Boot to UEFI Mode or legacy BIOS mode

Choose UEFI or legacy BIOS modes when booting into Windows PE (WinPE) or Windows Setup. After Windows is installed, if you need to switch firmware modes, you may be able to use the MBR2GPT tool.

In general, install Windows using the newer UEFI mode, as it includes more security features than the legacy BIOS mode. If you’re booting from a network that only supports BIOS, you’ll need to boot to legacy BIOS mode.

After Windows is installed, the device boots automatically using the same mode it was installed with.

To boot to UEFI or BIOS:

Open the firmware menus. You can use any of these methods:

Boot the PC, and press the manufacturer’s key to open the menus. Common keys used: Esc, Delete, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12. On tablets, common buttons are Volume up or Volume down (find more common keys and buttons). During startup, there’s often a screen that mentions the key. If there’s not one, or if the screen goes by too fast to see it, check your manufacturer’s site.

Or, if Windows is already installed, from either the Sign on screen or the Start menu, select Power () > hold Shift while selecting Restart. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware settings.

From the firmware menus, boot to drive or network while in UEFI or BIOS mode:

On the boot device menu, select the command that identifies both the firmware mode and the device. For example, select UEFI: USB Drive or BIOS: Network/LAN.

You might see separate commands for the same device. For example, you might see UEFI USB Drive and BIOS USB Drive. Each command uses the same device and media, but boots the PC in a different firmware mode.

Some devices only support one mode (either UEFI or BIOS). Other devices will only allow you to boot to BIOS mode by manually disabling the UEFI security features. To disable the security features, go to Security > Secure Boot and disable the feature.

Some older PCs (Windows 7-era or earlier) support UEFI, but require you to browse to the boot file. From the firmware menus, look for the option: «Boot from file», then browse to \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI on Windows PE or Windows Setup media.

UEFI and BIOS modes in WinPE

Detect if WinPE is booted into BIOS or UEFI Mode

Query the registry to determine which mode the device is in. You can do this from the command line:

Return code	Firmware mode
0x1	BIOS
0x2	UEFI

Use it in a script:

Note that between delims= and » %%A is a tab, followed by a space.

Make sure you boot into the right mode every time

Here are a couple of ways you can make sure you’re booted into the right firmware mode every time you start your PC.

Use preformatted hard drives, and use a method that doesn’t automatically format the drive.

If you want to ensure that your drive boots into a certain mode, use drives that you’ve preformatted with the GPT file format for UEFI mode, or the MBR file format for BIOS mode. When the installation starts, if the PC is booted to the wrong mode, Windows installation will fail. To fix this, restart the PC in the correct firmware mode.

Remove the UEFI or BIOS boot files

If you want a PC to only boot into a certain mode, you can remove the files that Windows PE or Windows Setup use to boot in UEFI or BIOS mode. Remove the following files, depending on the mode you want to boot to.

Boot only when in UEFI mode

Remove the bootmgr file from the root of the Windows PE or Windows Setup media. This prevents the device from starting in BIOS mode.

Boot only when in BIOS mode

Remove the efi folder from the root of the Windows PE or Windows Setup media. This prevents the device from starting in UEFI mode.

Change the Boot Order in BIOS

A complete tutorial on changing the boot order in BIOS

Changing the boot order of the «bootable» devices on your computer, like your hard drive or bootable media in a USB port (e.g., flash drive), floppy drive, or optical drive, is very easy.

Why Change the Boot Order?

There are several scenarios where it’s necessary to change the boot order, like when launching some data destruction tools and bootable antivirus programs, as well as when installing an operating system.

The BIOS setup utility is where you change boot order settings.

The boot order is a BIOS setting, so it’s operating-system independent. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you have Windows 10, Windows 8, or another Windows version, Linux, or any other PC OS on your hard drive or another bootable device; these boot sequence change instructions will still apply.

How to Change the Boot Order

Follow these steps to change the boot order in BIOS. A change to the boot sequence will change the order in which devices are booted.

Step 1: Turn on or Restart Your Computer

Turn on or restart your computer and watch for a message during the POST about a particular key, usually Del or F2, that you’ll need to press to . enter SETUP. Press this key as soon as you see the message.

Don’t see the SETUP message or can’t press the key fast enough? See our How to Access the BIOS Setup Utility guide for lots of tips and tricks for getting into BIOS.

Step 2: Enter the BIOS Setup Utility

After pressing the correct keyboard command from the previous step, you’ll enter the BIOS Setup Utility.

All BIOS utilities are a little different, so yours may look like this or it may look completely different. No matter how it appears, they’re all basically a set of menus containing many different settings for your computer’s hardware.

In this particular BIOS, the menu options are listed horizontally at the top of the screen, the hardware options are listed in the middle (grey area), and the instructions for how to move around the BIOS and make changes are listed at the bottom.

Using the instructions given for navigating around your BIOS utility, locate the option for changing the boot order. In the example BIOS above, the changes are made under the Boot menu.

Since every BIOS setup utility is different, the specifics on where the boot order options are located varies from computer to computer. The menu option or configuration item might be called Boot Options, Boot, Boot Order, etc. The option may even be located within a general menu like Advanced Options, Advanced BIOS Features, or Other Options.

Step 3: Find the Boot Order Options in BIOS

Locate and navigate to the boot order options in BIOS.

In most BIOS setup utilities, it will look something like the screenshot above.

Any hardware connected to your motherboard that’s able to be booted from—like your hard drive, floppy drive, USB ports, and optical drive—will be listed here.

The order in which the devices are listed is the order in which your computer will look for operating system information—in other words, the «boot order.»

With the order shown above, BIOS will first try to boot from any devices it considers «hard drives,» which usually means the integrated hard drive that’s in the computer.

If no hard drives are bootable, BIOS will next look for bootable media in the CD-ROM drive, next for bootable media that’s attached (like a flash drive), and finally, it will look on the network.

To change which device to boot from first, follow the directions on the BIOS setup utility screen to change the boot order. In our example, it’s changed using the + and — keys.

Remember, your BIOS may have different instructions!

If you’re confident that your BIOS setup is missing a boot order option, consider flashing BIOS to the latest version and checking again.

Step 4: Make Changes to the Boot Order

Next, you’ll make changes to the boot order.

As you can see above, we’ve changed it from Hard Drive shown in the previous step to the CD-ROM Drive as an example.

BIOS will now look for a bootable disc in the optical disc drive first, before trying to boot from the hard drive, and also before trying to boot from any removable media like a floppy drive or flash drive, or a network resource.

Make whatever boot order changes you need and then proceed to the next step to save your settings.

Step 5: Save Your BIOS Changes

Before your preference takes effect, you’ll need to save the BIOS changes you made. To do that, follow the instructions given to you in your BIOS utility to navigate to the Exit or Save and Exit menu.

In this example, we’d choose Exit Saving Changes.

Step 6: Confirm Your Changes

Confirm the changes and exit BIOS. You’ll most likely see a confirmation prompt like below, so you’d select Yes.

This Setup Confirmation message can sometimes be cryptic. The example above is pretty clear but I’ve seen many BIOS change confirmation questions that are so «wordy» that they’re often difficult to understand. Read the message carefully to be sure that you’re actually saving your changes and not exiting without saving changes.

Your boot order changes, and any other changes you may have made while in BIOS, are now saved and your computer will restart automatically.

Step 7: Start the Computer

Start the computer with the new boot order. When your computer restarts, BIOS will attempt to boot from the first device in the order you specified. If the first device isn’t bootable, your computer will try to boot from the second device in the boot order, and so on.

In Step 4, we set the first boot device to the CD-ROM Drive as an example. As you can see in the screenshot above, the computer is attempting to boot from the CD but is asking for a confirmation first. This only happens on some bootable CDs and will not show up when booting to Windows or other operating systems on a hard drive. Configuring the boot order to boot from a disc like a CD, DVD, or BD is the most common reason for making this change, so I wanted to include this screenshot as an example.

How to change Boot order in Windows 10

When your PC boots up, the first thing that loads up is the UEFI Firmware or the BIOS. It does a lot of things which also includes the option to which hardware to use to boot the Windows. If you want to boot from a USB drive or an external drive, you need to change the boot order on Windows 10. The usual default is set to the first hard drive connected to the PC.

Prior to Windows 10, it was possible only by rebooting your PC and then press a unique key like F2 or DEL on your keyboard to get into BIOS. In Windows 10, Microsoft has inbuilt a recovery system that allows you to do many things. One of the options is to boot into BIOS making it a lot easier in case you always miss pressing the key.

In this guide, we will show how you can boot into Windows 10 firmware settings (UEFI/BIOS), and change the boot order easily.

Change Boot Order in Windows 10

Windows 10 Recovery System allows you to get into your UEFI/BIOS settings from the OS and change your boot order. You can choose to boot from a USB drive or DVD Drive. This comes in handy during fresh installation or upgrading using an ISO.

Open Windows Settings > Update & Security > Recovery Advanced Startup and click on Restart now.

This feature lets you:

• Boot Windows from a device or disk (such as a USB drive or DVD).
• Change your PC’s Firmware Settings.
• Configure Windows Startup Settings.
• Restore Windows from a System Image.

When you click on Restart Now, it will reboot your PC, and offer you all these Advanced Options. Click, and wait till you get these options. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced Options. This screen offers further options which include System Restore, Startup repair, Go back to the previous version, Command Prompt, System Image Recovery, and UEFI Firmware Settings.

Select UEFI Firmware Settings, and it will let you restart your PC. Once the computer boots up, it will take you to the Firmware settings.

• Switch to Boot Tab.
• Here you will see Boot Priority which will list connected hard drive, CD/DVD ROM and USB drive if any.
• You can use the arrow keys or + & – on your keyboard to change the order.
• Save and Exit.

Now when you boot it will follow the sequence which you have set in your BIOS or UEFI Firmware Settings.

This comes in very handy when you want to boot from a DVD drive that has Windows 10 Installation files or if you have another Windows installed on a secondary hard disk.

Note: It seems if you have a Bluetooth keyboard, it will not work here. You will need a hard-wired keyboard to navigate and change the options. Also, the touch doesn’t work either.