Do you need to know how to access UEFI (BIOS) on your computer, because you want or need to adjust hardware settings, manage your boot devices, or maybe even overclock your processor? If you’re wondering how to enter BIOS on a Windows 10 device, know that there are several ways to do so. In this tutorial, I’ll show you all the different methods I know for entering the UEFI BIOS on a Windows 10 PC, from using advanced startup settings to command-line shortcuts. So, whether you want to reboot into UEFI or to learn how to enter the BIOS without rebooting, read on to find out the info you need:
NOTE: If you’re not technically inclined, I recommend that you first read this article: What is BIOS? What is UEFI? How are they different?.
Some PCs show the UEFI/BIOS key at boot
Press the specified key as soon as the prompt appears.
Usually, pressing the F2 or Del key at boot open UEFI/BIOS
If you don’t know the correct key or the prompt doesn’t appear, here are common keys used by popular manufacturers:
Go to Update & Security in Windows 10's Settings
Select Recovery in the left sidebar, and click or tap Restart now under Advanced startup, on the right.
Press Restart now under Advanced startup
Windows 10 restarts and takes you to the Choose an option screen. Select Troubleshoot (Reset your PC or see advanced options).
Select Troubleshoot
On the Troubleshoot screen, click or tap Advanced options.
Go to Advanced options
Now, choose UEFI Firmware Settings.
Click or tap UEFI Firmware Settings
Windows 10 now informs you that you have to Restart to change UEFI firmware settings. Press Restart to proceed.
Restart to UEFI BIOS
Your PC will reboot directly into UEFI/BIOS.
Restart while holding down Shift on Windows 10's sign-in screen
Alternatively, you can sign in and then Shift + Restart. While logged in, open the Start Menu and press Shift. While Shift is pressed, use the Restart option from the Power options in the Start Menu.
How to access Windows 10's UEFI/BIOS from the Start Menu
After restarting, Windows 10 displays the blue Advanced startup menu. Go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings, and then press Restart - these steps are illustrated in the previous section of this tutorial. Windows 10 restarts again and takes you to the UEFI/BIOS.
Get into UEFI/BIOS from Windows 10's Run box
If the command above is too long to remember, enter:
Restart into UEFI (BIOS) with a shorter but more time-consuming command
That’s because this time, Windows 10 displays a notification to let you know you are about to be signed out, and you need to wait. It doesn’t instantly execute like the previous command.
Windows 10 shut down notification
After the restart, you are taken to the blue Advanced startup menu. Access Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings, and then press Restart - these steps are detailed in the second section of this tutorial. Windows 10 restarts again and loads the UEFI BIOS.
Shortcut for UEFI (BIOS) in Windows 10
After creating the shortcut, simply double-click or double-tap it. This brings up the Choose an option screen. From there, navigate to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings and click Restart. Your computer reboots, and once it does, it automatically enters the UEFI (BIOS) environment.
Running the command for accessing UEFI/BIOS in Windows 10's CMD
Alternatively, you can also type this command:
Windows 10 informs you that it will shut down
Either way, once Windows 10 restarts and loads the Advanced startup menu, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware Settings, and then press Restart, as detailed in the second section of this tutorial. Your PC, laptop, or tablet restarts, taking you to the UEFI BIOS.
Push Power while holding down the Volume Up button
Then, press and release the Power button. Keep pressing the Volume Up (+) button until you see either the Microsoft or the Surface logo on the screen. Release the button, and the UEFI BIOS is now started on your Surface device.
1. How to open UEFI (BIOS) from boot on a Windows 10 PC
If you want to access UEFI/BIOS from boot (before Windows 10 starts), you can use special keys during your computer’s startup process. This is particularly useful when you can’t boot into Windows. Here’s how to do it: Start or restart your computer. Depending on your device’s make and model, you may see a prompt during startup telling you which key to press to enter BIOS/UEFI (it’s usually F1, F2, F10, ESC, or Delete).- ASUS: F2 or Delete (sometimes, Insert or F10)
- HP: ESC or F10 (in some cases, F1, F2, F6, or F11)
- Dell: F2 or F12 (sometimes, F1, F3, or Delete)
- Acer: F2 or Delete
- Toshiba: F2 (in some cases, F1 or ESC)
- Samsung: F2
- Lenovo: F1 or F2 (sometimes, Fn + F2)
- MSI: Delete
2. How to enter the UEFI/BIOS from Windows 10’s Settings
One of the easiest ways to access UEFI/BIOS is through the Windows 10 Settings app. Here’s how: Open the Settings (Win + I) and access Update & Security.3. How to restart into UEFI/BIOS in Windows 10 (Shift + Restart)
If the previous methods look too complicated, or if you need to access the UEFI (BIOS) without signing into your Windows 10 account, you can use a shortcut to reach it. Hold down Shift on your keyboard, and then click or tap the Restart option from the sign-in screen. While holding the Shift key down, click or tap on the Power button in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and choose Restart in the menu.4. How to open UEFI/BIOS from Windows 10’s Run window
You can also reach UEFI BIOS on your Windows 10 PC, laptop, or tablet from the Run window. There are several ways to access it, but I prefer the Windows + R shortcut. In the Open field, type:shutdown /r /o /f /t 00
…and click/tap OK or press Enter on your keyboard.
shutdown.exe /r /o
However, note that this command takes more time to finalize than the previous one.
5. How to enter UEFI/BIOS from Windows 10 using a shortcut
One of the fastest methods to enter the UEFI (BIOS) on a Windows 10 computer is by creating and using a shortcut. I’ve shown all the necessary steps in a detailed tutorial: Shortcuts for the UEFI BIOS & Windows 10’s Recovery Environment. However, if you’re short on time, here’s a quick summary: create a regular desktop shortcut on your Windows 10 PC and set its target to the command:shutdown /r /o /f /t 00
… the same I’ve already covered in the previous chapter of this guide.
6. How to enter the UEFI (BIOS) from Windows 10’s Command Prompt, PowerShell, or Terminal
If you prefer the Command Prompt or PowerShell, feel free to use the same commands to access UEFI/BIOS with these tools. Open the Command Prompt or PowerShell, and use it to run the command:shutdown /r /o /f /t 00
Your Windows 10 device immediately restarts, and you’re taken to the Advanced startup (Choose an option) screen.
shutdown.exe /r /o
…in Command Prompt or PowerShell, and then press Enter. In this case, Windows 10 displays a brief notification to let you know you are about to be signed out. Take the time to close any unsaved file before your device restarts.
7. How to get to the UEFI firmware settings on a Surface Pro (eligible models)
If you are using a Surface Pro or a Surface Book, there is a simple way to access the UEFI BIOS. First, make sure your Surface device is shut down. Look on its sides to find the Volume Up (+) button, and press-and-hold it.
Discussion (40)
I have a WMP convertible 2 in 1 AVR116T 11.6 inch laptop which displays “Enter Password” upon boot up but I do not have the correct password. I tried the vol+ and power button method as well as del, esc F1 to F12 combinations to get into BIOS/UEFI but unsucessful. This is the laptop.https://youtu.be/f7sxEvvkF5o
Please help.
It’s easier for me to remember cmd switches by name instead of just the letter. I can’t find the /o switch in the Microsoft documentation of the shutdown command. What does it do?
I have a Viglen Connect 8.9″ tablet with windows 10. it went unresponsive at times and as I had not filled it with data I decided to recover it. At 48% it stuck for 24 hours without moving.The message came up “the computer restarted unexpectedly or uncounted an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. Click ok to restart the computer then restart the installation..I did and it stood then came back to the same message. I tried to get into bios but all methods failed as there is no keypad. start and hold volume button either way does not work. ideas please. Stuart
The volume up and power worked perfect. Thanks for the article! Saved my bacon!
Please I have Alcatel plus 10 8085…when I pressed and hold the + volume bottom and the power bottom… but it always send me into the BIOS setup…
I have a HP Pavilion m7 Laptop and when I get to the screen that shows the “Advanced Options”, the option for Start-Up Settings does not show the EUFI listing. It only shows ‘change Windows Start-up Behavior’. I need to see if the Virtual Technology part is ‘enabled’. I can’t get to the screen I need. HELP!!! PLEASE!!
Simple up to the boot part near then end. But I’m a pc dummy so I’ll try again. Excellent step by step actions. Every a monkey can understand. (hey Bonzo, come over here & help me with this).? Thank you.
I have touch windows 8.1 tablet. Asking Hotmail password but touch not working. So I want to do hard restore how to do please advice to me.
THANKS
Or f7 using a keyboard on start up (USB otg adapter)
Any recommendation for Tablet Lenovo Thinkpad 2. The manual shows that i must press and hold Power and Volume + at the same time. However, nothing happened.
Unbranded best buy win 8.1 tablet…Ok, can get to the uefi options and secure boot is off, but cannot get the usb to load anything. Boot override in uefi sees the usb stick but when clicked on flashes and then stay on uefi screen. How do I boot this thing. Any help here?
How did you get in on this Best Buy tablet?
Glazer, I’m assuming your asking how to get to the bios with your unbranded tablet. See Dane’s comment above. You must do it several times and you will know you’ve done it once you see “please wait” instead of the spinning balls of nonsense. As for Linux booting that’s a work in progress. These will boot from USB but only windows or some involved steps you can find on the web to boot specific Linux distro’s. Though there are multiple issues in doing so. Look up Linux on bay trail tablet in web search for instructions
Is there any way to boot a Toshiba Encore A32 that got mis-configured in Win10? I tried all the Restore/Refresh/UEFI/Advanced tabs. I tried calibrating the Touch and the crosshairs weren’t showing up and I saved as far as it went but when it reboots, at the password/PIN screen, when you try it get a cursor in the box you enter your code, it shows a “pressing/print” off the edge of the screen! WHERE YOU PRESS AND WHERE IT SHOWS UP DOES NOT COINCIDE! I CAN’T GET THE KB TO POP UP, and when it did, the keys activated were not the keys pressed! For example, I press the spacebar and the DEL key lights up! Or the CAPS LOCK lights up!
Can this be corrected with an OTG adapter & a USB mouse? I think Bluetooth is turned off.
Any Ideas?
Anyone know a way to let me send an enter keypress using a laptop to send that command to a windows tablet stuck in resume loader?
If anyone could help.
I have an ASUS Vivo Tab with Windows 8.1. When I turn it on it goes to the Bios Setup screen and does not leave no matter what I do.
Any idea on what to do?
Yes, but how to let appear Access Advanced Startup Options if I can’t login in my local account? I did only once by chance and now I can’t anymore.
I haveencore wt 8 toshiba bios 1.60 ec version 1.1
i had delete all disk and partition. i tried install from usb bootstick , but doesnt recognized by toshiba with error message “no boot device.Oress any key”. What can I do?
I also own a Toshiba Encore tablet and from my experience, UEFI can be accessed by pressing vol.+ and I/O both in the same time, while the tablet is off.This rule is available for Encore : WT-7 102, WT-10 32,WT-10 102,Encore
2: WT-7 B, WT-8 A/B(both variants 102,32) same goes for WT-10 A.
I hope I brought usefull information!
Can anyone help please??! I have a Surface and today when I turned it on it says ‘Your PC has ran into a problem, checking for errors and will restart..etc’ it then says ‘preparing automatic repair’ but nothing ever happens and it just goes back in a loop and back to the original message.
I have tried the Volume + while pressing power button but it still doesn’t access any menus. Any idea how I can get into some kind of menu to try to sort the problem??
can publisher fix this problem by remote computer ? but I can’t connect my tablet to network.
if it’s not possible so I preface tell me solution step by step .
I have the same problem. Did you ever figure it out.
“” windows could not complete the installation. to install windows on this computer, Restart the installation…
1st Problem –
THIS MASSAGE DISPLAYED AFTER MOTHER BOARD and WINDOWS LOGO EVERY TIME WHEN I TRY TO BOOT MY I BALL WQ32 WINDOWS 8.1 TABLET.. IF YOU PRESS OK KEY THEN RESTART THE TABLET AND ONCE AGAIN SHOWS ABOVE MASSAGE.
2nd problem is I can’t access BIOS due to press SHIFT+F12 OR UNKNOWN REASON.
SYSTEM CONFUGRATION –
2GB DDR3 RAM , 1GB GRAPHIC CARD, 16GB INTERNEL STORAGE, INTEL ATOM Z3735Z PROSESSER, 5MP REAR AND 2MP FRONT CAMERA, 8″ multi touch display,
PRE INSTALLED WINDOWS8.1 BUT ACTIVATED WITH MY PERSNOL MICROSOT ACCOUNT.
COMPANY NOT GIVEN ME ANY MEDA LIKE CD ROM OR USB FLASH DRIVE.. I AM NOT CREATED ANY RECORY DRIVE ALSO.
I expect all of my friend help me to solve my problem.
what about dell venue 8 pro , how to access , bois with button way .
my Fujitsu only loads up as far as he login.Once I logged in there is only a black screen.I can only shut it down using the button.there are no icons of any kind.I have an IOBIT repair disc but as the screen is black no idea how to open it.The only thing I can get to start up is taskmaster ,first is says no apps are running.then pushing details it ay’s apps1,background processes s.when pointing to one to open the file Microsoft message”file not found?”
Then I ask open new task,chrome opens and i can get online.All my offline files seem empty,corrupted or lying,antivirus,firewall all seem ok but are actually not working.I am a single mum this pc is my lifeline,As a isabled person it is my window on the world,please ,please can you help me fix it?
Sorry about any bad spelling but I have been t this for 48 hours.
rspect
Mojca
My unbranded Best Buy 10.1 Windows tablet will boot to to the “Choose an option” screen by holding +volume button and start button for a couple seconds and then waiting to release +volume until the screen says “wait” with UB logo and goes dark. Then you get the screen that lets you use all the options
I have Linx7 tab. and his booting to efi shell and do not react to keyboard…. Maybe somebody know what i can do?
More understanding of the “get into the bios” with windows 8.1 pre-installed subject matter.
With windows 8.1 preinstalled on a L55-B Toshiba laptop, to get into bios when the pc is powered off, need to shift+shutdown so does not use fast boot during the next boot.
(can likely accomplish this also by making the permanent changes mentioned earlier regarding fast boot)
This allows the standard function keys to be active during the boot. That is the old routine of selecting the power button then repeatedley selecting a function key.
Apparently fast boot causes the bios to ignore f2 (get into bios change screens) or f12 (get into boot order screens) during power up.
(or you can shift+restart instead of shift+shutdown to deactivate fast boot to get the function keys to work)
On this Toshiba, to make bios changes to allow a non uefi boot to work (for instance to boot ubuntu off a usb stick, (non uefi) need to make 2 changes in the bios
(must do in this order on this Toshiba)
1, disable secure boot on one screen.
2, then must change from uefi boot to csm boot on another screen (to use old bios boot)
Then you can boot off a ubuntu usb stick if you change the boot order in the bios permanently or catching the boot using f12 to change the boot order for this 1 time.
I am still not sure how to get into the bios with a broken hard drive if the last shutdown was using fast boot, removing hard drive would likely work?
Maybe booting off something else would allow bios changes on next power up.
Isattle, I finally found someone that offers a different start up method besides going to advanced settings when already logged in. Thank you for explaining in detail. I was wondering though, you said to press shift while pressing the shut down button… My problem is that my laptop (windows 8) doesn’t even get to the login screen and just keeps endlessly restarting. Is there a way to access BIOS without having to press the shut down while pressing shift?
Update to the 12/30/2014 post about a toshiba laptop.
Getting into the bios appears to be a lot more complicated than I mentioned in the 12/30 post.
I tried to confirm this would work repeatedly and it does not.
What I learned (and this not conclusive) is that if I shutdown windows with the shift key also depressed (that is go to the menu item and select shutdown along with the shift key depressed) I can freely get into the bios on the next power up. That is, I can do the “old fashioned” select power and click repeatedly on the f2 function key to get the bios screen up.
However, if I start windows and select normal shutdown (w/o the shift key) I cannot get into the bios on the next boot.
Bill and the boys got something going on here.
This “Shift + Power off” method works on my Acer Aspire 3820TZ Laptop…. THANK YOU so much. My F2 key stop working after installing Win 10 Technical Preview on my Acer Win7 Laptop. I have been trying about 30 keys and keys combinations before to access the BIOS without any success and was getting desperate for a solution when I saw your post. Why the hell did they change that procedure !!
Can get into bios setup without an operating system with a windows 8.1 preinstalled laptop.
Got a toshiba L55-B laptop with windows 8.1 preinstalled. Finally figured out how to get to the bios screen during power up. I figured this out through trial and error, so it is not the “official” way. While it is powered down, hold down the f2 button, hold for a bit, and while holding down the f2 button, select the power button. Voila, into bios setup.
Of course you can do the “official” windows 8.1 instructions to use the windows menu screens, but this newly found way allows you to know you can get to the bios setup screen at any time, even without an operating system.
So to start up the Bios normally, you need to disable the Hybrid Hibernation (Fast Startup) from the Power Options:
1. Go to the metro Start menu
2. Search for “power options”
3. Select “Modify the action when closing the lid”
4. Select “Modify the settings which are currently unavailable”
5. Uncheck “Activate Fast Start-up (recommended)”
6. Restart the laptop/PC
7. When you see the logo of your laptop/PC, press Esc.
8. Select “Enter setup”
9. Now you`re in the normal BIOS.
10. Enjoy!
🙂
Another excellent tutorial, Adrian. For what it’s worth, holding F10 on an HP 15 laptop during power up, before the HP flash screen appears, will take one into its UEFI BIOS.
My problem is that I can’t get it to boot Linux distros on CD or DVD. I’ve tried Linux Mint, Linux Zorin, and Linux Elementary OS. These distros boot normally on my non-UEFI desktop and laptop.
When one gets into the BIOS in this UEFI HP 15 laptop it shows the default boot media as the hard drive, with an arrowhead next to it in the leftmost column. To change the boot order one has to press F5 or F6 to move the selection to the top of the list. So I moved “Boot from internal DVD drive” to the top, saved and exited. However, on re-boot it ignores the CD/DVD and goes straight into Win 8.
On re-checking the boot order in the BIOS, the “Boot from internal DVD drive” is still at the top of the list, but the “Boot from hard drive”, which is in second place, still has the arrowhead on its left side. Does the arrowhead indicate that it’s still the default boot option despite its second position on the list? Any suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks.
Paul:
“If you do not have this option, then your PC doesn’t support UEFI, and is a BIOS PC instead.”
Hope this explains your problem.
‘Missing from this screenshot’ is the exact screen I’m seeing… Care to explain how to not have it missing?
This tutorial was made on a virtual machine, so that we could take screenshots. We mention in this article, that you will see different options on Windows tablets just because the hardware is different and it offers some other options alongside those shown in our screenshots.
What exactly is not clear to you?
Well my PC does support EUFI but I have not option of such in my advanced menu. This is probably what he meant.
this asshole doesn’t know what he is talking about. he’s just copying this answer from other websites and doesn’t have enough brain to at least steal the right screenshoots. “Missing from this screenshot” is the stupidest clause ever!
Whether he just copied it or not, the fact is he just wanted to help. I don’t think he deserves that kind of treatment from an unknown person from an unknown planet in this universe. It seems that you are the one being an asshole here.