Emergency access to your PC’s UEFI settings

Emergency access to your PC’s UEFI settings

Windowssecrets.com/

If Windows won’t boot, you still can access its UEFI/BIOS settings to start repairs — if you know the trick.

Reader Bob H. was one of several readers who had questions after reading the Dec. 11, 2014, Top Story, “How to solve UEFI boot and startup problems.”

• • “Your article on the UEFI contained all the information needed, if — and only if — the computer will successfully boot Windows. Your methods won’t work when Secure Boot is on and only UEFI boot is enabled.

    • “Here’s a trick that brings up the ‘Choose an option’ menu, letting you then boot the UEFI setup.

    • “When the boot-up process starts and you see the progress icon, hold down the power button until the PC shuts down completely (or simply unplug the system’s power cord).

    • “Doing this two to three times in relatively fast succession should bring up the needed troubleshooting menus on a subsequent startup.”

Your way might work, Bob, but it sounds a little tough on the hardware — and it requires multiple attempts before it succeeds.

As mentioned toward the end of the “How to solve UEFI boot and startup problems” article, almost all PCs offer a built-in, hardware-based method for accessing the UEFI settings, even if Windows won’t boot normally.

For example, to directly access the UEFI on one of my PCs, I simply power-on the system with the F2 key already pressed. This brings up the UEFI settings every time, without stressing the hardware.

You can find your PC’s UEFI-access method by searching the vendor’s help/support pages for your specific brand and model and adding search terms such as “uefi,” “bios,” “access,” or “boot.”

You can also run a general Web search using, for example, {your PC brand} {your PC model} uefi bios access boot.

Security warning: Accessing the BIOS or UEFI is a kind of back door into your PC and its contents. With the proper key combination, anyone with direct access to the machine might alter its BIOS/UEFI settings and potentially gain full access to your local files.

It’s relatively easy to do. A snoop might simply alter the system’s boot order and load Linux from a flash drive. He could then access your C: drive — and possibly all other attached hard drives.

To block this type of unauthorized access, establish an administrator/supervisor password for the BIOS or UEFI, as shown in Figure 1.

For more information on BIOS/UEFI passwords, head over to the Feb. 28, 2013, LangaList Plus article and look for the subsection titled “Protecting against local/physical threats”; then scroll down to the heading “Hardware-level passwords.”

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