Create Shortcut to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings in Windows 10

DavidY · 26 Sep 2017

Kari said:

Some examples:

Shutdown in 30 seconds, using either default delay or setting delay manually to 30 seconds:

shutdown /s

shutdown /s /t 30

Restarting to UEFI settings immediately (no delay):

shutdown /r /fw /t 0

Slightly off-topic but in my experience there is a significant difference between
/t 0
and
/t 1
(or any other number greater than zero).

You might think the only difference is one second, but my observation suggests that /t 0 does a "graceful" shutdown which waits for apps to close themselves, and allows you to cancel and go back and save unsaved files if the app doesn't close naturally.

Whereas /t 1 is more brutal - it just shuts everything down after 1 second and kills apps regardless.

At least that's what I have observed - not sure where this might be documented.

Dude · 26 Sep 2017

Great stuff

Kari · 27 Sep 2017

DavidY said:

You might think the only difference is one second, but my observation suggests that /t 0 does a "graceful" shutdown which waits for apps to close themselves, and allows you to cancel and go back and save unsaved files if the app doesn't close naturally.
Whereas /t 1 is more brutal - it just shuts everything down after 1 second and kills apps regardless.

You are on the right track with that, David.

Again a not too well documented thing about shutdown command is the difference between time delay 0 seconds (/t 0, immediately) and time delay greater than 0 (/t X, where X is greater or equal than 1).

If delay 0 is used when there are applications open, Windows tells user that there are running applications letting user to decide if shutdown command should be performed anyway, closing all running apps discarding unsaved changes, or if user wants to cancel the shut down process.

Example: Notepad and Command Prompt open when running command shutdown /s /t 0:

Create Shortcut to Boot to UEFI Firmware Settings in Windows 10-image.png

Instead of just closing Notepad and Command prompt and shutting down, Windows checks what user wants to do:

However, if in exactly the same scenario we change the delay to 1 second (or more), shutdown command forcefully closes Notepad and Command Prompt after given delay and shuts down without any warnings about open applications.

Short: using delay 0 you can prevent accidentally shutting down when you have unsaved changes in any running application, whereas using delay 1 or greater all unsaved changes will be discarded and PC forced to shut down.

If you want to, you can use the /f (force) switch even with delay 0 to force Windows to close all apps discarding unsaved changes:

shutdown /s /f /t 0

Dude said:

Great stuff

Thanks Dude!

Minionguyjpro · 12 Apr 2022

Kari said:

Your screenshot tells the full story (I've highlighted the error message):
Attachment 155120

This method works without issues on all UEFI based machines, legacy BIOS machines might get the error like you did.

Cool!

I made software which could do this easy and is still updated some times. Check it here: GitHub - FreakinSoftMania/WinUEFI: An program to easily go into the UEFI/BIOS in Windows

- - - Updated - - -

Kari said:

Thanks! You have a BIOS machine?

I think that depends on the BIOS. Some may support that, others not.

Steve C · 26 Mar 2023

I now have a dual display setup with both monitors on a DisplayPort cable. When I restart to the UEFI screen now the screen is blank with the monitor in standby. When I wake the monitor and select the right input all is fine. I can't work out why the monitor doesn't show the UEFI screen and come out of standby automatically.