Oem Tool That Will Convert the Firmware From Bios to Uefi
I’ve previously written a post on this topic, demonstrating a custom method that could exist used earlier ConfigMgr had native support for the BIOS to UEFI conversion. All the same, that postal service should at present exist deemed obsolete (or until you’ve upgraded your environment to ConfigMgr Current Branch version 1610). In social club to be able to take advantage of many of the security improvements witih Windows 10, running your systems in UEFI mode instead of BIOS (as well referred to as Legacy) is a requirement.
As for this topic, I decided to separate it up in separated parts as where this introduction covers the changes made in ConfigMgr 1610 and how it can be leveraged in general, and the upcoming parts will go into details per manufacturer:
- Convert from BIOS to UEFI during Windows 10 deployments with ConfigMgr Electric current Branch – Introduction
- Convert from BIOS to UEFI on Dell systems with ConfigMgr Current Branch – Role 1
- Convert from BIOS to UEFI on HP systems with ConfigMgr Current Branch – Part two
- Catechumen from BIOS to UEFI on Lenovo systems with ConfigMgr Electric current Branch – Part iii
Native support for BIOS to UEFI conversion
With the release of ConfigMgr 1610, we can at present in a native way perform a BIOS to UEFI conversion during a Windows 10 deployment (bare metal or refresh, not supported for in-place upgrade). In the past, the problem that many encountered past attempting to make the switch, not only that it requires a difficult disk table layout change from MBR to GPT (which requires a consummate format and re-partitioning), was that when the task sequence engine attempting to phase the Windows Pre-installation Environment (WinPE) as it was about to restart, it would not do then properly. When the system came back up after the restart, it failed to kick into WinPE and the task sequence broke.
What’s improved with 1610, is the fact that the task sequence engine tin now set up the system for a restart between BIOS and UEFI. This allow us to continue the task sequence afterward the restart, and non have to perform whatever potentially unsupported modification of built-in task sequence variables or re-starting the sequence all over (similar I did in my previous custom solution). What happens behind the scenes is that the reboot lawmaking in the chore sequence engine will ready a boot system for UEFI, and completely ignore the current firmware mode (BIOS) which was how it worked in the by for version prior to ConfigMgr 1610. In society to circumvent issues where the engine might not find whatever suitable drive for the UEFI boot organisation, yous configure the exact disk and partition that should be prepared by pointing out a FAT32 partition (with GPT) and assign that partition a variable that allows for the reboot code to prepare the boot arrangement properly for a BIOS to UEFI switch and restart.
It’due south of import to mention that this conversion procedure that’southward now natively supported in ConfigMgr Current Branch, does not handle the unlike OEM conversion steps that’southward required. Yous’ll still accept to add together those into your task sequence for the conversion to take identify.
Job Sequence configuration
Since this post is well-nigh the improvements and general configuration of how this tin be implemented (see Office 1-three for specific configuration per manufacturer), what’s shown beneath should non be seen as the explicit configuration for your specific needs. It’s more than of a general overview of the steps required and that you need to exist aware of when implementing them into your task sequence intended for deploying Windows ten, and dealing with the conversion from BIOS to UEFI.
BIOS to UEFI Conversion
Restart in WinPE
Type | Restart Figurer | ![]() |
Option | The boot paradigm assigned to this job sequence | |
Condition |
Task Sequence Variable: _SMSTSInWinPE equals FALSE |
OEM Conversion
Format and Partition Disk
Restart Computer
MDT Integration
Upwardly until now, we’ve gone through how to identify the dissimilar steps and configure them for a native ConfigMgr job sequence. However, at that place’south a high usage of the MDT integrated task sequence out in that location, then below is a suggestion for how you could potentially add together the BIOS to UEFI conversion in your MDT integrated chore sequence, to support both the New Computer and Refresh scenarios.
Summary
I’d suggest that you test out what works in your specific environment and task sequence in terms of what steps are required in what order. No task sequence is similar some other, and then information technology’s important that you properly test and validate the required steps necessary for a successful BIOS to UEFI conversion. In the upcoming weblog posts I’ll cover how y’all can configure the conversion on a more detailed level per manufacturer, starting with Dell.
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