Having re-installed Ubuntu recently, I wanted to document how to do it within a GUI environment with mouse-click ease. Well, not really. I mean, you do have to type in a few things to actually download the app you need to do the boot options editing for you. But, it is easy and it is inside the picture-pretty interface. No terminal commands are involved and there were no animals harmed during the making of this HowTo. So enough of the dry wit and let's get to it:
1. First, you need to download StartUp-Manager. The easiest way to do that is through the Ubuntu Software Center. You can click on the icon on the sidebar in Ubuntu 11.04:
2. Next, use the Search box in the Ubuntu Software Center to find the software you need. You can simply type in "StartUp" and Search will give you choices. StartUp-Manager is usually the first one:
3. Click on the entry for StartUp-Manager to select it. Once you click on the Install button, you'll be asked for your password:
4. Key in your password to authorize the install:
5. You'll be able to check on the progress of the download while it is running:
6. After it is installed, where do you find it? Unlike previous versions on Ubuntu, where clicking on the Ubuntu logo will bring up a list of applications, 11.04 brings up a Search box instead of a huge list. I'm not a fan of it, but this may be easier for some people. Type in "Start" or "Startup" in Search and you should see StartUp-Manager listed first. Click on the icon to launch:
7. StartUp-Manager will perform a few tasks in the background, basically scan and create a list of items you can configure for boot options:
8. Once StartUp-Manager is done polling the system for the information it needs, you can toggle the choices to your liking. In the sample below, I chose to shorten the Timeout to 5 from the original 10 seconds. I also chose to have Windows 7 as the Default Operating System. I'm not the only one using this PC, after all. And the wife prefers Windows 7 still. Everything else was pretty much left to the default values. After you're done, just click on the Close button:
9. StartUp-Manager will do the editing of boot options in the background:
10. Reboot and check to see if the options you set are to your liking. Just repeat the process of launching StartUp-Manager and clicking on different choices if you feel the need to change anything.
