How to Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS
You might be wondering if Windows 10 is using UEFI or the legacy BIOS.
For more information, see:
This tutorial will show you different ways on how to check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or legacy BIOS.
Contents
- Option One: To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in System Information
- Option Two: To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in Disk Management
- Option Three: To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS using BCDEDIT command
- Option Four: To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in Command Prompt at Boot
- Option Five: To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in PowerShell
OPTION ONE
To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in System Information
1 Press the
Win +
R keys to open Run, type
msinfo32 into Run, and click/tap on
OK to open System Information.
2 In the right pane of
System Summary in System Information, see if the
BIOS Mode item has a value of
Legacy or
UEFI. (see screenshots below)

OPTION TWO
To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in Disk Management
1 Open the
Win+X menu, and click/tap on
Disk Management.
2 If your Windows disk shows having an
EFI partition, then it's using
UEFI. If your Windows disk shows having an
System Reserved partition, then it's using
Legacy BIOS. (see screenshots below)

OPTION THREE
To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS using BCDEDIT command
1 Open an
elevated command prompt or a
command prompt at boot.
2 Type
bcdedit | find "path"
(recommended) OR
bcdedit
into the command prompt, and press
Enter. (see screenshots below)
3 Look under the
Windows Boot Loader section for your Windows 10, and look to see if the
path is
\Windows\system32\winload.exe (legacy BIOS) or
\Windows\system32\winload.efi (UEFI).

OPTION FOUR
To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in Command Prompt at Boot
1 Open a
command prompt at boot.
2 Type the command below into the command prompt, and press
Enter. (see screenshot below)
wpeutil UpdateBootInfo
3 Type the command below into the command prompt, and press
Enter.
reg query HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control /v PEFirmwareType
4 Look to see if the
PEFirmwareType DWORD shows as
0x1 (legacy BIOS) or
0x2 (UEFI). (see screenshot below)
OPTION FIVE
To Check if Windows 10 is using UEFI or Legacy BIOS in PowerShell
1 Open
PowerShell.
2 Copy and paste the
$env:firmware_type
command into PowerShell, and press
Enter. (see screenshots below)
3 Look to see if
UEFI or
Legacy is reported.

That's it,
Shawn