BIOS Mode - See if Windows Boot in UEFI or Legacy Mode

How to Check if Windows is Booted in UEFI or Legacy BIOS Mode​

   Information

When the PC starts, the firmware interface controls the booting process of the PC, and then passes control to Windows or another operating system.

UEFI is a replacement for the older BIOS firmware interface and the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) 1.10 specifications.

For more information, see:

• Boot and UEFI | Microsoft Docs
• UEFI in Windows | Microsoft Docs

This tutorial will show you how to see if your Windows is booted in UEFI or legacy BIOS (CSM) mode in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.

OPTION ONE

Check if UEFI or Legacy in Disk Mangement in Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

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1. Do step 2 or 3 below.​

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2. In Windows 8 and 8.1, open the WIN+X Power Users menu, click/tap on Disk Management, and go to step 4 below.​

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3. Press the :winkey: + R keys to open the Run dialog, type diskmgmt.msc, click/tap on OK, and go to step 4 below.​

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4. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.​

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5. If your Windows disk shows having an EFI partition like below, then it's installed with UEFI. If not, then it's Legacy BIOS.​

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OPTION TWO

Check if UEFI or Legacy in System Information in Windows 8 and 8.1

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1. Press the :winkey: + R keys to open the Run dialog, type msinfo32, and press Enter.​

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2. In the right pane of System Summary in System Information, see if the BIOS Mode value says Legacy or UEFI. (see screenshots below)​

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OPTION THREE

Check if UEFI or Legacy in setupact.log in Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

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1. In Windows Explorer (Windows 7) or File Explorer (Windows 8/8.1) navigate to the location below and open the setupact.log file.​

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C:\Windows\Panther​

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2. With the setupact.log file opened in Notepad, click on Edit (Menu bar) and Find, or press the Ctrl+F keys.​

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3. Type in this below, and click/tap on Find Next or press Enter. (see screenshot below)​

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Detected boot environment​

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4. Close the Find dialog.​

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5. You will see it say EFI (UEFI) or BIOS (Legacy BIOS).​

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Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS​

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Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: EFI​

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OPTION FOUR

Check if UEFI or Legacy in WinPE for Windows 8 and 8.1

NOTE: This option can be useful if you are unable to boot into Windows or in WinPE.

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1. Open a command prompt at boot.​

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2. In the command prompt at boot, type the command below and press Enter. (see screenshot below)​

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wpeutil UpdateBootInfo​

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3. In the command prompt at boot, type the command below and press Enter.​

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reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control /v PEFirmwareType​

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4. This command returns 0x1 if the PC boots in Legacy BIOS mode, or 0x2 if the PC boots in UEFI mode.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to See if Hyper-V Virtual Machine is Generation 1 or Generation 2
• How to Check if Secure Boot is Enabled or Disabled in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Enable or Disable Secure Boot in UEFI
• How to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside Windows 8
• How to Install Windows 8 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)
• How to Install Windows 7 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)

 

[Brink]

Hello PrplHaz, and welcome to Eight Forums

In Option 1, it's using the EFI partition on the other drive. You have UEFI.

 

[PrplHaz4]

Hello PrplHaz, and welcome to Eight Forums

In Option 1, it's using the EFI partition on the other drive. You have UEFI.

Thank you - been here for ages, but there's too many answers already for me to even help out

And thanks for the quick response. It seems odd that it would use the EFI partition on a different drive - any idea how to recreate that EFI partition on my actual boot drive (so I can remove the other drive without incident)?

 

[Brink]

I'm afraid that would most likely require a reinstall.

Nar, just by asking questions you're helping the next person with the same issue.

 

[CuraeL]

Brink. Hey, just registered. Thanks for all the great tuts you're doing. It has helped me a lot since Windows 7. DLL modding and so on and so forth. Now I have a question for you, so I needed to register.

I have a Maximus V Gene socket 1155 from Asus. This card supports UEFI.. I got myself a SSD and installed Win 8.1 onto it some time ago.. Everything is good and I haven't got any issues per sé.. How ever, I stumbled upon this thread and decided to check. And now it annoys me to hell that my damn high end PC decided to install in Legacy. I don't understand why it would choose to do so, since Microsoft themselves states that legacy is slower at booting and such than Universal and well, not to mention the part with MBR and it's significantly lower capabilities. Then again, I doubt I'll ever need 128 partitions.. I recently started studying IT and has learned a lot about both Legacy and UEFI, so now that I actually know that my system boots in Legacy, which it never occurred to me to check in the first place, I'm baffled about it. Suddenly my PC feels old and stuff. Sorry for the rant, I'm just wondering.. Why would Windows at no point through the installation give one the choice to pick? And why would it auto pick Legacy in the first place? Did I need to tick something, somewhere? (I downloaded Win8.1 from the DreamSpark and created the boot drive with the MS Win7 boot creator tool-stuffz, if that matters for the answer. Thanks for the tutorial, and the many sleepless nights to come. ;D And all the help you have given me with your threads before.

 

[Brink]

Hello Curael, and welcome to Eight Forums.

It sounds like you may not have created a bootable UEFI installation USB.

If you like, double check through the tutorial below to see if it may help to install with UEFI.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-8-a.html

 

[CuraeL]

Hello Curael, and welcome to Eight Forums.

It sounds like you may not have created a bootable UEFI installation USB.

If you like, double check through the tutorial below to see if it may help to install with UEFI.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-8-a.html

Yeah, I'm embarrassed now. I should have thought about the partitioning table of the USB as well. :/ The answer was right there.

Thank you very much.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Nothing to be embarrassed about at all.

 

[Danh2628]

Hello Brink.
Thank to you i know that my laptop is Legacy.
But i want to ask if my laptop can install windows 7 with BIOS Mode: UEFI?
Mine is HP Pavilion g6-1d60us.
I had search all the internet but couldn't find anything.
I am not a native english speaker, so please forgive my grammar mistakes.
Thank you very much!

 

[Brink]

Hello Danh, and welcome to Eight Forums.

I don't see UEFI mentioned as being supported in your PC's specs or manual below. Usually that means that UEFI is not supported.

HP Pavilion g6-1d60us Notebook PC Product Specifications | HP® Customer Support

HP Pavilion g6-1d60us Notebook PC Manuals | HP® Customer Support

 

[Danh2628]

Thank you very much Brink.
I had read links you provided and just like you, i don't see UEFI mentioned.
I just bought a Envy with windows 8.1. I will backup my file and try to install my g6 with UEFI setting in my free time.
And i will post back here.
Thank you, very fast reply :thumb:

 

[Brink]

You're welcome. I hope it goes smoothly.