BIOS and UEFI: similarities and differences between the technologies that control the boot of our computers

With the arrival of Windows 11 in a few days, one of the concepts to which we have become accustomed is secure boot, one of the requirements to install the new operating system that is present in the UEFI of the computers that we can find in the market. The UEFI is the successor to the BIOS that we all know and now let's see how they coincide and how they differ

UEFI and BIOS. BIOS and UEFi. Two technologies that have the same purpose and that is none other than to control the startup of our computer and of all the components that start each time we press the start button switched on.

Both BIOS and UEFI are technologies that control the booting of the computer and the startup of all components They are part of the code isolated and almost inaccessible that is stored in a separate memory located on the motherboard of the computer.

BIOS

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BIOS, an acronym for Basic Input Output System>The BIOS starts the various components, loads functions such as power and temperature management of the computer, and launches the PC&39;s operating system. "

When you turn on your computer, the first thing that loads on it is the BIOS This firmware is then in charge of starting, configuring, and checking that The computer hardware, including RAM, hard drives, motherboard or graphics card, is in good condition.When finished, select the boot device (hard drive, CD, USB, etc.) and proceed to start the operating system, giving it control of your computer.

In fact, it sure sounds to you that when you start the computer you find a series of instructions at the bottom of the screen. Instructions related to keys such as F10, F2, F12, F1 or DEL used to access the BIOS on a Windows computer and that change depending on the maker. If you press the hotkey assigned to the BIOS while the computer is booting, you should be able to see the BIOS setup utility screen you are looking for.

UEFI

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The term UEFI is an acronym for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface>system that began to succeed from the year 2005, 30 years after the birth of the BIOS. "

La is the result of an agreement between different technology companies (AMD, Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft...) that created the UEFI Foundation in 2002 to create a system successor to the BIOS, more effective and at the same time more secure and visually attractive.

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When accessing the UEFI, the most practical thing is to do it through the System Configuration entering thesection Update and security and in the left zone clicking on Recovery We will then see the option of Advanced Boot and a Restart Now button. Then in Choose an option, we select Solve problems, Advanced Options, UEFI Firmware Setup, and then select Restart "

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It can also be accessed from the command prompt by typing the command shutdown.exe /r /o and pressing Enter. "

There are also variants depending on the equipment used and for example on the Surface that I use I can access while it is turned off by pressing the up button volume and at the same time, pressing and releasing the power button. We leave pressing the volume up button and when the UEFI screen appears, we release it.

Differences and similarities

There are many similarities between BIOS and UEFI, since basically both have the same objective and do the same thing: control the startup of our equipment. But at the same time they hide important differences that we will now see.

• The first aspect where we see the difference is the interface. The UEFI sports a much more user-friendly design than the BIOS. While the BIOS sports a layout reminiscent of MS-DOS and requires us to use the keyboard to navigate through options, the UEFI allows the use of the mouse in a more modern interface similar to that offered by an operating system.
• With the arrival of a modern design, the UEFi also improves in functions, as can be updated by connecting to the Internet.

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• UEFI has introduced the Secure Boot> feature, one of the requirements for installing Windows 11. The goal of this enhancement is to prevent booting of unauthenticated operating systems hours ago we saw the threat to protect against bootkits, which are executed when Windows starts."
• While BIOS runs on 16-bit code, UEFI runs on 32-bit or 64-bit code.
• Computer booting is faster with UEFI than it was with BIOS.
• UEFI supports GPT file system.
• UEFI is modular in design.

• Independent of CPU architecture and drivers.
• Supports larger storage units with up to 128 partitions.
• UEFI can be loaded into any non-volatile memory resource, allowing it to be independent of any operating system. You can also add third-party extensions, such as overclocking tools or diagnostic software.