BIOS/UEFI Changes from within Windows (or any other OS, for that matter)

[britechguy]

Yet another question triggered secondary to accessibility issues for blind users.

There are makers of machines out there who include utilities that clearly are tweaking BIOS from within Windows for certain functions. The one that springs to mind most immediately is toggling the SmartKeys/MediaKeys feature for function keys on/off. HP does not have one of these utilities and you have to do this in UEFI, but Lenovo does, so while you can go in to UEFI and flip that switch, it's not necessary.

I'm not so foolish as to believe a utility could exist that could handle all makers and features of all UEFI/BIOS, but I am wondering if any clever programmers out there ever created a utility that, for instance, would allow the resetting of boot order from within Windows. This would make it possible, at least if that utility itself is accessible, for a blind user to rearrange boot order (and, believe it or not, the need does arise) without engaging sighted assistance.

I'm just curious if anyone here has encountered such a utility (or utilities), and if so, what you've seen them be capable of doing? I've never even tripped over such a beast, yet I can believe it may be out there, somewhere.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Actually... in theory there should be a generic utility. One of the things that UEFI provides is a means to do exactly that, in standardized way.

I don't know of one off hand though, but it could exist. The windows boot loader incorporates some of this functionality too.

 

[britechguy]

Thanks. The current problem being the "in theory" part. Let's hope it may exist.

One of my favorite quotations, for which I've never been able to find attribution, and which applies to all sorts of arenas:

In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.

 

[Sky-Knight]

What specifically do you need the utility to do? Because the boot order in UEFI is available programmatically via Windows's boot loader.

How to change Boot order in Windows 11/10

Windows Recovery System allows you to get into UEFI/BIOS settings from the OS & change your boot order. You can boot from HDD, SSD, USB or DVD Drive.

www.thewindowsclub.com

 

[britechguy]

@Sky-Knight

That would be one of the big things, but I'm going to have to step through those instructions. It appears to open a "direct portal" to UEFI/BIOS, and that's problematic for the blind because I have yet to find a UEFI/BIOS interface that exposes anything to a screen reader, so though they could get there the situation would be no different than it is if you interrupt the boot sequence.

But I must play with this with a screen reader to confirm/refute. Thank you for the pointer.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@britechguy Oh... yeah no you're right. You can modify UEFI's boot order from there, and get into the BIOS. But once there, no accessibility features.

This is a bit of a black hole, because without an IPKVM, there really isn't a way to get at what's in the UEFI / BIOS remotely. Well unless you're a black hat... then you get all the toys.

 

[Markverhyden]

Just wanted to toss out a reminder about Intel AMT. Business class computers only with Intel vPro chips.

But it does require a second computer. Since it uses an app it's possible that it can be accessed by a screen reader.

I vaguely remember AMD having something as well that never went anywhere.

 

[britechguy]

Mark,

Thanks again. In most cases, for most blind home users, this is not useful at all. But there are blind IT geeks and it could be helpful to some of them.

Brian