Everyone knows the basic inside specifications of their PC/laptop like RAM, GPU, CPU, etc, but in this age of technology, this minimum knowledge is not sufficient. You must be familiar with your device from its core, from the integral machinery to the various functionalities that it possesses.
There is a very useful program in every PC/laptop regardless of the company/brand, whose existence is known by everyone, but still, they have to google it for how to enter this program. This program is known as the BIOS - Basic Input Output System or also known as BOOT MENU.
BIOS is a firmware used to initialize hardware during the booting process and provide runtime services for the operating systems and programs. BIOS is also referred to as UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. It is very much helpful for the device as it simplifies the boot process by establishing communication between system devices such as storage drives, display, keyboard, etc. It also tells the device from which storage drive to boot from. Apart from this, the BIOS menu provides several other key functionalities like changing the boot order, disabling ports, overclocking the device, setting a system password, changing Windows, and much more.
To enter the BIOS setup/menu, we have many different methods available. But here we'll talk about the most basic ones.
Method 1: Using the Boot menu key or the BIOS key
The BIOS or the boot menu is installed at the time of manufacturing. So the manufacturer defines a primary hotkey for the purpose, which is pressed during the boot-up process to enter the BIOS.
Depending upon the brand, here is the list of the most common BIOS keys.
- HP: Esc or F10
- Dell: F2 or F12
- Acer: F2 or DEL
- Asus: F2 or DEL
- Lenovo: F2 or Fn + F2
- Lenovo Desktops/PC: F1
- Lenovo Thinkpads: Enter + F1
- Toshiba: F2
- Microsoft Surface Tablets: Press and hold the volume-UP button
- Samsung: F2
- Sony: F1, F2, or F3
- MSI: DEL for motherboards and PCs
- Origin PC: F2
If you fail to press your assigned hot-key at the exact time of boot up. Your window will load, and then you have to try it again by switching off your PC/laptop.
So to avoid this, I recommend you to continuously keep on pressing the assigned BIOS key when you switch on your system(when the screen lights up). This will help you to enter the BIOS setup on the very first try.
Also, keep in mind that the BIOS setup utility interface may vary depending upon the brand.
Method 2: Using the Windows 10 Advanced Start Up Menu
Some Systems have very less boot time, and pressing any hotkey becomes even more difficult, So another way to enter/access the boot menu without restarting your system is using the Advanced start-up menu available in Windows 10.
To access the boot menu, follow the listed steps.
Step 1: Go to the 'Settings' panel in Windows 10
Step 2: After opening the 'Settings' Window, head to the 'Update & Security tab
Step 3: Then click on the 'Recovery' tab
Step 4: Then under the 'Advanced Start-up' menu, hit the 'Restart now' button.
This will boot your device to the Advanced Start-up Window
Step 5: After restarting the following window will appear, saying to 'choose an option. Now select the 'Troubleshoot' tab
Step 6: Now under the Troubleshoot tab, select the 'Advanced Options'
Step 7: Now select the 'UEFI Firmware Settings' tab
Step 8: Now click the 'restart' Button, this will reboot your system and you'll enter the BIOS.
I have an HP Elitebook, so this is the start-up menu, which leads to BIOS.
This interface may vary from brand to brand. But the steps to reach here, are the same as mentioned above in the post.
Important Note: Before making any changes in the BIOS think twice as any wrong step, can spoil your system.
Also, read [How to turn off active status on Facebook]