Boot to UEFI Style or legacy BIOS mode

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

In general, install Windows using the newer UEFI mode, as 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 boot to legacy BIOS mode.

After Windows is installed, the device boots automatically using the same style it was installed with.

To boot to UEFI or BIOS:

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

    • Kick the PC, and printing the manufacturer's key to open up the menus. Common keys used: Esc, Delete, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12. On tablets, common buttons are Volume up or Book downwardly (find more common keys and buttons). During startup, there's often a screen that mentions the key. If in that location'south not i, or if the screen goes by too fast to run across it, check your manufacturer'southward site.

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

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

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

    You might see dissever commands for the aforementioned device. For example, yous might see UEFI USB Drive and BIOS USB Drive. Each control uses the same device and media, but boots the PC in a different firmware way.

    Some devices simply support one mode (either UEFI or BIOS). Other devices volition just allow you lot to boot to BIOS manner by manually disabling the UEFI security features. To disable the security features, go to Security > Secure Boot and disable the feature.

    Notation

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

UEFI and BIOS modes in WinPE

Notice if WinPE is booted into BIOS or UEFI Mode

Query the registry to determine which mode the device is in. You can do this from the command line:

              reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control /five PEFirmwareType
Render lawmaking Firmware manner
0x1 BIOS
0x2 UEFI

Utilize it in a script:

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

Note that between delims= and " %%A is a tab, followed by a infinite.

Make certain you boot into the right manner every time

Hither are a couple of ways yous can make sure you're booted into the right firmware mode every fourth dimension you kickoff your PC.

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

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

Remove the UEFI or BIOS boot files

If y'all want a PC to just boot into a certain mode, y'all can remove the files that Windows PE or Windows Setup utilise to boot in UEFI or BIOS style. Remove the following files, depending on the mode yous want to boot to.

Kick only when in UEFI manner

Remove the bootmgr file from the root of the Windows PE or Windows Setup media. This prevents the device from starting in BIOS style.

Kicking merely 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 mode.

WinPE: Create USB Bootable drive