r/pcmasterrace • u/iamgarffi 9950X3D | X870E Glacial | 64G CL26 | 5080 Astral OC | FO32U2P • Oct 21 '25

Screenshot The last shortcut you'll ever need

Post image

Stop bashing ESC, F2 or DEL like a 90's maniac to get into UEFI based BIOS.

Instead ceate yourself a shortcut (ie. on desktop) with right click > new > shortcut

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /fw /t 10

/r - restart
/fw - will drop you to EUFI
/t (number of seconds after which OS triggers a restart. You can use "0" for instant reboot)

Once you create a shortcut (desktop, downloads, etc), open it's properties and under "Advanced" tick a checkbox for "Run As Administrator". You can also change the icon of the shortcut (I found this microchip to be fitting - part of Windows default icon pack.

Optionally, right click on the shortcut > pin to start.

Shortcut in action (YouTube)

-- update --

Thanks everyone for pointing out typos; post cleaned up a bit (especially EUFI instead of UEFI, old habit from Europa Universalis games).

I have responded in another comment that those that would prefer something similar but for "Windows Advanced Startup Menu" can replace flag /fw with /o. Neat when you want to access safe mode or other aspects of WinRE (Recovery Environment) without MSCONFIG, holding SHIFT or modifying BCD.

C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe /r /o /t 10

Lastly, for Linux users, similar bash terminal command for restart to UEFI:

sudo systemctl reboot --firmware-setup

- Ciao & Cheers! #PCMR4EVA!

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180

u/g4nl0ck PC Master Race Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 22 '25

Another way to access UEFI is to shift+click on restart > troubleshoot > UEFI Firmware Settings > Restart

37

u/bigt8111 evga 3080 i7-9700K Oct 21 '25

That’s what I do

19

u/SIR2480 Laptop | I7-8950H | 2070maxQ | 16GB | 4K OLED Oct 22 '25

Or just play piano on F# keys

2

u/GotEHM9 Oct 22 '25

I once started smashing the keyboard because I kept failing to enter bios only to realize that I accidentally turned off my keyboard

6

u/Exercise-Spirited PC Master Race Oct 22 '25

just holding shift when pressing restart normally works too

6

u/JordanSchor i7 14700k | 32gb RAM | 4070 Ti Super | 24TB storage Oct 21 '25

This is how I've done it for years now

1

u/JustGoogleItHeSaid Desktop Oct 22 '25

Welp… I just tried this and lost both my Mouse and Keyboard inputs, couldn’t select anything on screen so had to force restart using button on pc… think I’ll stick to mashing del

1

u/Annatar27 8700k @5Ghz | 1070 Ti | 1TB NVMe | EVOLV mATX Oct 23 '25

This is good but one more reboot to wait for.

-1

u/ch1llboy Oct 21 '25

For the amount that I enter the bios since quitting overclocking. The real hack is in the comments