Boot-US vs Visor Boot Manager

Boot-US is a boot manager for x86 machines that lets you start existing operating systems independently, including multiple separate Windows systems. It supports both BIOS and UEFI booting and works with MBR and GPT disks of any size. The package has a graphical configuration program for Windows and command-line versions for Windows and 64-bit Linux. It also includes tools to inspect partition details, hide partitions, and back up or restore disks and partitions. The site lists version 4.2.4, including a Linux 64-bit command-line version and a service for restoring UEFI variables when Windows starts or shuts down. SHA256 values are listed for that version’s downloads. The non-licensed package is free for private PCs and public schools, and can be tried for one month. Commercial use requires a license after the trial. Listed licenses are one-time payments, starting at €24.50 for one PC; some password protection functions require a version 4 license. The license page says the software is provided without warranty and used at the user’s own risk.

Visor Boot Manager is a graphical UEFI boot manager for Linux and Windows EFI programs. It can start Linux EFI-stub kernels and Unified Kernel Images, or chainload other EFI executables, including Windows. With no configuration, it detects Windows, kernels, UKIs, and BLS or OSTree deployments, and can derive a root command line automatically. Its menu supports themes, icons, animations, wallpaper accent colors, mouse and touch input, and live USB hotplug. For alternate boot states, it supports Btrfs, Snapper, Timeshift, and plain snapshots, along with OSTree deployment browsing and automatic rollback. Visor also supports encrypted boot artifacts and a single-password LUKS handoff. Secure Boot verification works through shim, and the installer supports sbctl signing. The bootloader is one approximately 340 KB EFI binary, without external dependencies or a scripting language. It builds for x86_64 and AArch64 and can be built from source or installed from the Arch User Repository. It uses the BSD 2-Clause license and is free at free. Visor requires UEFI hardware and does not support legacy BIOS.