Windows 7 Keeps Changing the MBR on boot

I am having an issue with Windows 7 changing the boot order everytime I start up.

I have 4 partitions:

  • boot
  • linux
  • windows.

Grub is installed on the boot, and boots up both operating systems fine, however when I boot to Windows the bootable partition is changed to Windows and the MBR is rewritten.

How do I stop this? Its rather annoying to have to boot, chroot and fix this problem everytime.

I also don't want to use the Windows boot select.


Something is restoring the Windows boot sector to the MBR. Could it be system restore, or anti-virus software?

Or could it be Adobe?

There was an article in "2006 - The Hacker Quarterly", describing a very similar issue, and this was caused by Adobe's latest software protection. If this sounds likely then have a look for the article "Hey Adobe! Leave My Boot Loader Alone!", published in the Winter 2009-2010 edition. (I'll paste a URL link here if found).


I had the "makeactive" option in grub and apparently when Win7 sees that it is the active partition it latches on.