View or Document CMOS or BIOS Settings On a Running Computer

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I understand how to enter the CMOS settings and change them while my computer is booting.

I want to know if any of the MS operating systems allow a user to create a file that documents all of the CMOS settings at a given time. Alternatively, I’m interested if anyone has written a utility that will do this.

Clearly it would be useful to document where I’m starting from before I get in over my head. Such a document would be very useful when replying to experts questions in a forum thread.

The only way I know how to do that now is to snap digital photographs of my monitor as I scroll through the setup selecting each item in turn. Just to be clear, I realize it would probably be disastrous to be able to make adjustments while a machine is fully booted to the OS. I just want a record of the settings as they are in the moment.

I tried searching for this but could not find Google terms that didn’t give 0 answers or way too many answers to scroll through. Do more experienced users know if it is possible or if not, why it is impossible?

Thanks,

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I don’t believe what you are asking for exists. I agree it would be useful.

Jerry

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There are new computers running UEFI, that allow checking and changing system settings from within Windows. I can do that on my Toshiba u920t.

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Hey Y’all,

This is doable as I used to have code that I wrote in C, as a learning exercise, that would pull about 90% of the information from the BIOS of a PC-XT or PC-AT. Yes that was quite a while ago and I don’t seem to be able to lay my hands on the code (at least it’s not on my laptop and that’s all I have available at the moment). There is also this CMOS Backup/Restore program that accomplishes this trick to do it’s magic. I used to use this utility constantly in my younger days when the batteries keeping the data in the CMOS weren’t so reliable. HTH :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Back when printers did not require Windows to operate, you could press Shift-PrintSCr on each main setup screen and you would have a hard copy of the current setup. Alas, that isn’t possible with most of today’s printers.

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Many BIOS’ allow you to save the settings (for mass deployment to identical devices). I don’t know about its current range but for many years Toshiba laptops included a Windows utility to make changes to the BIOS so, as RetiredGeek says, it’s most definitely do-able.

Hope this helps…

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