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How to install Windows Vista-11 on UEFI-MBR.


GD 2W10

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If you thought Microsoft said you can't install Windows on UEFI-MBR, they lied. You actually can. 

Here is how to do it:

Method 1: Deploy Windows on UEFI-MBR

1. Boot a Windows 7-10 Installation CD, and press Shift+F10. You will see a command prompt.

2. Type in these commands:

diskpart

sel disk 0

convert mbr

cre par prim size=500

format quick fs=fat32

assign letter w

cre par prim

format quick fs=ntfs

assign letter c

exit

dism /apply-image /imagefile:(Windows Installation Media)\sources\install.wim /index:1 /applydir:C:\ (If you are using Windows 7 CD, or have imagex instead of dism, type in imagex /apply D:\sources\install.wim 1 C:)

bootrec /scanos

bootrec /fixmbr

bcdboot C:\Windows /s W:\ /f ALL

cd /d (Windows Installation Media)/boot

bootsect /nt60 C: /force /mbr

exit

3. Now reboot, and Windows will start the second stage of setup. If Windows does not boot, try running Startup Repair. You may get an error saying "Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware". If it happens, and it tells you to restart the installation, do one of the following methods:

1. Hold Shift+F10, and type in these commands:

cd C:\Windows\System32\oobe

msoobe.exe

2. Hold Shift+F10, and type in these commands:

xcopy cmd.exe sethc.exe

taskmgr

Kill winlogon.exe and press shift five times.

Type in these commands:

cd C:\Windows\System32\oobe

msoobe.exe

3. Hold Shift+F10, and type in regedit.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/Setup and change the CmdLine to oobe/msoobe.exe

4. Hold Shift+F10, and type in these commands:

xcopy cmd.exe sethc.exe

taskmgr

Kill winlogon.exe and press shift five times.

Type in these commands:

net user /add (your username)

net user (your username) *

net localgroup /add Administrators (your username)

Wait until you get to the login screen, it will be a long process.

5. Restart the installation

Method 2: Install Windows on CSM/Legacy, then change to UEFI

1. Install Windows Vista-10 on CSM like you would normally. If you do not have CSM on your machine, you will need to install Vista-10 on a CSM virtual machine, then deploy it on your UEFI Class 3/3+ machine with a program like Macrium Reflect.

2. When you are done installing Vista-10 on CSM, open Disk Management and check if there is a System Reserved partition. If there isn't, shrink your NTFS partition by 500 MB and use that space to make your Recovery partition. If you do make the Recovery partition in Disk Management, you can skip the diskpart part of the following commands. Then change the boot mode to UEFI and boot from a Windows Vista-10 PE

3. Hold Shift+F10 and type in these commands:

diskpart

sel disk 0

list vol

format quick fs=fat32

exit

bootrec /scanos

bootrec /fixmbr

bcdboot C:\Windows /s W:\ /f ALL

cd /d (Windows Installation Media)/boot

bootsect /nt60 C: /force /mbr

Now reboot into Windows.

 

 

Here is a screenshot of me running Windows on UEFI-MBR.

windows 10 on uefi-mbr.PNG

Edited by GD 2W10
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I've done that many times at my work when people install windows in CSM mode on a uefi system because they don't know better.

Just install windows in CSM mode (or use the existing system if it was installed in CSM/BIOS mode) and then boot to windows instal media. Press shift+F10 and open diskpart, format the boot partition in fat32 and use bcdboot to reinstall the boot files with the /f UEFI switch. Reboot, disable CSM and done! Should be much easier than your method and the result will be a UEFI-MBR bootable disk with uefi class 3+ compliance.

Edited by TigTex
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58 minutes ago, TigTex said:

I've done that many times at my work when people install windows in CSM mode on a uefi system because they don't know better.

Just install windows in CSM mode (or use the existing system if it was installed in CSM/BIOS mode) and then boot to windows instal media. Press shift+F10 and open diskpart, format the boot partition in fat32 and use bcdboot to reinstall the boot files with the /f UEFI switch. Reboot, disable CSM and done! Should be much easier than your method and the result will be a UEFI-MBR bootable disk with uefi class 3+ compliance.

Oh I did not think of that.

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2 hours ago, TigTex said:

Just install windows in CSM mode (or use the existing system if it was installed in CSM/BIOS mode) and then boot to windows instal media. Press shift+F10 and open diskpart, format the boot partition in fat32 and use bcdboot to reinstall the boot files with the /f UEFI switch. Reboot, disable CSM and done! Should be much easier than your method and the result will be a UEFI-MBR bootable disk with uefi class 3+ compliance.

This would presumably work on older versions of Windows? What about Vista, which doesn't auto-create a boot partition?

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18 hours ago, MintChocAero said:

This would presumably work on older versions of Windows? What about Vista, which doesn't auto-create a boot partition?

Yes it would work on Vista. You would need to shrink the NTFS partition by 500 MB-1 GB and create an EFI partition out of that. Then switch to UEFI and run the bootsect, bootrec, and bcdboot commands. 

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Interesting. So they just wanted to pair GPT with UEFI and keep MBR/BIOS combo. What's the advantage of booting Windows 10 on MBR btw? I can only think of one: compatibility with another OS that boots off only MBR.

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1 hour ago, xpclient said:

Interesting. So they just wanted to pair GPT with UEFI and keep MBR/BIOS combo. What's the advantage of booting Windows 10 on MBR btw? I can only think of one: compatibility with another OS that boots off only MBR.

It could be very useful if you wanted to dual boot Windows XP and Windows 10 on UEFI. 

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On 10/3/2020 at 4:29 PM, GD 2W10 said:

If you thought Microsoft said you can't install Windows on UEFI-MBR, they lied

When Microsoft uses the term "install" they are referring to Setup.exe and an unaltered installation. They also use terms in relation to what is supported, not what is technically possible. MSFT has also told me you can't install DOS with WDS which is not true. Is it a lie or is it just that it is something that they do not support? What about the fact that it is commonly accepted you can't boot both 32bit and 64bit (dual/hybrid) on the same hardware in EFI mode, despite the fact that there are boards where this is possible?

The capabilities of being able to boot (or use) Windows in unsupported configurations is solely dependent on the hardware and what the firmware allows. I see in your examples you only did this on a virtual machine. Repeating this test on different models of actual hardware may yield different results.

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On 10/5/2020 at 12:02 PM, Tripredacus said:

Is it a lie or is it just that it is something that they do not support?

Probably something that they do not support.

On 10/5/2020 at 12:02 PM, Tripredacus said:

What about the fact that it is commonly accepted you can't boot both 32bit and 64bit (dual/hybrid) on the same hardware in EFI mode, despite the fact that there are boards where this is possible?

I don't really know. I have tried deploying Windows 8.1 32-bit on 64 bit UEFI and it did not work. I will try installing Windows 10 32-bit on 64-bit EFI.

 

On 10/5/2020 at 12:02 PM, Tripredacus said:

The capabilities of being able to boot (or use) Windows in unsupported configurations is solely dependent on the hardware and what the firmware allows. I see in your examples you only did this on a virtual machine. Repeating this test on different models of actual hardware may yield different results.

I will try this on my Surface Pro 6.

Edited by GD 2W10
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2 hours ago, GD 2W10 said:

 

I will try this on my Surface Pro 6.

It worked! I had to install it on a CSM VM, then deploy it onto my Surface via Macrium Reflect since that device is UEFI only.

 

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19 hours ago, GD 2W10 said:

I don't really know. I have tried deploying Windows 8.1 32-bit on 64 bit UEFI and it did not work. I will try installing Windows 10 32-bit on 64-bit EFI.

A UEFI isn't really 32bit or 64bit. The Firmware vendor uses a hidden ("BIOS") setting to enable booting 32-bit or 64-bit EFI applications. The hardware market is kind of "rigged" these days, where most firmwares will only run a 64bit EFI application. The exception is for low-powered devices which may be set to run 32bit. There do exist some hardware with some BIOS versions that support booting either that I have encountered in the past.

The question regarding your test on the Surface Pro, that apparently worked, is whether or not the image you have created has the EFI boot application or not. I suspect that it never really mattered what the disk type was for booting EFI, but that the market just figured to have gotten past 2 TB disk sizes by now and reality just hasn't caught up yet. Also the consideration that the industry only really cared about the security functions of UEFI, such as Secure Boot and whatever else, as being the reasons why EFI/GPT was/is being pushed so hard.

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On 10/6/2020 at 9:44 AM, Tripredacus said:

A UEFI isn't really 32bit or 64bit. The Firmware vendor uses a hidden ("BIOS") setting to enable booting 32-bit or 64-bit EFI applications.

I did not know that.

On 10/6/2020 at 9:44 AM, Tripredacus said:

where most firmwares will only run a 64bit EFI application

My Surface only has 64-bit EFI, and I cannot use both at the same time on VMWare.

 

Edited by GD 2W10
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I didn't know it was the case either until I had requested a custom firmware. One in particular was when I was dealing with a particular board that only supported 32bit EFI, but our imaging platform runs on 64bit EFI. In the initial request, the ODM had provided a BIOS that disabled 32bit EFI and enabled 64bit. This wasn't correct for our uses, and they corrected it by providing a BIOS that has 32bit EFI enabled for Hard Disk and 64-bit enabled for USB/LAN. However, this ability may vary based on the hardware. I only have these two situations from personal experience (the other being the NUC that could do dual 32/64bit EFI) to go on.

Physical hypervisors may be different, I haven't bothered to play around with them, nor with bothing to boot EFI on VMWare. Only that in Hyper-V, the hypervisor doesn't seem to care and it is only the VMs that are set to being EFI or not. Also then again, I don't know if you can do 32bit and 64bit on Hyper-V at the same time.

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  • GD 2W10 changed the title to How to install Windows Vista-11 on UEFI-MBR.

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