How To Change Boot Order On Your Computer

When you power on your computer, the CPU executes the firmware, which performs a hardware test (POST) and eventually checks the boot entries and their order. This boot order determines which devices or boot loaders are checked first.

Occasionally, you might need to change the default boot order to boot from an installation media or after adding a new storage drive. Or you might have a dual-boot setup, and you want to set one of the operating systems as the default.

The scenarios are different, but the goal in all of them is the same; to change the boot order as required. We’ll cover the steps to do this on Windows in this article.

How to Change Boot Order on Windows?

When booting, you can press the Boot Options key indicated on the screen and select the device to boot from for that specific session. But this is a one-time thing.

Upon rebooting, the system will revert back to the default boot order and boot from the same device/loader that it used to before. To change the boot order, here’s what you should do instead:

Power on your PC and repeatedly press the BIOS Setup key shown on the screen (Function keys or Del).
In Easy Mode, the Boot Priority options should be easy to find. In Advanced Mode, go to the Boot tab first, then check the Boot Option priorities.
Depending on your system, you’ll see different options here.
- SATA HDD / M.2 SSD: An option like this indicates your internal HDD or SSD. It might also be named UEFI HDD, M.2 SSD, or something similar. In our case, the exact option is named SATA3_4: SanDisk SSD PLUS 240 GB.
- OS Boot Manager: This option indicates a specific boot manager on a certain storage drive. In our case, it’s named Windows Boot Manager (SATA3_4: SanDisk SSD PLUS). In a single-boot system like ours, you can select this or the SSD option from above. Both will boot Windows from the SanDisk SSD.
  But let’s say you have a Ubuntu dual-boot. Another option named Ubuntu will also be on the list. In this case, you shouldn’t select the SSD option. You should place Windows (Windows Boot Manager) or Ubuntu (GNU GRUB) specifically at the top of the priority list.
- USB Flash Drive/HDD: An option like this indicates storage devices like USB sticks or external HDDs connected via USB ports.
- CD/DVD ROM Drive: Pretty self-explanatory but not commonly used these days.
- Network/Onboard NIC: Used for network booting. Also, remember to toggle on the Network Booting option from the Boot tab if you plan to select this.
- These were the mainly used boot options, but you may only see some of them depending on the system.
- Some options can have hard-to-understand names (e.g., IBA CL Slot, used for Network Booting). In such cases, it’s best to look up the option online or check the manual to see what it means.
Select the appropriate Boot Option and move it to the top of the list. Configure the order of the other options as required too.
Optionally, you can also configure options like Hard Drive or Network Device BBS priorities. These are basically sub-menus to the Boot Options list that lets you configure priorities in case of multiple hard drives and network boot options.
Press the button shown on the screen (usually F10) to save the changes and exit.

These were the steps to change the boot order via the BIOS. But if you have a dual-boot system and you’re only trying to change the default boot OS, you can also do this from the live Windows environment.

Press Win + R, type msconfig, and press Enter.
In the Boot tab, select the Boot Entry and click on Set as default.
Press Ok to save the changes.

Additionally, you might not find certain boot entries, like Linux entries, on the list. In such cases,

Press Win + R, type cmd, and press CTRL + Shift + Enter.
Execute the following command:
bcdedit /set "{bootmgr}" path \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

How to Fix Boot Order Keeps Resetting?

The BIOS configuration settings, including the boot order, are stored in the CMOS. When you turn off your system, the CMOS battery maintains power to the CMOS chip. If this battery is dead, the BIOS configs will keep resetting to default every time you turn off your system.

This is the reason why the boot order keeps resetting in almost all cases. You can easily fix this by replacing the CMOS battery. In some very rare scenarios, a faulty BIOS chip can also cause this problem, but that’s an exception and not the rule.

One other scenario is that you’ve set a USB storage device, like a USB stick or an external HDD, as the primary boot device, but it doesn’t work. This either happens because Fast Boot is enabled in the BIOS, or the device isn’t detected at all (likely due to a bad port).