How to reimage machine with Windows Boot Manager enabled?

Question

I was notified by a user that they could not get into their device as it was previously used and managed by another technician that worked in a separate department.

It was not connected to our Azure Active Directory to use any other accounts to log in and we tried using a local admin password that did not work, I even tried to add an admin from the command line which was unsuccessful.

I was unable to get into the device so as per normal internal practice I reimaged the device. The device only had "Windows Boot Manager" listed twice when trying to change the boot device, I then changed the boot setting to legacy and upon trying to reimage the device it failed numerous times with our internal image. I then imaged the device using a basic Windows10 windows installation media as it also refused to do a basic Windows11 installation. While trying to install Windows 10 I could not use any of the available partitions, so I reformatted the drive from GPT to MBR. I am now trying to upgrade it to Windows 11 as required by internal company policy, but I cannot as secure boot will not work without being on UEFI and it will not boot to the installed OS without being on Legacy boot to boot from the SSD. Are there any straightforward instructions on how to reimage the device using our networked image (it is started by using a USB drive and connected to an open ethernet port) using Windows Boot Manager? It looks like I will have to change the format back to GPT to use Windows boot manager to enable secure boot.

It is required when we image devices to turn secure boot off which we can reenable after the fact. We use our own image as it automatically joins devices to Azure AD which allows fully company resource functionality.

I want to reformat the drive back to GPT then image the device using our work image off of a USB stick and an ethernet connection while the boot device is set to windows boot manager. Is this possible and if so, how can I do this?

Was guided to put this question on this forum but I do not believe this is the correct forum as it is a hardware issue directly related to a specific device.

Answer 1

Hello there,

You could try to Disable Boot Manager via Command Line and see if that helps.

In single-OS systems, it’s usually better to disable Windows Boot Manager. Unless you’ve made multiple boot entries from a single OS, all it does is make the boot process longer for no reason.

Hope this resolves your Query !!

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer--