[HOW TO] Windows entry after macOS in the OpenCore menu

[EFIOpenCore]

Try another HDD and try again. If you couldn't see Install macOS Big Sur entry, try anlother version such as Mojave,Catalina.

 

[spsharma]

Sometimes a user says he doesn't like the Windows icon to be seen before macOS in the picker. Although I have responded to this question on previous occasions, I am writing it here as a separate post in case it can help someone with this concern.

The Windows system that is automatically detected by OpenCore is displayed before the macOS icons in the OpenCore menu. This is by default (for now).
To correct this behavior you have to:

• create a custom entry for Windows in Misc> Entries, this entry is shown behind macOS.
• set the Misc> Security> ScanPolicy key to a value that scans APFS and HFS file systems but not NTFS or EFI. In this way, autodetected Windows stops showing up before macOS.

Example: ScanPolicy value to show APFS and HFS file systems and SATA, NVMe and USB devices:
0x00000001 - OC_SCAN_FILE_SYSTEM_LOCK.
0x00000002 - OC_SCAN_DEVICE_LOCK.
0x00000100 - OC_SCAN_ALLOW_FS_APFS.
0x00000200 - OC_SCAN_ALLOW_FS_HFS.
0x00010000 - OC_SCAN_ALLOW_DEVICE_SATA.
0x00080000 - OC_SCAN_ALLOW_DEVICE_NVME.
0x00200000 - OC_SCAN_ALLOW_DEVICE_USB.
1 + 2 + 100 + 200 + 10000 + 80000 + 200000 = 0x290303 hexadecimal (2687747 in decimal). In config.plist it would look like this:

<key>ScanPolicy</key>
<integer>2687747</integer>

View attachment 520293

Calculate the value of ScanPolicy: OpenCore ScanPolicy Generator.

Hello, New to Open Core (lomg time Clover user). I installed OC to a Z590 MB, I7-11700K CPU. I do not mine the windows icom appearing before MacOS, but I want edit it to point to a Windows disk (already with windows installed) in my system. Any suggestions how do i do it ?

 

[Deleted member 188658]

Hi @miliuco ,

I'm probably confused....
Here is my config.plist entries, while attempting to change the scan order:


I have successfully changed the order, and the name of the Windows dual boot drive is now 'Windows 11'.

But unlike in my OC 0.8.9 and all previous OC releases, I can't boot the Windows 11 OS from the OC boot selector. When I now select that disk, the screen goes black for a few seconds and then returns to the OC boot selector.

If I go into the BIOS boot option screen (F8 for my BIOS) I can select the Windows Manager on that disk and boot no problem.

Is this caused by Setting the Entries->0->Auxiliary and Enabled to True?

Do I now HAVE to change the boot selector ( at end of Path string ) to /EFI/Microsoft/BOOT/bootmgr.efi?

Suggestions to getting the OC selector to boot the Windows partition (other than going back to 0.8.9 version)

Thanks

 

[Edhawk]

o I now HAVE to change the boot selector ( at end of Path string ) to /EFI/Microsoft/BOOT/bootmgr.efi?

Yes, as that would point the Windows icon to your Windows Boot Manager. Currently you have it pointed back to the OpenCore EFI. Hence the loop when the icon is selected.

 

[miliuco]

Hello, New to Open Core (long time Clover user). I installed OC to a Z590 MB, I7-11700K CPU. I do not mine the windows icon appearing before MacOS, but I want edit it to point to a Windows disk (already with windows installed) in my system. Any suggestions how do i do it ?

Good night. OpenCore by default displays in the picker all windows entries pointing to all windows disks automatically detected. Do you have a windows entry which doesn't point to a windows disk? Do you have a windows disk not displayed in the OpenCore picker?

 

[miliuco]

@Deleted member 188658
As @Edhawk says, your windows entry path is pointing to the OpenCore boot loader so, every time you pick on it, you are again in the menu. \EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.efi is to boot OpenCore, not Windows. You must recheck the path to the windows EFI entering OpenShell in the OpenCore menu and doing again the task.

[HOW TO] Custom entry in OpenCore to boot Windows

These instructions are already posted on various Internet sites but from time to time they are requested by a user so I publish them in the guides). To add an entry in Misc> Entries of config.plist you need to know the path to the operating system boot loader. For a Windows disk, you must know...

www.tonymacx86.com

 

[Deleted member 188658]

@miliuco, @Edhawk

As @Edhawk says, your windows entry path is pointing to the OpenCore boot loader so, every time you pick on it, you are again in the menu. \EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.efi is to boot OpenCore, not Windows. You must recheck the path to the windows EFI entering OpenShell in the OpenCore menu and doing again the task.

[HOW TO] Custom entry in OpenCore to boot Windows

These instructions are already posted on various Internet sites but from time to time they are requested by a user so I publish them in the guides). To add an entry in Misc> Entries of config.plist you need to know the path to the operating system boot loader. For a Windows disk, you must know...

www.tonymacx86.com

Thank you both for your replies, but your suggestion ( the same I assume ) did NOT WORK.

1. This is the structure of my boot disk OC 0.9.0 EFI partition. You should be able to see the Microsoft\boot\bootmgr.efi executable.






2) Here are the contents of the OC 0.9.0 config.plist, notice I have changed the boot executable to \EFI\Microsoft\BOOT\BOOTMGR.efi I assume since it is a FAT32 partition that the backslashes (\) are the appropriate DOS separator, and that it is case insensitive ? It does NOT boot. Selecting the Windows 11 disk, just as before, brings me back to the OC Picker.




3) Here are the WORKING contents of my OC 0.8.9 config.plist. Note that the path variable ends in \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI. Yes the disk order is not my preference but no matter which disk I select OC boots the OS, MacOS or Windows.



Have I left some index to the PCIRoot wrong in 0.9.0 config.plist? There must be something I'm missing.

Has this something to do with Windows 11 requiring some security option to boot?

 

[Deleted member 188658]

By the way I tried with a path variable ending in EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Bootmgfw.efi


and I get the same result. Select Windows disk and it boots back to the OC Picker

 

[miliuco]

@Deleted member 188658
Now I have no idea about to say. Both Entries section of config.plist are the same so I don't undestand why it's working on 0.8.9 but not on 0.9.0.
Have you changed something in the storage before the update to 0.9.0? Adding, removing or changing the connector of a disk.

 

[Deleted member 188658]

@miliuco.

Now I have no idea about to say. Both Entries section of config.plist are the same so I don't undestand why it's working on 0.8.9 but not on 0.9.0.
Have you changed something in the storage before the update to 0.9.0? Adding, removing or changing the connector of a disk.

I have not changed anything in the storage before the update to 0.9.0.

I suspect it must be something due to the Windows disk being formatted as a GPT disk?

Here is a snapshot of my disks from the Hackintool. I have 3: SAMNVE500 (macOS), GPT-Win ( Windows ) and VM-4 (a data MacOS disk where I keep my VMs).

In the screenshot, I have removed the USB stick from the disk list as I don't believe it is relevant.

Anyway I am using the USB stick to boot the system into the UEFI shell. There I used the tools you referenced in :

[HOW TO] Custom entry in OpenCore to boot Windows

These instructions are already posted on various Internet sites but from time to time they are requested by a user so I publish them in the guides). To add an entry in Misc> Entries of config.plist you need to know the path to the operating system boot loader. For a Windows disk, you must know...

www.tonymacx86.com

I dumped the 'map' command to maps.txt, and I dumped the 'bcfg boot dump' command to the bcfg_boot_dump.txt file.


Both of these dumps show the USB stick as a file partition, but I have deliberately removed it in the screenshot above.

I have used the path definitions from BOTH dumps, but the behavior is always the same. My OC Picker looks like this ( I have NOT changed the Scan order variable on this USB stick booter - to remove that as a variable in the experiment). When I pick the Windows 11 disk icon, the OC picker just returns back to the OC Picker - no windows boot. This is the case for all of the variations of path I have put in the config.plist


So I must be barking up the wrong tree.

The \EFI\Microsoft\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.efi, is that supposed to be on the GPT-Win partition/disk?

This directory is only on my main OC EFI partition, where the MacOS is, on SAMNVME500 disk.

Is the picker expecting it to be on the same disk as provided by the path variable? If that's the case do I have to reformat the GPT-Win disk to create an EFI folder on it, and do I have to place the EFI folder at the start of the disk, in other words move everything around?

Sorry for being so long winded.