Quickly Add Windows 10 to Grub Menu After Installing Ubuntu

After a recent malware attack in my Windows 10 PC, I was unable to use it for many days. So this time I decided to install both Windows 10 and Ubuntu 16.04.3 in the dual boot configuration, so that if Windows fails to boot, I can still access all my files using the Ubuntu. And of course, you can always use the powerful Ubuntu Linux on the same PC any time you want. But after installing Ubuntu 16.04.3 on the Windows 10 PC, I found no way to use Windows 10 as the Ubuntu setup somehow failed to add the Windows entry to the Grub menu.

If you are also experiencing a similar problem then you can quickly fix this problem using just two commands. Here is how:

  1. Boot into Ubuntu (well, there is no other option at the moment but to boot into Ubuntu).
  2. Press Ctrl + Alt + T to open the terminal window.
  3. In the terminal window type the following command: sudo os-prober and press Enter.Add Windows to Grub Menu
  4. If you see it detect Windows 10 then all you have to do is type the command sudo update-grub and press Enter. It will add new entries to the grub menu and update it. Now you can reboot your PC and you will see options to boot into Windows.

However, if you do not see the Windows 10 detected after issuing the sudo os-prober command, then you will have to use some extra steps. We have already posted about boot-repair utility that can be used from within Linux to fix most of the boot problems. You can read more about the boot-repair utility from how to restore Ubuntu Linux after re-installing Windows. This tool should be enough to fix the problems and you will never need any of the commands to be used manually or to edit the grub menu by yourself.

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