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| Figure 1. A virtual hard disk as a new choice in the boot menu. |
So you decided to install the Windows 10 Technical Preview in a Hyper-V virtual machine and now you want to boot your computer directly into that virtual machine (Figure 1). So here is how. You simply use, as an administrator, the command line BCDboot tool (bcdboot.exe) located in the
C:\Windows\system32 folder. BCD, as you may know, stands for
Boot Configuration Data and it is the "store" that contains boot configuration parameters and controls how the operating system is started (since Windows Vista) replacing the old and less sophisticated boot.ini file.
See the BCDboot command-line options. What BCDboot does is simply to copy critical boot files to the system partition and to create a new system BCD store entry (Figure 2). In my particular case, I had the virtual disk in the G: partition . All I had to do was to mount it. How? Select the disk and then, in the File Explorer "Manage" section of the Ribbon (now highlighted with "Disc Image Tools" on the top bar), click on "Mount" to the left (you will have to provide the administrator password. The system will assign a new letter to this drive, say J (this has nothing to do with where the actual virtual disk is located). Then in the command line run
bcdboot J:\Windows. That's all there is to it. In a MSDN blog entry, explaining
the difference between BCDboot and BCDedit (the other command to manage the BCD store) you can find detailed instructions. The result is what you see below. You need not worry about the new mounted drive. The next time you reboot the system will unmount it.
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| Figure 2. A new BCD store entry to include a VHDX |
Today, in San Franciso, Microsoft introduced the next iteration of its ubiquitous OS under the moniker of Window 10. Not exactly what the media were suggesting in the previous months to this great event, that is, "Windows 9" as the logical next version to Windows 8. Windows 10 will be available by late 2015 and it will (as quoted by The Verge) "run across an incredibly broad set of devices – from the Internet of Things, to servers in enterprise datacenters worldwide. Some of these devices have 4 inch screens – some have 80 inch screens – and some don’t have screens at all. Some of these devices you hold in your hand, others are ten feet away. Some of these devices you primarily use touch/pen, others mouse/keyboard, others controller/gesture – and some devices can switch between input types." From my viewpoint it's simply a wonderful remake of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 plus all the good things of a universal OS running on different devices, with different form factors, tightly integrated to the Cloud. We, enthusiasts, are waiting on tenterhooks to sign up for the Windows Insider Program, not yet released as of this time.
