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Switching to Windows without System Pref

SDAVE

SDAVE

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 16, 2007
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Is there a way to switch to Windows without going through System Prefs ? Im on a Mac Pro 2019 with a wireless magic keyboard and holding down Option does not show the Windows partition.

If I use a wired keyboard it does show up.
 
back in the day I used Refit for that, it is a configurable boot manager. Not sure if it’s still a thing or if there is a current equivalent, but it might be worth a search.
 
barbu said:
back in the day I used Refit for that, it is a configurable boot manager. Not sure if it’s still a thing or if there is a current equivalent, but it might be worth a search.
Click to expand...

I think thats available but it modifies the EFI no?

I'd like something native and don't want to connect a wired keyboard
 
SDAVE said:
Is there a way to switch to Windows without going through System Prefs ? Im on a Mac Pro 2019 with a wireless magic keyboard and holding down Option does not show the Windows partition.

If I use a wired keyboard it does show up.
Click to expand...

I have a similar problem with a Logitech keyboard, if I just hold the normal (left) Option key down. However, if I toggle between the two Option keys (hold down the left, hold down the right while letting go of the left, hold down the left while letting go of the right, with about a second between each toggle) for five or six cycles, and then keep the left key down till the drives show up it works for me.
 
Just bumping this thread, has anyone figured out a way to do this?

Tools like BootChamp don't work anyomre.
 
Don't know what kind of keyboard you have, but with an Apple Magic Keyboard, if you plug it into the Mac with the cable then it will become a wired USB keyboard and not use Bluetooth. Or at least, that's the way mine works.
 
Boyd01 said:
Don't know what kind of keyboard you have, but with an Apple Magic Keyboard, if you plug it into the Mac with the cable then it will become a wired USB keyboard and not use Bluetooth. Or at least, that's the way mine works.
Click to expand...
I have a magic keyboard 2 (space gray) and when i use the wired connection (lightning) it still doesnt work.

However I have another wired keyboard (old Apple one) and holding down Option does work.

It seems that on the Mac Pro 2019 bluetooth drivers arent loaded before the EFI screen loads
 
That's interesting. I also have a Space Grey Magic Keyboard. When plugged into my 2018 Mini via USB, I can turn off bluetooth and it still works. I just leave it plugged in now, because I sometimes had problems logging in wirelessly. I guess there's something different about the startup sequence on the Mac Pro?

BTW, there was a lot of confusion about versions of the Magic Keyboard in another thread. System Report says I have a "Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad". According to this, the Magic Keyboard 2 is the one with touch ID that was released in 2021 and is not available in space grey.
 
Boyd01 said:
That's interesting. I also have a Space Grey Magic Keyboard. When plugged into my 2018 Mini via USB, I can turn off bluetooth and it still works. I just leave it plugged in now, because I sometimes had problems logging in wirelessly. I guess there's something different about the startup sequence on the Mac Pro?

BTW, there was a lot of confusion about versions of the Magic Keyboard in another thread. System Report says I have a "Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad". According to this, the Magic Keyboard 2 is the one with touch ID that was released in 2021 and is not available in space grey.
Click to expand...

My bad I meant the Magic Keyboard Wireless with numpad space gray (its discontinued now). I havent tried Magic Keyboard 2 (with numpad + touch ID, which the latter isnt supported on the Mac Pro.

Its also interesting that you disable BT and when its wired it works, I will give that a shot, not that I want to use it wired forever.

bogdanw said:
OSXDaily - Make an Intel Mac Boot Directly to Startup Manager
https://osxdaily.com/2021/02/26/make-intel-mac-boot-startup-manager/
Code: 
sudo nvram manufacturing-enter-picker=true
Click to expand...

This is great, thanks for the heads up. Just tried this and it works, and switching to =false resets it back and also can reset nvram with nvram -c in terminal to get rid of it completely.

What is weird is if I hold CMD+R it goes into recovery mode with no issue, but not holding option. It might be some kind of bug on Apple's side and I doubt they'll ever fix it.

I think this may be the solution I was looking for thanks so much!
 
Last edited:
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SDAVE said:
This is great, thanks for the heads up. Just tried this and it works, and switching to =false resets it back and also can reset nvram with nvram -c in terminal to get rid of it completely.
Click to expand...
Read the value
Code: 
nvram manufacturing-enter-picker

Set/modify
Code: 
sudo nvram manufacturing-enter-picker=true

Delete
Code: 
sudo nvram -d manufacturing-enter-picker
 
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SDAVE said:
Its also interesting that you disable BT and when its wired it works, I will give that a shot, not that I want to use it wired forever.
Click to expand...

Yours is the same keyboard I have. It actually works fine with Bluetooth in general usage, the problem is that when I first power up the computer the keyboard sometimes isn't "awake" yet (apparently) and it will "eat" the first character when I type the password. So I got in the habit of typing a couple random characters before pressing the power button on the Mac to "wake it up" in advance.

I just got tired of doing that, and leaving it plugged in cures the problem. Then there was a time when the battery was low and my logins failed even though the computer was receiving characters (apparently there was garbage). I almost reached the threshold of login attempts before realizing what was going on. That finally convinced me to stop using Bluetooth. I mean, it's a desktop computer right next to the keyboard, there's really no point in wireless (although it saves a USB port).

Glad you found a fix for your problem.
 
Boyd01 said:
Yours is the same keyboard I have. It actually works fine with Bluetooth in general usage, the problem is that when I first power up the computer the keyboard sometimes isn't "awake" yet (apparently) and it will "eat" the first character when I type the password. So I got in the habit of typing a couple random characters before pressing the power button on the Mac to "wake it up" in advance.

I just got tired of doing that, and leaving it plugged in cures the problem. Then there was a time when the battery was low and my logins failed even though the computer was receiving characters (apparently there was garbage). I almost reached the threshold of login attempts before realizing what was going on. That finally convinced me to stop using Bluetooth. I mean, it's a desktop computer right next to the keyboard, there's really no point in wireless (although it saves a USB port).

Glad you found a fix for your problem.
Click to expand...

How about trying to shake the mouse a little bit before typing in your password?
 
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Yeah, I did that and it also works to tap the shift key a few times. But I just got tired of that kind of nonsense. There's really no point in a wireless keyboard when it sits less than a foot away from the computer (although it does free up a USB port).
 
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Boyd01 said:
Yeah, I did that and it also works to tap the shift key a few times. But I just got tired of that kind of nonsense. There's really no point in a wireless keyboard when it sits less than a foot away from the computer (although it does free up a USB port).
Click to expand...

Same issue with my wireless mechanical keyboard on a Windows machine.
I finally gave up and turn it to a wired keyboard permanently.
 
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bogdanw said:
Read the value
Code: 
nvram manufacturing-enter-picker

Set/modify
Code: 
sudo nvram manufacturing-enter-picker=true

Delete
Code: 
sudo nvram -d manufacturing-enter-picker
Click to expand...

Just revisiting this.

Is there a way to make macOS the default OS so after like 10 seconds it boots into it?

Am curious because "manufacturing-enter-picker=true" only shows the menu and there's idle time and forces you to make a selection rather than giving you a window time to choose an OS and then boot into the default one.

I'm kind of struggling with this overall, right now I am not using these commands and just doing it old school Sys Pref > Boot.
 
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