Boot to UEFI Mode or legacy BIOS manner

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Cull UEFI or legacy BIOS modes when booting into Windows PE (WinPE) or Windows Setup. Later Windows is installed, if you need to switch firmware modes, you may be able to utilize the MBR2GPT tool.

In general, install Windows using the newer UEFI mode, equally information technology includes more security features than the legacy BIOS mode. If you're booting from a network that only supports BIOS, yous'll need to kicking to legacy BIOS mode.

Later on Windows is installed, the device boots automatically using the same way information technology was installed with.

To kick to UEFI or BIOS:

  1. Open the firmware menus. You can utilise any of these methods:

    • Boot the PC, and press the manufacturer's cardinal to open the menus. Common keys used: Esc, Delete, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12. On tablets, common buttons are Volume up or Volume down (find more common keys and buttons). During startup, at that place'south oftentimes a screen that mentions the key. If at that place's not i, or if the screen goes by too fast to come across it, bank check your manufacturer's site.

    • Or, if Windows is already installed, from either the Sign on screen or the Commencement menu, select Power (Power button icon) > hold Shift while selecting Restart. Select Troubleshoot > Avant-garde options > UEFI Firmware settings.

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

    On the kick device menu, select the command that identifies both the firmware mode and the device. For case, select UEFI: USB Drive or BIOS: Network/LAN.

    Yous might come across separate commands for the same device. For case, yous might see UEFI USB Drive and BIOS USB Drive. Each command uses the same device and media, but boots the PC in a different firmware mode.

    Some devices simply support one mode (either UEFI or BIOS). Other devices volition only allow y'all 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.

    Annotation

    Some older PCs (Windows 7-era or earlier) support UEFI, but crave you lot to browse to the boot file. From the firmware menus, look for the option: "Kicking from file", then browse to \EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI on Windows PE or Windows Setup media.

UEFI and BIOS modes in WinPE

Discover if WinPE is booted into BIOS or UEFI Manner

Query the registry to determine which manner the device is in. You tin can do this from the control line:

              reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Command /5 PEFirmwareType
Render lawmaking Firmware fashion
0x1 BIOS
0x2 UEFI

Use information technology in a script:

              wpeutil UpdateBootInfo for /f "tokens=ii* delims=    " %%A in ('reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control /v PEFirmwareType') Practice SET Firmware=%%B :: Notation: delims is a TAB followed by a infinite. if %Firmware%==0x1 echo The PC is booted in BIOS way. if %Firmware%==0x2 echo The PC is booted in UEFI mode.

Annotation that betwixt delims= and " %%A is a tab, followed by a space.

Brand sure you boot into the correct way every fourth dimension

Hither are a couple of ways you can make certain you're booted into the right firmware mode every time you beginning your PC.

Use preformatted hard drives, and utilize a method that doesn't automatically format the drive.

If yous want to ensure that your bulldoze boots into a certain style, use drives that you've preformatted with the GPT file format for UEFI mode, or the MBR file format for BIOS style. When the installation starts, if the PC is booted to the wrong mode, Windows installation will fail. To fix this, restart the PC in the correct firmware way.

Remove the UEFI or BIOS kicking files

If you want a PC to only boot into a certain mode, yous can remove the files that Windows PE or Windows Setup apply to kick in UEFI or BIOS mode. Remove the following files, depending on the mode you want to boot to.

Boot only 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 mode.

Boot only when in BIOS mode

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

WinPE: Create USB Bootable bulldoze