UEFI - what is it? Download, installation, advantages, configuration features. How to find out the BIOS version How to distinguish uefi from bios
BIOS is a shell through which you can control many hardware settings for your system. For example, you can change the device boot order, enable or disable Bluetooth, enable or disable virtualization, and much more. BIOS is older software, and is now being replaced by UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). UEFI is more secure and supports Secure Boot, which checks your OS for integrity and malware before booting. UEFI is very similar to BIOS, so on most systems it is difficult to determine whether you have UEFI or BIOS.
System Information
Assuming you have Windows 10 installed, by going to the System Information app you can check whether your PC is installed in UEFI or BIOS.
- IN Windows Search enter: msinfo and run the application named System Information.
- Find an element BIOS mode, and check its value, it will indicate the connecting shell between the system and the hardware: UEFI or BIOS Legacy.
Access to UEFI and BIOS settings.
Since the BIOS has been around for a long time, many people have a vague idea of how it can be accessed. When you turn on your PC, you need to press the Del or F2 key, which will force your system to go into the BIOS shell instead of booting into the OS. The key is different for different laptops / desktop computers, this is the general way to access it. UEFI access is the same; you need to press a specific key during system startup to boot into UEFI.
Also, if you're on Windows 10, you can boot to UEFI from the app "Options". Go to parameter group “Update and Security” → “Recovery”.
Click "Reboot Now" In chapter "Special Boot Options". On the screen after reboot, go to the section Troubleshooting → Extra options→ UEFI Firmware Settings.
UEFI is very similar to BIOS. On some laptops it may have its own GUI. UEFI does not offer any special settings that are not present in the BIOS.
With the advent of new computers/laptops with UEFI instead of the usual BIOS, bootable flash drives created earlier with support for the MBR partition scheme for Windows installations or another OS has stopped working normally. Trying to boot from such a flash drive on a computer with UEFI usually results in errors and the impossibility of installation operating system.
If you have a similar problem with creating bootable flash drive, use the Rufus utility. It is designed to create bootable flash drives with support for both MBR and GPT. The program does not require installation and is distributed free of charge.
How do you know if it's BIOS or UEFI?
First, look for the words "EFI" or "UEFI" on stickers on your laptop or computer. Secondly, to determine the type of system interface, you can use the application Aida64. Previously on the blog.
Run the program and go to the branch " Motherboard> BIOS", in the "BIOS Type" line, look for the words "EFI" or "UEFI".
Example, laptop with BIOS:
Computer with UEFI:
Creating a bootable USB flash drive
1. Download the program from the official website Rufus(link above).
2.Connect the flash drive to your computer and make sure there are no important files on it.
3. Unpack and run the program. In the "Device" list, select the flash drive connected to the computer.
4. If you plan to create a bootable USB flash drive for both old computers with BIOS and new ones with UEFI, in the “Partition scheme and system interface type” list, select “MBR for computers with BIOS or UEFI”, if you have new computer with UEFI, it is recommended to select "GPT for computers with UEFI".
5. Points " File system" and "Cluster size" leave unchanged.
6. Check the box "Create boot disk". In the drop-down list, select "ISO image", click on the button with the image of the disk drive and point in Explorer to the operating system disk image file.
7. Click on the "Start" button and wait until the image recording operations are completed.
All! The flash drive is ready!
Try booting from a bootable USB flash drive and starting installing the operating system. Happy installation!
UEFI is a full replacement for the outdated BIOS chip. The main purpose of UEFI not much different from standard BIOS – initialization existing equipment after turning on the computer and operating system.
When turning on the computer, UEFI scans computer hardware for any malfunctions or problems. Once finished scanning, UEFI scans hard disks and external drives for the presence of bootable GPT partitions and launches priority bootloader.
The user won't see anything special. On Asus motherboards the whole process will look something like this:
Benefits of UEFI
What differences And advantages before the standard bios?
- More friendly user interface, with support for a computer mouse;
- Regular GPT support markings hard drives, thanks to which the computer will work normally with all drives, regardless of the disk size. The standard BIOS works very poorly with drives larger than 1 terabyte;
- Availability of the function " fast loading a”, which allows you to speed up the launch of modern operating systems;
- Availability built-in protection from viruses and malware, starting before windows loading or linux;
- Boot partition support EFI, which will allow you to use multiple operating systems without installing third-party bootloaders (for example grub).
Determining the presence of UEFI on the computer
You can distinguish them by a large list signs:
Is it possible to update the BIOS to UEFI?
If you ask the question in this vein, then the answer is clear - No. You won’t be able to update the regular one to UEFI, no matter how much you want it.
It simply cannot be physically installed on an old motherboard.
How to enter UEFI and basic settings
Getting into uefi bios utility ez mode is very simple. Immediately after turning on or restarting the computer, you need to press the UEFI login key (usually “ Delete" or " F2»);
After logging in, you can start settings. All settings will be discussed using the motherboard as an example. Asus boards. UEFI of other motherboards may differ, but not too significantly.
basic settings:
On UEFI main screen you will be able to view information about your computer (motherboard model, processor model and frequency, amount of RAM, temperature of PC components, etc.).
Paragraph " system performance"will be useful for owners of laptops or if the computer is running on a UPS. It allows you to choose between high performance and energy saving.
The “” item will allow you to choose from which one hard drive or external drive, the operating system will be loaded.
The "" button will also allow you to select the drive from which you want to start the computer.
By clicking the " Additionally", you can go to advanced settings. Going into additional settings, you will immediately be taken to the main menu. In it you can change the UEFI language and set a password.
On the menu Ai Tweaker you can overclock the processor or RAM, but it’s better not for inexperienced users to go there. Overclocking is not available on every motherboard.
On the menu " additional» you can enable or disable various technologies central processor, enable certain USB versions, select active
For many years the system BIOS Responsible for managing computer hardware. For example, boot a computer from one device or another, like a flash drive. Since 2005, the standard began to be created and tested UEFI(Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). It already has a clear graphical interface and the ability to easily bypass the limitations that previously existed in a simple BIOS. The new BIOS standard was already introduced in 2010 and many users do not know what they have. We will look at two ways to find out the BIOS or UEFI version from under Windows without going into it and find out the model of the motherboard.
Important: You can see which ones exist and exist.
How to find out your motherboard model
- Run command line and enter the command wmic baseboard get manufacturer, product. You will be provided with your motherboard model.
How to find out the BIOS version
Method 1. When you turn on your computer, press F2 or Delete. These are popular login buttons for various motherboard manufacturers. Next, go to the BIOS settings and look for information about the motherboard and UEFI or BIOS version. In my case Asrock, motherboard model H61M-VG4, UEFI version P1.40.
Method 2. Log into a command prompt with administrator rights (cmd). Click "Search", write "cmd" in the line, right-click, and select run with administrator rights.
Brief description: A quick guide that tells you how to check if your computer is using UEFI or BIOS. We have made instructions for both Windows and Linux.
When you are trying to dual boot Linux with Windows, you need to know whether your system has UEFI or BIOS boot mode. This will help you decide which partition to select for installing Linux.
I won't discuss what BIOS is here. However, I would like to tell you a few advantages of UEFI over BIOS.
UEFI or Unified Extensible Firmware Interface was designed to overcome some of the limitations of the BIOS. It added the ability to use drives larger than 2 TB and had a processor-independent architecture and drivers. Thanks to its modular design, it supports remote diagnosis and repair even without an installed operating system and a flexible bare-metal environment including networking capabilities.
Advantage of UEFI over BIOS
- UEFI initializes your hardware faster.
- The Secure Boot offer means that everything you download before the OS boots must be signed. This gives your system an extra layer of protection from running malware.
- BIOS does not support partitions larger than 2 TB.
- Most importantly, if you are dual booting, it is always recommended to install both OSes in the same boot mode.
If you're trying to figure out whether your system is running UEFI or BIOS, it's not that difficult. Let me start with Windows first and then let me see how to check UEFI or BIOS on Linux systems.
How to check if your computer is using UEFI or BIOS in Windows
On Windows " System Information" in the panel " Start" and in BIOS mode you can find boot mode. If it says Legacy, your system has a BIOS. If it says UEFI, then it's UEFI.
Alternative: If you are using Windows 10, you can check if you are using UEFI or BIOS by opening File Explorer and going to C:\Windows\Panther. Open the setupact.log file and find the line below.
Detected boot environment
I would suggest opening this file in notepad++ as its huge text file and notepad can freeze (at least for me with 6GB RAM).
You will find a couple of lines that will provide you with information.
2017-11-27 09:11:31, Info IBS Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect:FirmwareType 1.
2017-11-27 09:11:31, Info IBS Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS
Check if you are using UEFI or BIOS on Linux
The easiest way to find out if you are using UEFI or BIOS is to look for the /sys/firmware/efi folder. The folder will be missing if your system is using BIOS.
Alternative: Another way is to install a package called efibootmgr.
On Debian and Ubuntu distributions, you can install the efibootmgr package using the following command:
sudo apt install efibootmgr
After that, enter the following command:
If your system supports UEFI, it will produce various variables. If not, you will see a message stating that EFI variables are not supported.
These were all the simplest ways on how to check if your computer is using UEFI or BIOS. Do you know a faster way - tell us about it in the comments
Final words
Finding whether your system is using UEFI or BIOS is very simple. On the one hand, features like faster and more secure booting provide an advantage to UEFI, you have nothing to worry about if you are using BIOS - unless you plan to use HDD 2 TB to boot.
If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.
