Changing Default Option in Grub Boot Loader

linux

For a while now, I have dual booted my PC with Linux and Windows 10. Windows came first so when I added Linux, that was made the default option. That was OK for a while, but the siren song of Microsoft and many of my favourite applications came beckoning so I wanted to make Windows my default option again. But how? As with many things, there are various ways, but this is the simplest and requires no installation of applications.

  1. Start your PC and pay close attention to where Windows is on the list of options. In my case, it was in 5th position.
  2. Choose Linux as your option.
  3. Open up a terminal and change to the directory: /etc/default
  4. Edit the file grub with your favourite editor, as root.
 
> sudo vi grub
  • Change the line which reads: DEFAULT=0 to use the position number of your Windows option (bear in mind it is zero-based, meaning the count starts from 0). In my case, Windows was option 5 so I used the number 4.
  • Save and exit the file.
  • Now update the grub loader with the following command:
  
> sudo update-grub

That’s it. Restart your PC and all should be changed.

Hi! Did you find this useful or interesting? I have an email list coming soon, but in the meantime, if you ready anything you fancy chatting about, I would love to hear from you. You can contact me here or at stephen ‘at’ logicalmoon.com