How to open the BIOS in Windows 11 - The Big Tech Question

There are a few different methods to open the BIOS on your computer. One of the most common ways is to keep hitting a particular key on your keyboard when the machine first boots. However, modern PCs start up so quickly that they often don’t notice your furious tapping, and you end up with Windows loading instead of the BIOS. Thankfully, there are other ways to open the BIOS with Windows 11, so let’s look at how to do just that.

How to launch Advanced Startup to open the BIOS

To open the BIOS in Windows 11, launch the Advanced Startup options. As the name suggests, these options allow you to troubleshoot booting issues, reset Windows and get to the BIOS. There are various ways to open Advanced Startup, and one of the easiest is to restart your computer while holding down the Shift key. To do this, find Restart in the Start menu and, before you select it, press and hold Shift on your keyboard. Now click Restart, and Windows will open the Advanced Startup options rather than restarting.

Another way to launch the Advanced startup options is through Windows 11’s Settings. First, open Settings from the Start Menu, or hold down the Windows key, and press I. Once the Settings window is available, select System from the left-hand menu and Recovery from the right-hand pane. When the Recovery options appear, select the Restart now button to the right of Advanced Startup.

Windows 11 Settings Recovery and Advanced start up

Windows will now warn you that you should save any work before continuing. If you’re happy all is okay, select Restart now. Otherwise, choose Close, save what’s needed and then return to restart.

How to open the BIOS with Advanced Startup

Once you’ve launched the Advanced startup options, select Troubleshoot.

Windows Advanced Start up - Choose an Option

From the Troubleshoot options, select Advanced options.

Windows Advanced Start up - Troubleshoot options

Now choose UEFI Firmware Settings, and then click Restart to restart the PC and open the BIOS.

(If you’re wondering why it says UEFI instead of BIOS, UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface and is the name for the newer type of BIOS now found in all modern PCs.)