How to open the boot menu. Calling the boot menu on different motherboards

When installing an operating system, you need to go to the Boot Menu to tell your computer which device to boot from. This is also necessary when you need to start from a Live CD or bootable USB flash drive. Today I will tell and show you how to enter Boot Menu both on PC motherboards and laptops.

Just like you need to press a special key (F2 or Del) to enter the BIOS or UEFI, there is also a specific button to bring up the boot menu. As a rule, these are the F11, F12 or Esc keys, but there are exceptions. Usually, when you turn on the computer, under the splash screen you can see a key that is responsible for calling the Boot Menu.

You can, of course, do without the Boot Menu by simply selecting a certain order for loading devices in the BIOS, but if you want to boot one-time (checking for viruses or installing a system), then I would advise using the boot menu, because it is much faster.

So, why do you need the Boot Menu at all - you ask. This menu shows a list of devices connected to the PC from which you can boot (flash drives, CDs, hard drives) for further installation of the system or for testing components.

Logging into the Boot Menu in Windows 8 and Windows 10

If you are the proud owner of a laptop on which Windows 8, 8.1 or Windows 10 was originally installed, then you may not be able to enter the Boot Menu. I’ll explain why: shutdown in these systems is not complete, since it is more like hibernation, so when you press F11, F12, Esc, the boot menu may not open. There are several ways to fix this:
- hold down the Shift button when selecting “Shutdown” and then the PC should turn off completely;
- disabling quick system startup - in G8, go to the Control Panel,

Go to "Power Supplies"

On the left, click on "Power button actions"

Disable the “Enable fast startup” item (you can do this even if not on a laptop).

Logging into the Boot Menu on Asus laptops and motherboards

On almost all Asus desktop computers, to enter the boot menu you need to press the F8 button immediately when the computer turns on. If we press F9 or Del, we will get to the BIOS.

Regarding laptops, it's a little confusing. The Esc key opens the boot menu on modern models; on older laptops, the F8 key works, and mainly on models whose names begin with the letter k or x. In short, if the Esc key does not bring up the Boot Menu, then we reboot and try pressing F8.

Logging into the Boot Menu on Lenovo laptops

To open the boot menu on Lenovo laptops, just press the F12 key. If you want to use additional boot options, press the additional arrow key,

Logging into the Boot Menu on Acer laptops

On all Acer laptops and all-in-one PCs, the Boot Menu can be accessed using the F12 key when turned on. But laptops from this company have one unpleasant feature - the ability to call the boot menu is disabled in the BIOS settings. To fix this, let's get into the BIOS by pressing the F2 key. Now let's find the "F12 Boot Menu" parameter and activate it so that the word Enabled appears next to it. All that remains is to save the settings and exit the BIOS.

Below in the table you can see all other laptops and the key to call the Boot Menu and BIOS:

I hope the information in this manual was useful to you. If you have any difficulties getting into the boot menu, then write in the comments, I will try to help!

Do you want to boot your computer from a flash drive or disk? To do this, it is not necessary to go into the BIOS settings. Especially if you don’t understand much about it. After all, there is an easier way. In this case, just enter the Boot Menu and change the device boot priority. This is done in about 10 seconds. And most importantly, there is no shamanism in the BIOS.

What do users usually do to reinstall Windows? As a rule, they record a licensed digital copy on, and then execute.

Boot Menu (or boot menu) is an extremely useful BIOS option. With its help, you can quickly set the boot priority of devices. Simply put, launching the Boot Menu opens a small window in which you can immediately put the flash drive (or DVD) in first place, and the hard drive in second. In this case, you do not need to enter the BIOS.

In addition, changing settings in the Boot Menu does not affect the BIOS settings. That is, this option works once - for one activation. And when you restart your PC, Windows will boot from the hard drive (as usual). If you need to start installing Windows from a flash drive again, call the Boot Menu again.

If you remember, when changing the settings in the BIOS, you had to go into it again and change the device boot priority back (i.e. put the hard drive in first place). But in the case of the Booth Menu, you don’t need to do this.

How to call Boot Menu

It's very simple - click one key when Windows boots. Which one exactly? It depends on:

BIOS version;
motherboard;
laptop models.

That is, the situation is exactly the same as with the BIOS. For example, in order to, you need to press the Del or F2 button, and to open the Boot Menu you need to click another one.

Most often this is Esc or F12. Although, as mentioned above, the call button may differ on different PCs.

Therefore, below we will look at how to launch the Boot Menu on popular brands of laptops and personal computers.

How to enable Boot Menu on Lenovo laptops

Owners of Lenovo laptops should not have any difficulties. After all, the Boot Menu on Lenovo is launched very simply - by pressing the F12 key when loading Windows.

Plus, on the body of many models there is a special button with a curved arrow. You can press it if you want to select additional. download options.

Launch Boot Menu on PC with mat. Asus board couldn't be easier

You need to press the F8 key when it boots (at the same time that you would normally enter the BIOS).

And there is a little confusion with Asus laptops. It seems that the manufacturer is the same, but there are several buttons to launch the Boot Menu. After all, the Boot Menu on Asus laptops is launched using one of two keys:

Most often this is the Esc button, although it can also be F8. However, there are only 2 keys.

The boot menu on Acer opens by pressing the F12 button

But there is one small nuance here. The fact is that the Boot Menu is usually disabled on Acer laptops. And when you press F12, nothing will happen. To make it work, you need to do the following:

Go to the BIOS (when booting the laptop, press the F2 button).
Go to the “Main” tab.
Look for the line “F12 Boot Menu” and change the value “Disabled” to “Enabled”.
Save the changed settings and exit the BIOS.

The system will reboot and you can enter the boot menu on your Acer laptop using F12.

How to enable Boot Menu on Samsung laptops

On Samsung you need to press the Esc key. But owners of Samsung laptops need to know one feature. The fact is that to call the Boot Menu you need to click the Esc button once! If you click twice, the window will simply close.

Therefore, you will have to get used to it in order to know exactly when to press the Esc key. Although there is nothing complicated here - just a couple of attempts.

HP also has its own specifics

Launching the Boot Menu on HP also has its own specifics. After all, opening the Boot Menu is done a little differently.

When you turn on Windows, immediately press the Esc key.
The launch menu will be displayed - press the F9 button.
Ready.

After this, the boot menu of the HP laptop will open, and you can set the priority for turning on devices (using the arrows).

Boot menu on Windows 10 or 8

If Windows 8 or Windows 10 is installed on your PC or laptop, then you most likely will not be able to enable the Boot Menu.

The fact is that these OSs have a small peculiarity - by default they have “Quick Start” enabled, so they are not completely turned off. This is called hibernation (something like sleep mode). Therefore, when you boot your PC or laptop, you will not be able to open this menu on Windows 10.

There are three ways to fix this:

Hold Shift when turning off your laptop or PC. After this, it will turn off normally (in the usual sense of the word). And then you can launch it on Windows 10 by pressing the desired key.
Instead of turning off your PC, you can restart it. And at the moment of turning on, just press a specific key corresponding to your laptop brand or motherboard.
Disable the Quick Start feature. To do this:

That’s it – now you can easily access the Boot Menu on Windows 10 or Windows 8.

For your convenience, below is a screenshot showing the keys to launch the Boot Menu for popular laptops and PCs

For example, for computers running on a mat. MSI board is the F11 button. And the Boot Menu on Sony VAIO laptops is launched using F12. In general, you can figure it out for yourself - the table is simple and understandable.

Also, for convenience, buttons for entering the BIOS are written. If for some reason you are unable to open the Boot Menu, you can always change the boot priority of devices in the standard way - through the BIOS.

Not everyone, even quite experienced users, knows about the presence of a so-called boot menu, or boot menu, on their computer or laptop, which can be called up when the system boots. And even if they have heard about it, they don’t always know what it is.

Please note that the concept of boot menu should not be confused with the OS boot manager, with which you can select the operating system you need installed on any of the logical disk partitions. Boot menu is a menu built into the BIOS for selecting boot from the physical device on which the operating system is located.

Why does a normal user need a boot menu? After all, as a rule, most users have computers with a pre-installed operating system, which ensures their functionality.

However, while working with a computer, the user is often faced with the need to use various options to boot the system. And the computer BIOS provides ample opportunities for this. You can load the operating system either from a hard drive (or from several, if you have more than one hard drive installed in the system unit) or from a floppy drive, and also use a CD or DVD drive as a boot device. As a rule, there is also an option in the boot menu to boot the system via the network. Additionally, with the recent proliferation of USB flash drives, they have also become extremely popular as bootable devices.

The reasons for using the boot menu can be varied. Let's say your operating system has crashed and you want to boot from a portable device to restore it. Or you are going to install the operating system on a clean hard drive.

How to get to the boot menu

First of all, do not forget that the boot device order can be set in the BIOS Setup menu. This feature is also worth remembering because some motherboards, especially on older computers, simply do not have a boot menu. Typically, a list of boot devices can be found in the Boot section, where you can set their priority, that is, arrange the devices in such an order that the system alternately searches for the operating system on each of them.

But suppose that for some reason you cannot go into the BIOS and install the desired device there, or you simply do not want to waste time on this. Then you have the opportunity to select a boot device right when the computer boots.

Entering the boot menu is quite simple - you just need to press a certain key during boot, just like you do to enter BIOS Setup. Usually different manufacturers assign different keys for this. This can be the F8, F11, F12, or Esc key. It all depends on the specific motherboard manufacturer, as well as the BIOS. Therefore, it is best to look at the documentation for a specific motherboard or laptop. Or look at the desired key on the screen while loading the BIOS.

But this method is unlikely to work in the case of a laptop, because the boot screen on a laptop flashes very quickly, and the user, as a rule, does not have time to notice what is written there. The only thing that can be recommended in this case is that on laptops, as a rule, the F12 key is used. So, if possible, try F12 first and then other function keys.

Please also keep in mind that the boot menu is designated differently on different systems - it may be called BBS Popup, MultiBoot Menu, Boot Agent, or something else.

Below we provide a list of the main keys used to open the boot menu, depending on the motherboard manufacturer and BIOS.

Desktops

MSI(motherboard) – AMI (BIOS) – F11
Gigabyte – Award – F12
BioStar - Phoenix-Award – F9
Asus – AMI – F8
Intel - Phoenix-Award - Esc
AsRock - AMI - F11
ChainTech – absent
ECS – AMI – F11
FoxConn – Esc
GigaByte – F12

Laptops

Asus - Esc
Acer-F12
Asus AMI - Esc
Asus Phoenix-Award – F8
Dell-F12
Fujitsu - F12
HP - Esc then F9
Lenovo-F12
MSI-F11
Samsung – Esc (note – press only 1 time when the boot screen appears!)
Sony - F11
Toshiba-F12

Conclusion

So, from this article you learned how to call the boot menu - a convenient built-in BIOS option that helps the user select a boot device. Of course, the boot menu cannot replace OS boot managers, such as ntldr in Windows, but its advantage is that it does not depend on a specific operating system.

Do you want to know how to enter the special boot BOOT menu of a computer or laptop?

To boot from a flash drive or CD - DVD drive?

In this article you will learn how to do it correctly.

When we do a clean installation of Windows, we need to boot from another medium rather than the hard drive.

This is either a CD - DVD disc or a flash drive.

Typically, this is done by entering the BIOS of a computer or laptop.

This is exactly what we did in previous lessons.

We went into the BIOS and changed the boot order of the devices.

It is at this step that approximately 90% of users who want to reinstall Windows stop.

They cannot enter the BIOS and make the necessary settings there.

There is an alternative way to select the boot device.

This is the BOOT menu. The BOOT menu is simpler and more convenient than entering the BIOS.

The essence of the BOOTH menu is to press a certain key when booting a computer or laptop.

A menu like this appears:

In this menu we can select any device and immediately boot from it.

Let's look at this in more detail.

I connected a bootable USB flash drive to the laptop. On my laptop, the Escape key is responsible for entering the Boot menu.

I pressed the Escape button, hold it down and, at the same time, turn on the laptop with the button. The Boot menu opened in front of me.

Using the cursor keys, up and down, I select the desired device. In this case it is a flash drive.

Once the desired device is selected, press the Enter key.

Ready! I booted from the flash drive and now I can start installing Windows.

So, to enter the BOOT menu, you need to press one key when you boot your computer or laptop.

As with the BIOS, the BOOT menu keys differ depending on the manufacturer and brand of your laptop or computer.

The most common keys are:

F12, Esc, F11, F9 and F8

Boot menu has significant advantages over BIOS.

1. Boot menu is simpler and faster to use.

2. You don't need to understand and change complex BIOS settings. Let me remind you that there are settings in the BIOS that, if you change them, your computer or laptop will stop booting completely. Using the Boot menu you will avoid this.

3. There is no need to return the BIOS settings back to their original state.

Of course, the Boot menu also has its own characteristics.

If you have Windows 10 or Windows 8.1, then to enter the BOOT menu, I recommend using restarting the computer instead of shutting down. The fact is that in these operating systems, the so-called Quick Start is activated by default.

Fast startup makes sure that when you shut down the computer does not turn off, in the usual sense of the word. He falls asleep, or rather enters hibernation.

So when you enable it, it will not give you the option to enter the Boot menu. It will simply wake up and show you the state it was in when you clicked the shutdown button.

The solution is very simple: use a reboot instead of shutting down.

Let's see how it's done:

So, my laptop is turned on, Windows is loaded, the bootable flash drive is connected. Now I enable reboot.

I just click on the Start button, click the Shut down button and click Restart.

Once the BOOT menu is in front of us, we can start installing Windows.

Quick startup can be disabled completely. And then you can use the Boot menu as usual when you turn on the computer.

The setup is very simple, I will now show you how it is done. Quick Start is disabled via the classic Control Panel. On Windows you can open it via search. Just enter the word “panel” into the search. As soon as the Control Panel icon appears in the search results, I simply press the Enter key.

In Control Panel, you can switch from categories to icons. Or you can simply search for Power Supply.

On the left we have Power Supplies. Click on it.

Here we need a button Actions of the power buttons. Click on it. To unlock settings that are not active, you need to click as shown in the picture. Changing parameters that are currently unavailable.

Now we can disable Quick Launch (Fast Boot), just uncheck the box. Then we save the changes.

After this, the Boot menu will be available to you upon boot.

In Windows 8.1, the setup is done in a similar way.

One more feature.

In some sophisticated BIOS and not so sophisticated ones, there is a menu item that disables the BOOT menu.

General information on entering the BIOS boot menu

Manufacturers provide special keys for both entering the BIOS or UEFI and calling the Boot Menu. In the first case it could be Del, F2, or a combination Alt+F2. In the second they can be used Esc, F11 or F12, but there are exceptions, which are given later in the article. Typically, a key prompt for entering the Boot Menu appears on the screen when the computer starts, but this does not always happen.

Features of loading Boot Menu on Windows 10

On laptops and computers running Windows 10, the above keys may not work. This is because shutting down in this operating system is not exactly like that. This process is more like hibernation. Therefore, when using F12, F11, Esc and other boot menu keys may not appear.

In this case, one of the methods below may help to enter the Boot Menu:

How to open the Boot Menu on Asus

In the case of Asus motherboards, you can enter the Boot Menu using the key F8 immediately after turning on the computer. Actually, the same as when trying to enter the BIOS or UEFI using the keys Del / F9. On ASUS laptops, one of the options can be used - entering the Boot Menu using the key F8, or Esc.

How to enter the Boot Menu on Lenovo laptops

On almost all all-in-one PCs and laptops from Lenovo, the key is responsible for launching the Boot Menu. F12. It, like on other devices, must be pressed when turning it on. There are also models where a separate small arrow button is provided to enter the boot menu. It is often located near the power button.

How to open Boot Menu on Acer laptops

Acer laptops and all-in-ones have a single key to enter the Boot Menu - F12. However, you can enter this menu only after enabling a special option. To activate it, when you start your computer, you need to get into the BIOS using the key F2 and change state Disabled on Enabled opposite the point F12 Boot Menu in the main BIOS settings.

Other models of laptops and motherboards

Below is a list of keys for entering the Boot Menu on laptops and PCs with motherboards from different manufacturers.

Motherboards:

Gigabyte - F12.
MSI - F11.
Intel - Esc.
AsRock - F11.
American Megatrends - F8.

Laptops and monoblocks:

HP - F9, or Esc, and then the F9 key.
Dell - F12.
Samsung - Esc.
Sony - F11.
Toshiba - F12.
Packard Bell - F12.

Manufacturer	Model (if not specified - all models)	Key to enter BOOT menu
Asus	Desktop computers	F8
	k25f, k34u, k35, k43u, k46cb, k52f, k53e, k55a, k60ij, k70ab, k72f, k73, k84l, k93, k95vb, k501, k601, R503C	Esc
	x32a, x35u, x54c, x61g, x64, x75a, x83, x90, x93sv, x95gl, x101ch, x102ba, x200ca, x202e, x301a, x401a, x401u, x501a, x502c, x750ja	F8
	VivoBook f200ca, f202e, q200e, s200e, s400ca, s500ca, u38n, v500ca, v550ca, v551, x200ca, x202e, x550ca, z202e	Esc
	N550, N750JV, g750, Infinity ux301la, Prime ux31a, Prime ux32vd, R509C, Taichi 21, Touch u500vz, Transformer Book TX300
Compaq	Presario	ESC, F9
Dell		F12
eMachines		F12
Fujitsu		F12
HP	Pavilion Media Center a1477, Pavilion 23 All In One, Pavilion g4, g6 and g7, Probook 4520s, 4525s, 4540s, 4545s, 5220m, 5310m, 5330m, 5660b, 5670b, Pavilion a410n	Esc
	Pavilion Elite e9000, e9120y, e9150t, e9220y, e9280t	ESC, F9
	Pavilion HPE PC, h8-1287c, Pavilion PC, p6 2317c, Pavilion PC, p7 1297cb, TouchSmart 520 PC, ENVY x2, m4, m4-1015dx, m4-1115dx, sleekbook m6, m6-1105dx, m6-1205dx, m6- k015dx, m6-k025dx, touchsmart m7, Envy, dv6 and dv7 PC, dv9700, Specter 14, Specter 13, 2000 - 2a20nr, 2a53ca, 2b16nr, 2b89wm, 2c29wm, 2d29wm	Esc (Then press F9 to enter “Boot Menu”)
	Other models	ESC, F9
Intel		F10
Lenovo	Desktop computers	F12, F8, F10
	IdeaPad P500	F12 or Fn + F11
	IdeaPad s300, u110, u310 Touch, u410, u510, y500, y510, yoga 11, yoga 13, z500	Novo Button (next after the power button), F12
	ThinkPad edge, e431, e531, e545, helix, l440, l540, s431, t440s, t540p, twist, w510, w520, w530, w540, x140, x220, x230, x240, X1 carbon, IdeaPad S10-3, g460, g470 , g475, g480, g485 and other models	F12
NEC		F5
Packard Bell		F8
Samsung	NC10, np300e5c, np300e5e, np350v5c, np355v5c, np365e5c, np550p5c	Esc
	Series 5 Ultra, Series 7 Chronos, Series 9 Ultrabook	Esc (You need to disable "Fast boot" in BIOS)
	Ativ Book 2, 8, 9	F2 (You need to disable "Fast boot" in BIOS)
	Other models	F12, ESC
Sony	VAIO Duo, Pro, Flip, Tap, Fit	Assist button (Press the Assist button when the computer is turned off, not when booting)
	VAIO, PCG, VGN	F11
	VGN	ESC, F10
Toshiba		F12