Always prompt for Boot Device on Startup?

Question

I have a MacBook where I have to dual boot Windows and OS X. When I hold the Option Key on startup, I get the nice "Select Boot Device" screen.

Is there a way to permanently enable this, so that I don't have to remember to hold option every time I restart?

Senseful · Accepted Answer · 2011-02-20 07:42:21Z

5

One way to do this is to install a boot loader such as rEFIt.

This will present you with a menu similar to the following when you start up your computer:

enter image description here

answered Feb 20, 2011 at 7:42

Senseful

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3

That seemed like a mighty large stone to kill a very small bird, but it works fine :)
– Michael Stum
Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 16:04
1

Since rEFIt is no longer under active development, consider using rEFInd (rodsbooks.com/refind) - it is a fork of rEFIt.
– Hanzaplastique
Commented Jul 20, 2018 at 15:52

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dgatwood · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-06 04:07:53Z

2

On Intel-based Macs, this supposedly works (unverified):

sudo nvram manufacturing-enter-picker=true

Note that this reportedly is not supported on ARM-based Macs.

answered Nov 6, 2021 at 4:07

dgatwood

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Good find! There are some other nvram options for booting to recovery etc documented here : mrmacintosh.com/…
– lx07
Commented Nov 6, 2021 at 17:40

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2 Answers 2