About Boot Priority

The ability to control how and from which device a computer starts is a fundamental aspect of system administration and software deployment. Whether performing system recovery, running diagnostic tools, or launching a bootable utility such as Active@ LiveCD, understanding and correctly configuring the boot process is essential.

Modern computers support two primary firmware interfaces for managing the boot process: the traditional BIOS (Basic Input Output System) and the more modern UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Both serve the same core purpose — initializing hardware components and handing control over to the operating system or bootable media — but differ in their capabilities and security features. UEFI offers faster boot times, support for larger storage devices, and an enhanced security feature known as Secure Boot, which prevents unauthorized software from loading during startup.

This section describes how to configure boot priority settings in both BIOS and UEFI environments to ensure that your system correctly boots from the intended device, such as a USB drive, CD-ROM, or external storage medium.