As it works with the input/output device, it doesn’t need to be changed frequently. Even if you know what you’re looking for, it’ll be in a different place on different computer’s settings screens. Tim Fisher has 30+ years' professional technology support experience. If you change your boot order and remove your hard drive from the list of boot devices, your computer won’t boot Windows (or whatever other operating system you have installed) until you fix your boot order. Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. Memory - Direct the BIOS to shadow to a specific memory address Security - Set a password for accessing the computer Power Management - Select whether to use power management, as well as set the amount of time for standby and suspend Exit - Save your changes, discard your changes or restore default settings You can also use the systeminfo command from the command line to view the BIOS version and other system information by following the following steps. Both are low-level software that starts when you boot your PC and sets things up. Either way, you’ll have to restart your PC. BIOS stands for “Basic Input/Output System”, and is a type of firmware stored on a chip on your motherboard. Modern computers predominantly ship with UEFI firmware, which is the successor to the traditional BIOS. How to Access the BIOS. BIOS may refer to any of the following:. Image Credit: ryuuji.y on Flickr and  Thomas Bresson on Flickr. It is important since it includes a test called POST to check if there are hardware-related issues with the computer and loads the boot loader to initialize Windows. Some settings are less dangerous than others. Note. The first thing the BIOS does is check the information stored in a tiny (64 bytes) amount of RAM located on a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip. You can enter the system BIOS or Setup on a Dell PC by pressing F2 at the Dell loading screen. If you built the PC yourself, look at the manual or help website for your motherboard. Interruptions could brick the motherboard and render the computer unusable, making it difficult to regain functionality. Short for Basic Input/Output System, the BIOS (pronounced bye-oss) is a ROM chip found on motherboards that allows you to access and set up your computer system at the most basic level. The BIOS manages the order of system boot items, such as floppy (yes, they still exist), CD/DVD optical drive, flash drive and hard drive. It’s the successor to the traditional BIOS. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. One way to avoid this problem is to use what's called a "boot lock" section of the BIOS software which gets updated on its own apart from the rest so that if corruption ensues, a recovery process prevents damage. Whether your computer has a BIOS or UEFI firmware doesn’t matter much in most situations. lock down your computer with a boot password, enable Intel’s VT-x virtualization technology, How to Use Google Maps Street View in Split Screen on Android, How to Practice Your Presentations with PowerPoint’s Presenter Coach, How to Enable Google Chrome’s “Reading List” on Android, How to Add, Edit, or Delete Recurring Events in Google Calendar, How to Disable Notification Center on iPhone Lock Screen, © 2021 LifeSavvy Media. Changing your boot order is less risky, but you can even run into trouble there. But UEFI firmware and the BIOS are fairly similar. How to Access BIOS The BIOS is accessed and configured through the BIOS Setup Utility. The BIOS is accessed and configured through the BIOS Setup Utility. What Does a PC’s BIOS Do, and When Should I Use It? Delete, F2, F10). If you have a problem after making a change, you can return to your BIOS or UEFI firmware settings screen and use an option named something like “Reset to Default Settings” or “Load Setup Defaults”. Chris has written for The New York Times, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Use UEFI Boot and Check Your Boot Order 4. Modern computers predominantly ship with UEFI firmware, which is the successor to the traditional BIOS. BIOS loads your OS, maintains your hardware and allows you to control the low-level functions of your computer. Many low-level system settings are only available in your BIOS. Poke around and find whatever setting your looking for. Join 425,000 subscribers and get a daily digest of news, comics, trivia, reviews, and more. Michael Heine is a CompTIA-certified writer, editor, and Network Engineer with 25+ years' experience working in the television, defense, ISP, telecommunications, and education industries. All modern computer motherboards contain BIOS software. The only caveat is that the BIOS is a startup environment, which means that you can't access it when Windows 10 is running. Any custom options were instead made by modifying physical switches and jumpers. For example, only systems with UEFI firmware support Secure Boot to secure the boot process against rootkits. PCs that shipped with Windows 8 or 10 may require you access the UEFI settings screen via Windows 8 or 10’s boot options menu. BIOS might check if the full update has been applied by verifying that the checksum matches up with the intended value. The BIOS pictured is of an early AMIBIOS, a type of BIOS … But be careful in your BIOS or UEFI settings screen! BIOS access and configuration on PC systems are independent of any operating system because the BIOS is part of the motherboard hardware. Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen.Step 2, Open System Information. When you’re done, select the “Save Changes” option to save your changes and restart your computer. But UEFI firmware and the BIOS are fairly similar. UEFI offers support for boot volumes over 2 TB in size, support for more than four partitions on a drive, faster booting, and enables more modern features. Whatever the menu – BIOS or UEFI – you are working in, be very attentive and only modify the settings when you are confident you know what you are doing and why. When configuring updates, verify that you've downloaded the right file for your motherboard and that the computer not be shut down part way through or the update canceled abruptly. The BIOS Setup Utility is, for all practical purposes, the BIOS itself. BIOS instructs the computer on how to perform basic functions such as booting and keyboard control. Step 1, Open Start . The computer will reboot into a special boot options menu. You can almost always use the Quick Boot option (Typically the F8 key) which will allow you to quickly choose which device you would like to boot off of. To enter the BIOS, wait until your computer beeps during boot, then press the key required to enter the BIOS or Setup, typically displayed on the BIOS boot screen (e.g. You can access BIOS Setup utility screens from the following interfaces: Use a USB keyboard, mouse, and VGA monitor connected directly to the server. So, it is good to know how to access it. Saving these changes and restarting the computer applies the changes to the BIOS and alters the way BIOS instructs the hardware to function. BIOS or Basic Input Output System is often difficult to access when one is working on Windows 10. It allows you to access your computer system at the most basic level. What does the BIOS do? RELATED: How to Enable Intel VT-x in Your Computer's BIOS or UEFI Firmware. Use a terminal (or terminal emulator connected to a computer) through the serial port on the back panel of the server. If you built your own PC, consult your motherboard’s manual. If it doesn't, and the motherboard supports DualBIOS, that BIOS backup can be restored to overwrite the corrupted version. Next to the "System Model" heading, you'll see a list of numbers and letters; this is your computer's model name. Meddling with certain settings (especially those related to overclocking) you can make the computer’s work unstable or even damage its hardware. Using the systeminfo command line command. Whatever the screen looks like, you can use your keyboard or mouse to navigate through it. BIOS is a program that comes with your computer and it generally resides on EPROM so that the processor can access it. Caution: Be careful when altering BIOS settings. The BIOS setup utility access key differs between computer systems, motherboard manufacturers, and BIOS manufacturers — some of the common keys include F1, F2, and the Del key. If you can’t find the option you’re looking for in your BIOS, consult the manual or help website for your PC. You generally don’t need to do this. If you’re creating a bio while currently employed, list your current position or job role, such as “Senior Associate” or “Editor.” If you are unemployed and creating a bio as part of an online profile, you can list your previous role or your current expertise. The BIOS firmware is non-volatile, meaning that its settings are saved and recoverable even after power has been removed from the device. All available options in BIOS are configurable through the BIOS Setup Utility. When you start your computer, the computers boots the BIOS, which configures your hardware before handing off to a boot device (usually your hard drive). It wasn't until the 1990s that the BIOS Setup Utility (also known as the BIOS Configuration Utility, or BCU) became common practice. The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek. controls all of the low-level functions of your PC, and you'll need to access it if you want to make any changes. The Bios setup utility in accessed in various ways depending on your computer motherboard and system model, some computer having its own bios key or some of will shows you to press some designated key like F2 or Del key on the system’s startup bios logo. Modern BIOSes offer user interfaces (Setup Utility), where the user can configure hardware settings. The following are some of the more popular BIOS vendors: Award Software, General Software, and Microid Research were BIOS manufacturers acquired by Phoenix Technologies. Common keys you may need to press include Delete, F1, F2, and Escape. Generally, the motherboard will post this information when the computer first turns on, but it's best to look it up beforehand. But you can access the BIOS settings and do some changes. Since we launched in 2006, our articles have been read more than 1 billion times. Both offer interfaces you can access to change a variety of system settings. BIOSes are small programs with sizes that are close to 16 MB. When you power your computer on, your BIOS takes control, starting the power-on self test (POST) and passing control over to the boot loader, which boots your computer’s operating system. We’ve even seen modern PCs refer to their UEFI firmware settings screen as the “BIOS”. Some modern UEFI PCs have graphical interfaces you can navigate with a mouse and keyboard, but many PCs continue to use text-mode interfaces, even with UEFI. What Is Bios and What Does It Do? You can actually have a look at this by going into the BIOS while booting. To access your BIOS, you’ll need to press a key during the boot-up process. However, your BIOS checks whether there are any bootable CDs or floppies, just in case. The picture below is an example of what a BIOS chip may look like on a computer motherboard. UEFI stands for “Unified Extensible Firmware Interface”. In general, your computer's basic input/output system shouldn't need to be updated that often, but sometimes you have to view or even edit your computer's BIOS. After this, BIOS checks for the boot options. The option is named “Virtualization Technology” on this PC, but is often named  “Intel Virtualization Technology,” “Intel VT-x,” “Virtualization Extensions,” or “Vanderpool” instead. The BIOS in some of the first IBM computers were not interactive like modern-day implementations but instead only served to display error messages or beeps codes.