How to remove old Windows from boot menu
Applies to Windows 2000 and XP.
Warning! This is an expert guide. Following these instructions carelessly or unintentionally may cause serious malfunction of your PC
If you upgrade from say Windows 2000 to Windows XP you will likely end up in a situation where you have two operating systems (OS) instead of one. When you decide that the other one has become unnecessary, you can remove it. But how can I remove an old OS from Windows startup or boot menu?
Making old Windows invisible
Open System properties (press Win+Pause). Select Advanced tab and Settings. From the opening dialogue you can unselect the item Time to display list of operating systems. This will prevent you from seeing the menu. Just make sure you have selected the Default operating system correctly.
Completely remove old Windows
You may have tried to delete all files associated with old Windows. Good start, but doesn't affect the boot menu. The reason is that boot is controlled by the Master boot record (MBR) stored on the hard drive, which is not part of any file system.
To completely remove the old OS, open Command prompt ('Run->cmd') and type
bootcfg
You will see a list of boot entries. Pay attention to the boot entry ID number of the OS you want to remove. Then type
bootcfg /delete /ID
And there you go.
References
Microsoft KB article How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
Related content:
How Windows 7 restore really works, 2014/04/26
Instructions for creating bootable Windows 7 recovery environment on a USB flash device, 2014/03/30
Disabling background software installations and upgrades in Windows, 2013/03/03
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