UEFI Firmware Settings - Boot to from inside Windows 8

How to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings from inside Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to boot directly to the motherboard's UEFI firmware settings from inside Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

   Note

• This only applies if the PC's motherboard has an UEFI firmware chip instead of a BIOS chipset.
• This only applies if Windows 8 was installed using UEFI, or Windows 8 came preinstalled on an OEM PC using UEFI.

Here's How:

1. Open PC settings, and do step 2 or 3 below for the Windows 8 you have installed.

2. If you have Windows 8 or Windows RT

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A) In the left pane, click/tap on General, click/tap on Restart now under Advanced startup in the right pane, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)​

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3. If you have Windows 8.1 or Windows RT 8.1

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A) On the left side in PC settings, click/tap on Update & Recovery. (see screenshot below)​

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B) On the left side in Update & Recovery, click/tap on Recovery, click/tap on the Restart now button under the Advanced startup section on the right side, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)​

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4. When the "Choose an option" screen appears after the restart, click/tap on Troubleshoot. (see screenshot below)

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5. Click/tap on Advanced options. (see screenshot below)

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6. Click/tap on UEFI Firmware Settings. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you do not have this option, then your PC doesn't support UEFI, and is a BIOS PC instead.

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7. Click/tap on Restart. (see screenshot below)

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8. The computer will now restart, and automatically boot directly to the UEFI firmware settings screen. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: The UEFI settings below is from an "ASRock X79 Extreme11" motherboard. What you have for your UEFI settings will depend on your motherboard.

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Find the BIOS and UEFI Firmware Version in Windows
• How to Install Windows 8 Using "Unified Extensible Firmware Interface" (UEFI)
• How to Enable or Disable Secure Boot in UEFI
• How to Check if Secure Boot is Enabled or Disabled in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Check if Windows is Booted in UEFI or Legacy BIOS Mode
• How to Boot to the Windows 8 Startup Options Menu
• How to Boot to the "System Recovery Options" in Windows 8
• How to Boot to the Advanced Windows "Startup Settings" in Windows 8
• How to Start Windows 8 in Safe Mode
• How to Boot from a USB Drive within Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Boot from a USB Drive on Surface
• Enable or Disable Always Automatically Boot PC from USB Drive in Windows To Go Startup Options
• How to Enable or Disable Fast Boot in UEFI Firmware Settings for Windows

 

[theog]

Nice one, Shawn.

 

[Brink]

Thank you Ray.

 

[okstout4]

Im hoping you can help. I got to the UEFI Firmware screen and took a look around there, but did NOT make any changes. I chose the ESC button to get out of this screen. Once I rebooted to try again to get into SafeMode, I can no longer do anything on my laptop. The Sign-In screen appears so I can key in my PW, but it takes me to a dark blue screen w/my Sign-In screen photo right in the center. On the bottom left is the "ease of access" button and next to it is a computer icon that says Im not connected to the internet. Charms do not come out. An ideas?

 

[Brink]

Hello okstout4, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Are you able to click on your user account picture on that screen to sign in?

 

[okstout4]

Yes, but it takes me right back to the Sign In screen. I just rebooted to the troubleshoot screen (I thought I tried this earlier and it didnt work). My only option there is Troubleshoot or Turn Off PC. In choosing Troubleshoot, I get to the Advanced screen and my only option there is UEFI Firmware. My intention was to find the System Restore tab, but there is none. I did go into the UEFI Firmware settings to look around, but I made NO changes. I chose Esc to get out and chose Yes at Exit discarding changes. At that point it reboots and when I put in my PW it takes me to the dark blue screen w/my photo in it.

And before I got to all this I was trying to find Safe Mode, so that I could download a few things that it was not allowing me to download otherwise. It would NOT allow me to put the computer into Safe Mode.

Thanks for any help you can give to get me out of this blue screen.

 

[Brink]

If you like, you could download a Windows 8.1 ISO file using OPTION ONE in the tutorial below on another computer.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/18309-windows-8-windows-8-1-iso-download-create.html

Afterwards, use the ISO file to create a bootable UEFI USB flash drive.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/15458-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-create-windows.html

You can boot from this flash drive to be able to do a system restore at boot.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/4692-system-restore-how-do-windows-8-a.html

 

[okstout4]

Ok. Now I have the flash drive. How do I reboot the computer to read and boot from the flash drive?

 

[Brink]

Good news. Here you go.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/53296-usb-drive-boot-within-windows-8-a.html

 

[okstout4]

Guess I am going to have to create a "recover disk" possibly? I am not able to do most of the options here because I cannot get into the computer at all. Here are some shots of what my screen looks like. I CANNOT get past these two screens. Absolutely cannot get past either of these screens. When I log into one, it takes me to the dark blue screen w/the photo in the middle. If I click on the photo in the middle, it takes me right back to the lighter blue log in screen. Other than that, I can Restart. I have tried Shut down, but its not actually doing it I dont think. Restarting takes me back to the log on screens.

 

[Brink]

Guess I am going to have to create a "recover disk" possibly? I am not able to do most of the options here because I cannot get into the computer at all. Here are some shots of what my screen looks like. I CANNOT get past these two screens. Absolutely cannot get past either of these screens. When I log into one, it takes me to the dark blue screen w/the photo in the middle. If I click on the photo in the middle, it takes me right back to the lighter blue log in screen. Other than that, I can Restart. I have tried Shut down, but its not actually doing it I dont think. Restarting takes me back to the log on screens.

That or installation media to boot from to try and do a system restore at boot, or to refresh Windows.

 

[okstout4]

I created a System Recovery USB Flash drive and its a no go. Im not sure if the computer is reading the flash drive or not. I cannot create a repair Disk because windows 8.1 doesnt support it.

I am at a complete loss. I am also very angry that just going into UEFI effed up my daughters computer. This makes no since at all what so ever. You even have a tutorial showing people how to get into it. I got into it by myself (not using your tutorial) and made NO changes and exited out. WTH is going on?

This should be a screen shot of one of the UEFI screens. Its all I have.

 

[Brink]

As a test, when you are at the screen below, click/tap on the Power button at the bottom right corner, press and hold the Shift key, and click/tap on Restart to see if it will take you to the advanced startup options screen at boot. If you get there, then see if you may be able to do a system restore at boot.

 

[okstout4]

OMG! That actually worked! OK. The screen Im at says Choose an option: Troubleshoot or Turn off your PC. When I choose Troubleshoot it takes me to the Advanced screen. My ONLY option there is UEFI Firmware settings. There is no Refresh or reset you PC like the Troubleshoot button says there is. Thats how I got into this mess, buy clicking on Troubleshoot and going into the UEFI thinking the Reset options would be there.

 

[Brink]

Ok, good.

Make sure that you do not have the USB flash drive connected.

When you get to the first screenshot below again, see if you are able to click on Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, and System Restore. If so, then see if you are able to select a restore point dated before this happened to go back to.

 

[okstout4]

Nope. This is my ONLY option under Advanced.

Does it help to know its an Acer Aspire M5 581T Ultrabook? Win 8.1 I believe.

 

[Brink]

I was afraid you weren't mistaken about that.

See if you are able to boot from your recovery USB using the steps at the Acer link below.

Restoring your computer using a USB recovery drive

 

[okstout4]

Ok. I followed the instructions and now have Refresh, Reset and Advanced under Troubleshoot.

If I choose Refresh, I get this message...


If I choose System Restore, I get this message...


The lady in the video did a complete Reset and that is not what I want to do (or want to avoid doing at all costs as nothing is backed up on the computer). So I am not sure if I should be doing an option chosen above or something else.

 

[Brink]

If you go into "Advanced Options", do you have the "System Restore" option available to use?

 

[okstout4]

Yes, I do. But here's what happened since I last sent you the message. I tried using the option to go back into Win 8.1 and it took me to the blue sign in screen. But tried to sign in and it was doing the same thing as before. So I did what you said to do to reboot the computer and got back to where you told me to watch the video. I did everything again, but this time the Operating system button showed up. I was able to do a System restore and was able to select Windows 8.1 and now its in the process of doing the restore. We selected the farthest restore point we could get.

I could see in the restore dates that my daughter did download something and I restored it back before that download. She did indicate her computer was having issues before the download. The download was sparkol video scribe, which is a whiteboard video animation that she says other people have used.

The whole reason for this journey was that I was trying to find a way to get some logs to post to a forum that I was seeking help at in getting my daughters computer fixed of issues she was having. The computer would not allow me to download anything to it and if it did, I was not able to get it to open. So I went looking for a way to put the computer in Safe Mode in order to get the logs. Could not find Safe Mode or System Restore. That is how I ended up here. I needed to get this issue cleared up before they would help me resolve my other issues.

The lap top finally posted a message. It couldnt finish the restore. What now? As far as I know, she is not using a virus program. She had McAfee and the subscription ran out. I get this same error message on my computer, but I have at least 2 virus programs running. She also uses IE BTW, I tried to remove McAfee and another program my daughter does not use and it would not allow me to Uninstall them. It would not allow me to down load a new anti virus program either.