what is this UEFI thing??

[dawnknight]

hi nowadays there is this UEFI thingy floating around.. for example this tutorial on how to install UEFI with windows 7:
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Help Forums

then nowadays people starting to use windows 8...so i am confused about this whole w7, w8, uefi thingy. is this uefi thing a built in feature or wad??

basically, say right now, or in any time t from now to say 5 yrs time, if i want to build a DIY desktop from scratch, and want to use w7, do i really need to install this uefi thingy?? or can i just ignore it? average joe user here so i sense i dont need the super nice features of uefi or wadever newfangled thing they come up with

also for laptop, nowadays they come bundled with w8. can i simply take out the original hdd and put in my own ssd and install my own w7 and totally skip this uefi thing?

can someone pls explain this w7 w8 uefi messy thing lol thnx in advc

 

[hwsinn]

I am not sure what is it as well. I just bought a new rig and it comes with it. Went to boot and couldnt see my SSD.

So i went back to use legacy mode and it detects my SSD. Of cos there more to UEFI but if you are a simple user you probably wont need to touch GPT as well. My asus zenbook is running UEFI+GPT partitions.

Personally, now it is still possible to escape it with legacy mode. So just play around and see where it leads you

 

[xonix]

hi nowadays there is this UEFI thingy floating around.. for example this tutorial on how to install UEFI with windows 7:
UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) - Install Windows 7 with - Windows 7 Help Forums

then nowadays people starting to use windows 8...so i am confused about this whole w7, w8, uefi thingy. is this uefi thing a built in feature or wad??

basically, say right now, or in any time t from now to say 5 yrs time, if i want to build a DIY desktop from scratch, and want to use w7, do i really need to install this uefi thingy?? or can i just ignore it? average joe user here so i sense i dont need the super nice features of uefi or wadever newfangled thing they come up with

also for laptop, nowadays they come bundled with w8. can i simply take out the original hdd and put in my own ssd and install my own w7 and totally skip this uefi thing?

can someone pls explain this w7 w8 uefi messy thing lol thnx in advc

Reading material:

What is the difference in "Boot with BIOS" and "Boot with UEFI" - Super User
The 30-year-long Reign of BIOS is Over: Why UEFI W... - Input Output