How to find BIOS version on computer

Need to find or identify the current BIOS version on your laptop or desktop computer? The BIOS is the firmware software that comes installed on your PC default and that detects and controls the built-in hardware, such as the hard drive, video card, floppy drive, etc.

It’s usually a good idea to update the BIOS on your computer for more options and better performance. Updating the BIOS will allow the host operating system (Windows, etc) to fully utilize all of the hardware features of the computer, i.e. hibernate, standby, sleep mode, wake-on-lan, etc.

So how do you go about figuring out if you need to update the BIOS on your computer? Well first you’ll need to figure out the current version of the BIOS. There are a couple of ways to do this.

1. System Information

Click on Start, choose Run and type in winmsd. This will bring up the Windows System information dialog box.

In the System Summary section, you should see an item called BIOS Version/Date. Now you know the current version of your BIOS.

2. BIOS Version in Registry

Just about everything in Windows is stored in the Registry and the version of the BIOS is no exception! Go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWAR\EDESCRIPTION\System

And you’ll see several keys related to the BIOS, including SystemBiosDate, SystemBiosVersion, VideoBiosDate, and VideoBiosVersion.

3. Reboot Computer

Another method to determine the BIOS version on your computer is to simply restart the computer! Most computers, including Dell, show you the BIOS version number when the computer first boots up.

You can also usually enter Setup by pressing F12 for Dell computers and check the BIOS version there also. Other computer manufacturers may have a different key to enter setup.

4. Use third party software

If none of the above methods worked for detecting your computers’ BIOS version, you can download and install a third party system information program, like Everest. This free program will give you loads of information about your computer hardware, software, etc including the BIOS version.

That’s it! I can’t think of any other way to find the BIOS on your computer! Now go to your computer manufacturers web site, like support.dell.com, and search for drivers and updates to your particular model. If you see a newer version on the site, simply download it and run the program to update your BIOS! Enjoy!