Windows Vista Boot Manager - BCDedit
The familiar boot.ini file of previous Windows versions has been replaced in Windows Vista with a new boot file called BCDedit. It is unfortunate that, unlike, boot.ini the BCDedit file is not the easiest of files to actually edit. Some would say that the boot.ini file was a nightmare, well BCDedit is absolutely horrendous.
For more information on the Vista Boot manager visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/85cd5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af778.mspx
While for the more knowledgeable editing the BCDedit file will not cause many major headaches, for those that are reluctant to enter the Command Line arena there is a more user friendly substitute in the guise of Vista Boot Pro (http://www.vistabootpro.org/ ).