Boot manager UEFI
Overview
When booting by UEFI the boot manager Boot-US consists of an efi file, which is installed in
the EFI System partition (ESP) on the boot disk 1. Additionally a new Boot#### variable containing this efi file
is created in the NVRAM, and added to the first position of the BootOrder variable.
Here the boot disk 1 is just a symbolic name for the target disk of the boot manager installation.
Additionally the boot manager can be installed also as UEFI fallback boot mode on a FAT32 partition
of a removable disk (e.g. an USB stick).
In this case when starting the machine
the corresponding drive must be selected as start drive in order to start the boot manager Boot-US.
Entries in boot manager
When installing the boot manager the following entries can be added to the boot manager:
- Boot#### variable with efi file on disk 1,2, ...
- Efi file in UEFI fallback boot mode on disk 1,2, ...
When installing an operating system usally a Boot#### variable with a corresponding efi file is created in the NVRAM.
In the case 1. the Boot#### variable is read by the boot manager Boot-US, and then the corresponding efi file is started.
This will start the operating system belonging to this Boot#### variable.
Additionally efi files can be present as so-called UEFI fallback boot modes. Here no corresponding entry in the NVRAM exists.
In order to start the efi file the user must direct the UEFI firmware to boot from the corresponding drive.
In the case 2. the boot manager Boot-US directly starts the specified efi file.
Special functions of Boot-US
The boot manager Boot-US has the following special functions:
- true hiding of partitions
- direct start of efi files
- password protection
The true hiding of partitions allows a completely separated operation of multiple Windows installations
on one machine. When starting a certain Windows installation the boot manager Boot-US makes all partitions visible belonging
to the respective Windows installation, and at the same time, true hides all partitions belonging to
the other Windows installations.
The direct start of efi files simplifies the usage of the UEFI fallback boot mode. It is not necessary to enter
an UFFI menu for selecting the device to be booted. You can simply select in the boot manager Boot-US the efi file to be booted.
Passwords can be set for individual entries and for administrative commands of the boot manager.
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