Setting Windows as default after installing Jolicloud

I have played with Jolicloud a bit on my computer, and I like it.  I would not be upset at all if stores started selling netbooks with Jolicloud preinstalled.

For those of you who do not know what Jolicloud is, it is a light, linux-based operating system that is mostly cloud-based.  Most of the applications actually run in the web browser. While this means you need to be connected to the internet to use it, it also means that netbooks with built-in 3G or 4G internet access will need much smaller hard drives, and documents saved in Jolicloud can be accessed anywhere with internet access.

To make it easier to try, Jolicloud offers a Windows installer, which creates a bootable disk image and adds it to the Windows boot menu. All you have to do to use Jolicloud is reboot.  If you don’t like it, boot back into Windows and uninstall it from the Add/Remove Programs menu.

The problem with this is Jolicloud sets itself as the default OS when you install it this way.  Most people trying Jolicloud probably do not like this, since they are likely more used to Windows, and they do not want to have to manually select Windows when they want to use it, and would rather have Windows boot automatically with an option to boot Jolicloud instead, not the other way around.

Jolicloud does not make it easy to switch the default back to Windows.  However, I do.  Here is how to do it in Windows Vista or Windows 7 in 3 easy steps:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator
   ** To do this quickly, press the Start button, type cmd then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER. Select “Yes” in the User Account Control Dialog.  If you have UAC disabled, just run the command prompt normally.
2. type bcdedit /default {current} then press ENTER
   ** You can copy the command above to the clipboard, then paste it in the Command Prompt window by right-clicking, then clicking Paste (CTRL+V does not work in the command prompt).
3. type exit then press ENTER, or click the close button.

Next time you reboot the computer, it will give you until the count of 5 to select Jolicloud. If you don’t, Windows will start.  If you want a shorter (or longer) countdown, then follow these 3 easy steps:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator
2. type bcdedit /timeout # (where # is the number of seconds you want the countdown to last) then press ENTER
3. type exit then press ENTER, or click the close button.

If you want to set Jolicloud as default again, that’s a little bit more complicated:

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator
2. type bcdedit then press ENTER. Look for something towards the bottom that says “Real-mode Boot Sector” and lists “Jolicloud” as the desctiption.
3. right-click, then click “Mark”. Click and drag to highlight the listed identifier, including the curly brackets.  Note that this identifier is randomly-generated and will be different on your computer. Press ENTER to copy this to the clipboard.
4. type bcdedit /default then right-click and choose “paste”. Press ENTER.
5. type exit then press ENTER, or click the close button.

And now you have the default OS you want!  Doing this in XP is very different, so I’ll put up those instructions a bit later.