How to See If Windows is Running on UEFI or BIOS

Wondering whether you are running UEFI or Legacy BIOS? Follow these steps to find out if you are using UEFI or Legacy BIOS.

Whether you are on board or not, BIOS is dead (almost). Most PCs you buy nowadays ship with the modern UEFI rather than BIOS. In fact, for regular consumers, Intel/AMD no longer releases chipsets with old-school BIOS support for Windows 11.

On UEFI-supported systems, Windows 10 can enable additional features such as Secure Boot, Trusted Boot, TPM (Trusted Platform Module), Device Guard, BitLocker Network Unlock, etc. Windows 11, the current version, requires UEFI to install. So, if you’ve bought a PC recently or a few years ago and want to find out whether you are on UEFI or BIOS, follow the steps below, and you will know in no time.

Quick navigation links

• Benefits of UEFI
• Method 1 – Using Setup Log File
• Method 2 – Using the built-in System Information program

The verification methods below work in Windows 7 and 8, too.

Benefits of UEFI

Fundamentally, BIOS and UEFI are both low-level software that check and boot your system before the actual operating system boots. One thing to note is that the BIOS was released way back in the 1980s. Of course, it has been improving over time and continues to do so.

But still, it is inherently limited. For instance, it cannot check or initialize multiple hardware devices at once, cannot support hard drives larger than 2.1TB, and has limited internal space for code and textures.

Due to all these limitations, the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) specification was developed. Some of the benefits you get from UEFI include, but are not limited to:

• Faster startup and shutdown times.
• PCs with UEFI can use Secure Boot. If you don’t, Secure Boot is designed to protect Windows 11 & 10 from malware and other nasty stuff that runs in the pre-boot process.
• The UEFI setup screen is much more cleaner, feature-rich, and supports mouse input.
• The UEFI specification supports networking which is boon for remote configuration and troubleshooting.

Method #1: Check UEFI or BIOS with Setup Log File

The first method is probably the best one. All you have to do is open a file and see if it says UEFI or BIOS. Just follow the steps, and you should be good.

Step 1. First off, open File Explorer with the keyboard shortcut “Windows key + E”. Alternatively, you can also open it by searching for it in the Start menu or by clicking on the File Explorer icon in the taskbar.

Step 2. In the File Explorer, navigate to “C:\Windows\Panther\” folder. If you’ve installed Windows on some other drive, modify the folder path accordingly.

Step 3. Here, please find a file named “setupact.log” and double-click on it to open it. By default, the file should open in Notepad. If not, right-click on the file and select “Open with” > “Notepad“.

Step 4. Now, press “Ctrl + F” on the keyboard, type “detected boot environment” in the “Find what” field, select the radio option “Down,” and click the “Find Next” button.

Note: On Windows 11, click the “Search down” (down arrow) icon after entering the search text in the blank field.

5. If your PC is running on UEFI, you will see something like “Detected boot environment: UEFI.”

However, if your PC is running on Legacy BIOS, you will see “Detected boot environment: BIOS.”

That’s it. It is that simple to check.

Check If Your PC Supports UEFI or BIOS – Method 2

If you think the above method is confusing because you need to navigate a maze of folders on the “C drive” and open an obscure file, here is an even simpler method. We are going to use the good old built-in System Information tool.

Step 1. To start off, press the “Windows key + R” shortcut to open the Run dialog. Next, type “msinfo32” in the blank field and click the “OK” button.

Step 2. The command above will open the System Information tool. Here, select the “System Summary” option in the left panel. You can see your BIOS mode next to the “BIOS Mode” field on the right panel.

Step 3. If you see the BIOS Mode set to “Legacy“, it means Windows is running in BIOS mode.

If you see BIOS mode as “UEFI“, it means Windows is running in UEFI mode.

That’s all there is to do, and it is that simple to check whether your PC is running on UEFI or BIOS. You can use any of the above two methods to know the result with just a few clicks.

I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.

Good to read: How to convert Windows from Legacy BIOS to UEFI.