Alternatives to rEFIt for all platforms with any license

  • GRUB

    GNU GRUB is a multiboot boot loader. It was derived from GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, which was originally designed and implemented by Erich Stefan Boleyn. ...

    Free Open Source Mac OS X Windows Linux BSD Solaris ... OpenSolaris

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    GRUB icon

  • EasyBCD

    EasyBCD is NeoSmart Technologies multiple award-winning answer to tweaking Windows bootloader. With EasyBCD, almost anything is possible, e.g. to boot a Win7-VHD-image....

    Free Personal Windows

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    EasyBCD icon

  • Grub Customizer

    Grub Customizer is a graphical interface to configure the GRUB2/BURG settings and menuentries.

    Free Open Source Linux

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    Grub Customizer icon

  • rEFInd

    rEFInd is a fork of the rEFIt boot manager for computers based on the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and Unified EFI (UEFI).

    Free Mac OS X Windows Linux

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    rEFInd icon

  • GRUB for DOS

    GRUB for DOS is an universal boot loader based on GNU GRUB. It can boot various OSes (some directly, some using their standard boot managers) on different media (HDD...

    Free Open Source Mac OS X Windows Linux

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    GRUB for DOS icon

  • Grub2Win

    Safely dual boot Windows and Linux without touching the Windows MBR. Grub2Win installs to Windows 8, Windows 7, XP, 2000 or Vista. It boots native, open source GNU...

    Free Open Source Windows Linux

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    Grub2Win icon

  • EasyUEFI

    Manage EFI/UEFI Boot Options & Manage EFI System Partitions & Fix EFI/UEFI Boot Issues.

    Freemium Windows

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  • BootIt Bare Metal

    BootIt Bare Metal is a boot manager and partition manager software utility. Whither you want to do non-destructive repartitioning or boot multiple operating systems...

    Commercial Windows

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    BootIt Bare Metal icon

  • Chameleon Bootloader

    Chameleon is a boot loader for Mac OS X. It seems that standard boot loaders for Mac OS X either lack many cool features, or have many cool features, but are...

    Free Open Source Mac OS X Windows Linux

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    Chameleon Bootloader icon

  • OSL2000 Boot Manager

    OSL2000 is an advanced multi boot manager. Using OSL2000 boot manager, you can directly install, boot and manage upto 100 independent OSs in your computer.

    Commercial Windows

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    OSL2000 Boot Manager icon

  • DualBootPRO

    A boot editor for the Windows 7/Vista bootloader. Takes the pain out of BCDEDIT. The logical and easy to use DualBootPRO interface makes it easy for both the novice...

    Commercial Windows

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    DualBootPRO icon

  • gummiboot

    gummiboot is a simple UEFI boot manager which executes configured EFI images. The default entry is selected by a configured pattern (glob) or an on-screen menu. ...

    Free Open Source Mac OS X Windows Linux Chrome OS BSD

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    gummiboot icon
    • Discontinued In May 2015, gummiboot was fully integrated into systemd to form its systemd-boot component that serves as a UEFI boot manager. Following this action, the source code repository of gummiboot was emptied out in July 2015. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gummiboot_(software)

  • VMLite VBoot

    VBoot allows you to boot a physical computer from a single virtual disk file in VHD/VMDK/VDI/Raw format. Each file contains a single operating system. It supports...

    Commercial Windows Linux

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    VMLite VBoot icon

Platforms

Desktop

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License

rEFIt Comments

Good and bad at the same time

Comment by mikemabey
about rEFIt and GRUB · Nov 2011 · Helpful Not helpful Report as spam

While rEFIt helps you be able to boot to multiple OSs with a nice GUI, it does cause one major problem: It completely disables the ability to control the screen brightness in Windows and Linux. As discussed at length in this thread, so many people have had problems with this. While multiple workarounds have been devised for distinct models with varying video cards, almost invariably, those that posted to the forum that are using rEFIt were able to trace things back to it being the source.

A great alternative is GRUB. Tried and true, it may not be as sexy looking, and it may be a little more of a challenge to get it to operate as the system's default boot manager, but it is definitely a good alternative to the problems caused by rEFIt.

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