All computers have special keys that allow you to access important settings in the computer's firmware. These keys are pressed during the computer's startup process. They give you access to low-level functions that control how the computer works.
The problem is that these keys are not standardized, so they can be different for each computer. Usually, the keys should be displayed on the screen when you start the computer, but sometimes they're not shown, especially on fast boot modes or laptops. Also, different computer manufacturers use different keys, which makes it more confusing. The good news is that the keys tend to be the same for all computers made by the same brand.
There are also special keys that let you choose which storage device to start the computer from, such as hard drives, USB drives, or CD/DVDs.
Here are some of the key combinations for accessing the firmware settings for different computer brands:
- Acer: F2 or Delete
- ASUS: F2 or Delete
- Compaq: F10 or Escape
- Dell: F2 or F12
- Fujitsu: F2 or F12
- HP: F10 or Escape
- Lenovo: F1, F2, or a dedicated button (like the nano button)
- Packard Bell: F8 or F12
- Samsung: F10, F2, or Escape
- Sony: F1, F2, F3, or an assist button
- Toshiba: F2, F12, or Escape
For Apple laptops, there are different key combinations:
- Command + Option + P + R: Resets PRAM and NVRAM.
- Command + S: Boot into single user mode.
- Command + V: Boot with verbose status.
- Option: Select boot volume.
- Option + N: Boot from a server image.
- Shift: Boot in safe mode.
- C: Boot from the optical drive.
- D: Boot into recovery mode and run hardware tests.
- N: Boot from a network.
If you have a computer with a motherboard from ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, or ASRock, and you built the computer yourself, the motherboard manual will have the specific key for accessing the firmware settings.
In newer laptops with fast SSDs, it may be challenging to activate the keys in time. In these cases, it's best to turn off the computer, press and hold the access key for the firmware settings or the key for selecting the boot device, and then start the computer.
For computers with Windows, there's a special menu that includes Safe Mode, and you can access the firmware settings from there without needing to press any key during startup. To access this menu, hold down the Shift key, restart the computer from the boot menu, and look for the BIOS option.