At least once in our life, we’ve all gone through the trouble of searching the web to find the correct key to enter BIOS setup (UEFI for all new) so we can play around with it. As you may have already discovered, entering the BIOS utility or accessing the UEFI settings requires you to press a specific key that depends on your PC’s OEM. Different manufacturers assign a specific key (or key combination) to boot directly into BIOS / UEFI. In this article, I hope to provide you the possible keys on all PCs to enter UEFI or BIOS mode. Then let’s get started.
Specific ways for all PC brands to enter BIOS / UEFI
Acer
Del or F12 key On Aspire, Predator, Spin, Swift, Extensa, Ferrari, Power, Altos, TravelMate models.
Asus
Delete key On A-series models
Asus
F2 or Esc key On B-Series, ROG-Series, Q-Series, VivoBook, Zen AiO, ZenBook models
Compaq
F10 key On Presario, Prolinea, Deskpro, Systempro, Portable models
Dell
F2 key On XPS, Dimension, Inspiron, Latitude, OptiPlex, Precision, Alienware, Vostro models
HP
Esc or F2 or F11 key On EliteBook, ProBook, Pro, OMEN, ENVY, TouchSmart, Vectra, OmniBook, Tablet, Stream, ZBook
HP PAVILLION
F1 key
Lenovo
F1 or F2 keys On ThinkPad, IdeaPad, Yoga, Legion, 3000 Series, N Series, ThinkCentre, ThinkStation models
Samsung
F2 key On Odyssey, Notebook 5/7/9, ArtPC PULSE, Series ‘x’ laptops
Samsung Ultrabook
F10 key
Sony
F1 or F2 or F3 keys On PCG-Series, VGN-Series models
Sony VAIO
ASSIST button
Toshiba
F1 key or Esc key On Portégé, Satellite, Tecra, Equium models
Toshiba EQUIUM
F12 key
Note: Lenovo brand also uses Novo button. When that designated button exists, be sure to test it if the displayed ones fail.
How to boot into BIOS / UEFI settings from Windows 10?
Also, if you have Windows 10 (also applies to Windows 8, Windows 8.1), things can be even easier. You can enter Windows 10 BIOS / UEFI settings even if you are not sure which keys to use. The advanced boot function can help you access the BIOS menu. You can invoke advanced startup in two ways:
- Head to Settings> Update & Security> Recovery.
- Under Advanced startup, tap Restart.
Or you can choose this other option:
- Press the Windows button on the far left of your taskbar.
- Now, in the shutdown options, hold down the Shift button on your keyboard and hit restart.
- Consequently, this will take you to the Advanced options.
Now, go to Troubleshoot> Advanced Options> UEFI Firmware Settings. And voila!
How to boot a USB from UEFI / BIOS?
To get started, prepare the USB bootable media. If you haven’t already, you should check out my other articles. For Windows users, check out how to create a bootable USB device using YUMI or by creating a bootable USB without any tools. The first thing you should do is restart or shut down your PC.
The 10 best tools to create bootable USB sticks
- Insert the bootable USB drive and turn on your computer.
- If the default settings in your BIOS or UEFI mode are configured accordingly or if you have done the same thing manually, your PC will automatically boot to USB when connected. If not, continue to the next step.
- Boot into BIOS setup using your specific manufacturer’s keys shown above.
- Look for the Start menu or something similar if that specific tab isn’t present.
- Finally, change the Boot Priority so that the removable USB media is the old one.
- Also, you can directly boot to the USB device if there is such a function
Also, keep in mind that if you are looking to boot to Ubuntu USB media (or any Linux distribution for that matter), disable the fast boot option if available. Also, you need to enable Legacy Boot Mode for the same reason. For modern UEFI / EFI compliant devices, this can be done by disabling secure boot mode.
Enter BIOS / UEFI settings
So that’s it. It seems that OEMs continue to bring more and more change. Therefore, the keys assigned to access the UEFI or BIOS settings may change for those devices. Still, I hope this can help you when you need it and feel free to use the comment section below to expand the list. Please share the post on social media.
What is the difference between UEFI and BIOS – GPT and MBR?
Source: Fossbytes
