I've dual boot with Windows 7 and 8.1. It worked fine. Recently I've repaired Windows 8.1 boot problem with Win 8.1 DVD. Now Windows 8.1 directly opens without dual boot menu. But when I restart, the boot menu comes and works fine.
Windows 8.1 dual boot menu is nice to look with some great options. I don't want to change it. So I don't like 3rd party apps. Yes Carlos Detweiller. My windows 8.1 boots and shuts down within few second.
First, EasyBCD is a tool to conveniently work on the original Microsoft BCD. Only the editor itself is third-party. Second, FastBoot is a partial Hibernation and may not go well with Dualboot. When you reboot, FastBoot does not apply and thus your bootmenu shows up. That's why you will most probably have to disable FastBoot to get the bootmenu after shutdowns as well.
Try going into your win81 and run "bcdboot c:\windows" in admin prompt. It should fix any bcd/multi-boot issues you're having. That's for the blue win81 multi-boot menu. If you want the old-school black with white letters menu you run it from win7.
I had some problems with Primary partitions recently to set dual-boot (Windows 7 and Windows 8.1), and now I use only Windows 7, sometimes I use Windows 8.1.
Really the great solution I wanted exactly. Very nice command. Thanks murphy78, thanks all. "bcdboot c:\windows"
AFAIK It's always better to use third party boot manager then to use M$, when two version of the stuff get together most of the time they do not play well.