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Boot from a USB Drive or an Optical Drive using Windows 10

Reading Time: 2 min

Tags:  Windows

If your Windows 10 computer has a UEFI motherboard, it is possible to choose a different device to boot to, from inside Windows. You no longer need to remember some special keystroke which varied from the motherboard to motherboard and press it just at the right time while your PC is booting.

warning: This feature will not be available if you are booting in legacy BIOS mode, even if your board supports UEFI.

Changing Boot Order Permanently

This article is about how to boot to a different device on the fly. If you want to change the device boot order permanently, you have to consult your motherboard’s documentation. Windows can help you in this task by providing easy access to UEFI firmware settings; please see Access UEFI firmware settings in Windows 10 for more details. But what you need to do next after accessing UEFI firmware settings, depends on the model of firmware your motherboard is using.

Step1. Accessing the Boot Options Menu

To change the boot order, you need to first access the Boot Options Menu. There are multiple ways to do this; the easiest is probably to SHIFT+CLICK on the restart item from the Shutdown menu.

Shift-click on Shutdown Menu

The Shutdown Menu appears in multiple places in Windows, the SHIFT+CLICK option works in all these places.

tip: If you want to know more about the Boot Options Menu, including some of the other ways of accessing it, please visit How to access the Boot Options Menu in Windows 10.

Step 2. Using the Boot Options Menu to boot to a different device

Once you have successfully opened the Boot Options Menu, follow these steps. In the first screen titled Choose an option, choose Use a device.

Boot Options Menu main screen with Choose Device Options Highlighted

Next, choose the device from which you want to boot.

The Boot Options Menu: Choosing a device to boot from

The computer will restart and boot into the chosen device.

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