Windows 10: Random 'y' entry in F12 boot menu

Not long ago, I tried installed FydeOS alongside windows in a dual boot manner. FydeOS had me install Refind to allow me to dual boot, but not before long I decided to remove FydeOS and went back to Windows. Fast forward, I ended up doing a fresh install of Windows 10, but find that if I press F12 at boot, I see the Windows Boot Manager and then a random 'y' entry listed below that. If I enter that 'y' entry, it ends up just booting windows. If I use something like VisualBCD, it shows that 'y' as a Loader, but won't let me delete it. The value for that 'y' Loader does show \EFI\refind\ref

:)

 

No startup boot menu

Hello Kimoefat,

Thank you for posting your concern in Microsoft Community and welcome to the Windows 10 Family.

As an initial recommendation, I would suggest you to access the System configuration utility and check if the Operating System installation path for Ubuntu exists. To do so, follow the below steps.

• Type msconfig in the search bar and select System Configuration from the search results.
• Select the boot tab in the System configuration console to check if the installation path for Ubuntu exists.

If it exists, next logical step is to check if the boot menu time out has been set to 0, which results in Boot menu not showing up.

The boot menu time-out determines how long the boot menu is displayed before the default boot entry is loaded. It is calibrated in seconds. To change the boot menu time-out, use the Bootcfg
/timeout switch. Valid values are from 0 through 999. You cannot use Bootcfg to set an indefinite time-out.

You can run the following Run command line to set the boot menu time-out accordingly. To do so, follow the below steps.

• 
  Press Windows key + X, select
  Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt
  
• 
  Type in the following command: bootcfg /timeout 10
  
  timeout 10 will set the time frame to 10 seconds
  

However, if the Boot path for Ubuntu does not exist in the boot menu of System Configuration utility, I would suggest you to check if the Ubuntu is overridden by the Windows installation or if the Ubuntu installation files are corrupted.

Hope the above information is helpful. If you need further information, feel free to write to us and we would be happy to help you.

Thank You.

 

UEFI remove unwanted boot entries from BIOS solved easily

OK, FINALLY I figured it out. It would appear as though the last few people who used UEFI Shells died years ago, and I'm the only one left. But in case there exists a person who owns a Dell XPS 17 L702x system, here's how you delete boot entries from the BIOS.

Step 1. Download the Phoenix Technologies UEFI Shell: Dropbox - UefiShellX64.efi - Simplify your life

Step 2. Format a USB flash drive in FAT32, and create a folder named "EFI", and inside that, create another folder named "boot".

Step 3. Copy and paste the UEFI Shell utility into the boot folder, and rename the file "bootx64". The full path should look like this: EFI\boot\bootx64.efi

Step 4. Reboot your computer, and rapidly tap the "F12" key on your keyboard until you get to the Boot Menu. Scroll down to "Setup" and hit Enter.

Step 5. Now that you're in the BIOS, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll to the Advanced tab. From there, scroll down to Boot Configuration. In Boot Configuration, set UEFI Boot to "Enabled" and Legacy Boot to "Disabled". Hit the Escape key to go back and then go to the Exit tab. Select the option to "Exit SAVING Changes", and go back to rapidly hitting that F12 key on your keyboard.

Step 6. Once at the Boot Menu, select your USB Mass Storage Device, and you'll boot into the UEFI Utility.

Step 7. From there, type: bcfg boot dump -b

This will display a list of boot entries. Take careful note of the "Option" numbers, and make note of the one that you want to delete. In my case, it was Option 05 with a description of "RAID Array". DO NOT CONFUSE OPTION NUMBERS WITH THE BOOT HEX NUMBERS!!! For example, Option 05 had a hex number of "Boot000A". Others will have such numbers as "Boot0005". That is NOT the number you want. You want the option number. It's a two character number after the word "Option". Hit the "Enter" key until the list has fully displayed.

Step 8. Once you know the Option number of which boot entry you want to delete, simply type this command:

bcfg boot rm XX (where XX is the Option number of the entry you want to delete).

For example, in my case, my RAID entry was Option 05. Therefore, my command looked like this:

bcfg boot rm 05

Step 9. Hold the power button to turn off your computer (I don't think there's a "shutdown" command for UEFI Shells).

Step 10. Turn your computer back on, and go back to rapidly tapping that F12 key while doing it. Once at the Boot Menu, go back into Setup. Once in the BIOS, go back to the Advanced Tab, scroll down to Boot Configuration, Set UEFI Boot to "Disabled" and Legacy Boot to "Enabled". Don't forget to exit saving changes.

And that should do the trick. Hopefully I helped at least one person with this post.

 

My problem is Bios, F12 and boot disc

The computer manufacturer is ACER.

See this link for the boot menu:

List of PC brands with their corresponding hot-keys

F9, F12, ESC