Boot to UEFI Way or legacy BIOS mode

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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 full general, install Windows using the newer UEFI mode, every bit it includes more than security features than the legacy BIOS manner. If you're booting from a network that only supports BIOS, y'all'll need to kick to legacy BIOS mode.

Afterward Windows is installed, the device boots automatically using the same mode information technology was installed with.

To boot to UEFI or BIOS:

  1. Open up the firmware menus. You tin can use whatever of these methods:

    • Kicking the PC, and press the manufacturer's fundamental to open the menus. Common keys used: Esc, Delete, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12. On tablets, mutual buttons are Book up or Book down (find more mutual keys and buttons). During startup, there'southward often a screen that mentions the central. If in that location'due south non 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 (Power button icon) > hold Shift while selecting Restart. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware settings.

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

    On the kicking device menu, select the control that identifies both the firmware fashion and the device. For example, select UEFI: USB Drive or BIOS: Network/LAN.

    Yous might see dissever commands for the same device. For example, you might come across UEFI USB Bulldoze and BIOS USB Drive. Each control uses the aforementioned device and media, but boots the PC in a different firmware mode.

    Some devices only back up one mode (either UEFI or BIOS). Other devices volition only allow you to boot to BIOS mode past manually disabling the UEFI security features. To disable the security features, go to Security > Secure Boot and disable the characteristic.

    Note

    Some older PCs (Windows vii-era or earlier) support UEFI, merely crave you to scan to the boot file. From the firmware menus, look for the option: "Boot from file", then browse to \EFI\Kick\BOOTX64.EFI on Windows PE or Windows Setup media.

UEFI and BIOS modes in WinPE

Discover if WinPE is booted into BIOS or UEFI Mode

Query the registry to make up one's mind which manner the device is in. Y'all can do this from the command line:

              reg query HKLM\Arrangement\CurrentControlSet\Control /v PEFirmwareType
Return code Firmware fashion
0x1 BIOS
0x2 UEFI

Use it in a script:

              wpeutil UpdateBootInfo for /f "tokens=2* delims=    " %%A in ('reg query HKLM\Organisation\CurrentControlSet\Command /v PEFirmwareType') DO Fix Firmware=%%B :: Note: delims is a TAB followed by a space. if %Firmware%==0x1 echo The PC is booted in BIOS mode. if %Firmware%==0x2 echo The PC is booted in UEFI mode.

Note that between delims= and " %%A is a tab, followed past a space.

Make sure you boot into the right mode every time

Here are a couple of means you can make sure you're booted into the right firmware mode every time you lot kickoff your PC.

Use preformatted hard drives, and utilize 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 style, or the MBR file format for BIOS mode. When the installation starts, if the PC is booted to the incorrect manner, Windows installation will fail. To set up this, restart the PC in the right firmware mode.

Remove the UEFI or BIOS kicking files

If you lot want a PC to just boot into a certain style, you tin remove the files that Windows PE or Windows Setup employ to boot in UEFI or BIOS mode. Remove the post-obit files, depending on the way you want to boot to.

Boot just 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 style.

Boot just when in BIOS mode

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

WinPE: Create USB Bootable bulldoze