Computer users who have ever installed or reinstalled the Windows operating system are probably aware of the term BIOS as most of the time, we need to change the BIOS settings to enable boot from CD/DVD/USB. As you probably know, PC makers have been replacing the outdated BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) with the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface).
UEFI features
UEFI offers more features when compared to the standard BIOS and solves many of the limitations of BIOS. For instance, unlike BIOS, UEFI systems boot faster and support hard disks with more than 2 TB. Almost all PCs shipped with Windows 10 support UEFI firmware.
If you aren’t sure whether your PC is booted into UEFI or legacy BIOS mode, you can go through your PC’s user manual or check the manufacturer’s website, but there is actually an easier way to check the current boot environment without using third-party tools.
How to access UEFI settings in Windows 10/11 guide might also be of interest to you.
Does your PC support UEFI?
Follow the given below instructions to check whether your PC is using BIOS or EFI/UEFI:
Step 1: Turn on the PC and sign in to your account.
Step 2: Open up the Windows installed drive (generally, it’s “C”).
Step 3: In your Windows 10/11 installation drive, open up the folder titled Windows, locate the folder named Panther, open it, and then open the text file titled Setupact in Notepad.
Step 4: Look for an entry named Detected Boot Environment. You can use Ctrl + F keys to quickly search for Detected Boot Environment. At the end of Detected Boot Environment, BIOS or UEFI will appear. If your PC supports UEFI, you’ll see Detected Boot Environment: UEFI or EFI. That’s it!
Hope this helps!
Melchizedek says
My Panther folder has another (only one) folder named “UnattendGC” which has a setupact.log file and 3 others. The contents of this file aren’t in any way related to what I’ve seen above (screenshot available). What can I do please to know whether my PC supports UEFI?
zzz says
does it work for BIOS?
kishore kiran says
In my Windows 10 HP laptop I do not see the UEFI Firmware settings and the Detected boot environment is also not available in the setupact file.
Arpit Parekh says
In my Windows 7, ASUS Laptop I could not find a file named setupact.log.
Jason P says
This article is inaccurate. When I look at C:\Windows\Panther\setupact.log, the log states “Detected boot environment: BIOS”.
I have a PC (Dell OptiPlex 7020) that is currently in BIOS mode with Windows 10, however I know it supports UEFI as I have been reimaging my whole inventory with UEFI enabled / Windows 10.
sabian says
but wanted to know how to check if my board supports uefi !!! I already my board has bios but planning to convert so want to check if my motherboard supports efi/uefi.
Sourav Dey says
Thanks a lot.
Anthony Maw says
the bigger trick is to figure out how to re-load windows 8 / 8.1 onto a system that has UEFI. most tech support sites suggest to revert the boot back to BIOS. Loading Windows onto UEFI is much more difficult…..