BIOS

General Topics
1

Hello,

Recently I installed Windows 7 because windows 8 drove me up the wall. It’s originally OS was windows 8 so the BIOS I believe was designed for windows 8. If that’s even possible. So now that I have windows 7 the BIOS no longer has the F8 function to launch Safe Mode… How do I figure out what BIOS I’m using and how to launch into Safe Mode??? I know you can do it through MSConfig but that’s a pain…

Thanks,
Michael

2

I’m in safe Mode now :slight_smile: It takes a minute or two to load but I’m actually posting this in Safe Mode… It’s F8 then f12 then Boot Manager. The BIOS I’m using is A09… Yay!

3

Every manufacturer has their own shortcut key to reach the Bios.
The Dell that I’m using uses the F2 function key.
Google is your friend and doing a simple search, reveals many replies.
This is just one of them: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/a/biosaccess_pc.htm
Hope that answers your question. :slight_smile:

4

hi alan1998,

Actually, there are two versions of system boot programs now available:

[ol]- BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). It is the legacy boot firmware system that’s been around for forever. IBM PC’s.

  • UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) This is the latest system firmware boot program. It is found only in modern computer systems and is usually loaded as system firmware in Win 8 systems.[/ol]

For more detail as to the differences between the two, see: (UEFI) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface
(BIOS) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS

Of note, when using UEFI, it can be difficult or impossible, depending on version of UEFI and options lacking or within it, to dual-boot another os such as linux.

So, when setting up a Win 7 os to run on UEFI, you may need to change default settings within it to get Win 7 to boot. One such setting is to select ‘corporate environment’ setting as a workaround. One stated reason for UEFI is enhanced security over legacy BIOS.