Hello! The BIOS (UEFI) is a very important part of the computer and somewhat unknown to many users. It is as important as the RAM or the motherboard. That’s why today we are going to learn how we can access it from our Windows 10 or 11. There are many parts of the computer that we probably don’t know or that we have vaguely heard about somewhere, without understanding exactly what it was. That usually happens with the BIOS, a part of the PC that many people have never entered. As a result, they don’t know what exactly it does. It’s a tricky part of the system and without knowledge it can even be a bit dangerous. For that reason we should always be careful what we select if we are inside.
What exactly is the BIOS?
We are talking about low-level software that is embedded on the computer’s motherboard. Its main mission is to check that all the PC hardware is working properly. By entering the BIOS we can customize everything about the operation of the PC. In addition, we can perform tasks such as enabling XMP profiles to change the RAM speed, boot from a disk or USB drive as well as overclocking.
In recent times the BIOS has been renamed to UEFI. Consequently, adding new features, although colloquially it is still colloquially called BIOS, even though it is not really BIOS anymore. There are several ways to log in from Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating systems, which we are going to start talking about right now.
Log on when turning on the computer
We can enter the BIOS when we start the computer and the manufacturer’s logo is displayed. Consequently, we must press a key when we are in that computer startup screen and thus make the BIOS visible. Normally, it is indicated at the bottom of the screen when and which key to press. Generally, the F2, Del, F4 or F8 keys usually work to enter the BIOS. However, this is not always the case. Therefore, it is good to check to see which one the system starts up with.
Of course, sometimes we do not visualize which key to press. It may be that the letters pass too fast or you can’t locate it where it says so. In such a case it may be that you have Fast Boot enabled in the BIOS or Windows Fast Startup mode. If with this method you have not been able to access the BIOS, we show you others that will surely be easier to perform or at least more intuitive.
Login from Windows
To be able to enter the BIOS from Windows we have several ways that we are going to see right now. You will see how easy it is to access from Windows, you only have to do the following:
- We enter the Windows Start menu.
- Now we must click on the Start button, that one that we pressed before giving to the one to turn off the system.
- At that moment we will see the options that always leave us that are Sleep, Restart or Shutdown.
- At that moment we must maintain pressed the Shift key and then click on Restart.
Another options
As we mentioned, there are other ways to access the BIOS, if you don’t like the one we have shown you. One such alternative is as follows:
- We enter the start menu.
- At that moment we click on Update & System, and then click on Recovery.
- Now that we are in Recovery we will see how inside Recovery Options. Accordingly, there is a function called Advanced Startup that has a button that says Restart Now. Please click on it so that the computer resets and we can enter the BIOS.
Whichever method you use, you will see a blue screen with multiple options appear in front of you. Now just follow these steps and you will be able to enter the BIOS:
- We go to Troubleshooting.
- Then we must click on Advanced Options.
- The next thing is to click on UEFI Firmware Configuration.
If we do not see the UEFI Firmware Configuration option, there are two possible explanations. The first is that the computer we are using does not have UEFI, which is quite likely if it is old. Consequently, it will have a BIOS in the classic sense. The second possibility is that the motherboard does have UEFI, but Windows 10 boots from a drive that was partitioned using MBR and not GPT. If this is the case, it is the MBR system that will force UEFI to use a legacy BIOS mode, making it impossible to access from Windows.
Access from the command prompt
We can also access the BIOS from the command prompt in a quite simple way. These are the steps to follow if you want to use this other option that we present to you:
- We enter the start menu and in the part where it allows us to write we put CMD and as soon as it detects it we must enter the command prompt, but pressing Run as Administrator.
- Once inside the command prompt we must type shutdown /r /fw in the command prompt window and press Enter.
- You should now see a screen informing you that your PC will shut down in less than a minute.
- We can also type shutdown /r /fw /t at the command prompt to eliminate the waiting period and reboot instantly.
If after doing this you get a message that says The firmware of this system does not support the bootable user interface in the firmware, it means that the motherboard does not have UEFI or there is an MBR partition. These are the ways we have in Windows 10 and Windows 11 to get into the BIOS or UEFI. As you will see it is all very simple so it does not have a great complication to get it. Very well, it has been a pleasure to show you how to access the BIOS from Windows. See you later
