 11 installs before this shutdown and after each restart it displayed the legacy boot menu (black screen) now after I shutdown, switched off and then on power supply button on the back, powered up PC and BAM got hit with this nightmarish Blue screen boot menu. I'm stunned, actually really stunned.

Second shutdown and powerup displays the Blue Windows Boot Menu screen again so it took over the legacy boot menu somehow. I really don't understand how Windows is modifying or taking control of the boot sequence. I can only assume because one drive doesn't have the EFI boot partition that it's somehow conflicting with modifying the BCD (That most likely makes no sense but I feel somehow Windows is wanting to change the legacy boot menu back to the new blue screen one).

Can someone verify how you have your Windows installed on your PC when your using the legacy boot menu please. Are your Windows installed on different SSD's or is on the same drive and you have the drive partitioned to hold two Windows installs? If it's two separate drives are both partitions with the EFI and Recovery Partitions or is it like mine where Windows 11 has one drive with the EFI recovery partition while the other one is just partitioned without the EFI and Recovery Partitions? (Check my screenshot to see what I mean).

Again I greatly appreciate the help you guys are giving me, don't think I don't appreciate the help because I sincerely do.

NOTE: These Windows 11 installs have no Windows 11 updates on them. Just fresh installs with Motherboard Drivers installed and no internet connection whatsoever. Windows 11 thumbdrive was a freshly created a few days ago so the Windows 11 version is the newest possible without updates.

Disabled "Fast Boot" in the Control Panel > Power "Settings" and the legacy boot menu is back. Kinda feel like a bonehead for not disabling first when the entire time people who have issues with Dual Booting recommend to disable it. It seems from what I remember is hibernates your computer state even when you say shutdown and I believe when you restart Windows that is when it officially shuts down.

Don't quote me on any of that because I could be completely wrong, just going off some quick stuff I read while trying to figure this out last week.

I'm doing a bunch of restarts and shutdowns and going in each Windows 11 installation at a time and switching back and forth to ensure this works properly. Will report back tomorrow as it's pretty late and I need to go to sleep soon.

For anyone in the future who needs to Disable "Fast Startup" in Windows. Go into Control Panel > Power Options