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Can we edit bios properties from desktop? without going to bios
like to set first boot device etc.
metal gear solid
Posted 2010-02-23T14:00:46.187
Reputation: 7 796
Can we edit bios properties from desktop?
Answers
12
Windows (your operating system) and your motherboard are entirely different things. The BIOS is integrated directly into the motherboard to act like a springboard (throwing master CPU control to the OS once it's prepared the system) for when it boots up. Windows, on the other hand, is on your harddrive and doesn't know anything about the motherboard except what the motherboard wants to tell it.
In short, no, you can't. The operating system doesn't have such low-level control over the system. If it did, you'd see a lot more viruses popping up and trashing your BIOS, right?
JMTyler
Posted 2010-02-23T14:00:46.187
Reputation: 301
1+1 for the more detailed explanation – ChrisF – 2010-02-23T15:08:00.097
ok but then how any virus can damage bios even if we don't go in bios – metal gear solid – 2010-02-23T15:17:24.383
2can you give the name of a virus that damages the BIOS? – Snark – 2010-02-23T15:18:03.900
@Snark - see this article http://www.tomshardware.com/news/bios-virus-rootkit-security-backdoor,7400.html
– metal gear solid – 2010-02-23T15:24:56.1001"Once an attacker has admin rights, the rootkit could be flashed onto the BIOS [...]" -- When this article says acquiring 'admin rights', it's not talking about Windows administrator. It's talking about master control of the CPU. No application has master control - that is reserved for the OS only, and for certain uses following strict security protocol. The only way to get around that is to exploit a security fault in Windows to bypass the OS. If you write a program that manipulates the BIOS, it's a virus, hands down. And I believe it can only flash (reinstall) the BIOS, not edit settings. – JMTyler – 2010-02-23T15:49:16.493
2The virus can flash a new BIOS, but settings cannot be modified without a restart. I would guess this is because the CMOS holds the BIOS software, but I think that the BIOS settings are stored elsewhere on the motherboard because the BIOS battery holds those settings, and if the battery goes dead, your settings are lost but the CMOS remains. – Chris – 2010-02-23T16:10:21.967
1this not true at all! utilities like "rw everything" (to say one) can work very low level... a simple "I don't know" would have sufficed. – Zibri – 2016-08-30T00:00:44.873
11
There was some efforts in that direction years ago, like the Award BIOS Editor.
Awdbedit is a BIOS editor for Award BIOSes. It supports unpacking, replacing, and repacking of components within a BIOS image, and allows settings to be changed and tweaks to be applied to the actual BIOS itself.
Such programs are usually made for a specific brand of BIOS chip. Furthermore, as pointed out in other answers, it's more and more difficult, or even impossible to access the BIOS from the OS. It can also be a cause of instability.
Snark
Posted 2010-02-23T14:00:46.187
Reputation: 30 147
3
No ( the shortest answer ever :)
Rook
Posted 2010-02-23T14:00:46.187
Reputation: 21 622
1and the wrongest – Zibri – 2016-08-30T00:01:23.967
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In theory YES. It is possible to read write anything from VB NET or any other high level language using Ring0. You can find a Visual C# library, for example that uses Ring0 to access even the Embedded Controller memory or PCI or IO or SuperIO ports. You can have a look here https://github.com/cody82/open-hardware-monitor
If you need a ready to use program you can invoke from vb net, then RW Everything is a very useful utility.
Zibri
Posted 2010-02-23T14:00:46.187
Reputation: 191
What motherboard do you have? – Michael Todd – 2010-02-23T14:02:51.393
@Michael Todd - MSI - K8MMV – metal gear solid – 2010-02-23T14:06:22.183
Why not just reboot and set it in the BIOS as normal? You will have to reboot anyway for the boot order setting to have any effect... – sblair – 2010-02-23T15:14:36.810
Suppose I want to do it remotely? Suppose I want to do it programatically? Suppose I want to look at a document of instructions? – Jay Bazuzi – 2010-02-23T16:13:16.997
You cannot imagine how I hated it when I found out that the only way to change the BIOS settings of one very old Toshiba laptop was through a custom Windows-only control panel... (I did discover the "normal" setup screen later, by mashing on the keyboard during POST.) – user1686 – 2010-02-23T19:52:34.650