Before it used to be Delete. Now it seems every computer is different, and usually the screen that tells that flashes too fast or the monitor did not initialize yet so you never get to see it. Why can't they just stick to delete so you don't have to always google it?
/rant of the day
Pretty sure that the history of how IBM's BIOS was legally cloned has something to do with it.
The different BIOS makers needed to be the same in the ways that were important and differentiate in other ways.
Remember: IBM used off-the-shelf components for their first PC but used a proprietary BIOS to tie it all together. Compaq had to reverse-engineer it for their portable PC but legally anyone who saw the original code could not be involved in writing the clone's code so that no copyright infringement could be inferred.
They set up two teams isolated from each other with legal monitors ensuring their isolation. One team reverse-engineered IBM's BIOS and to determine everything that a replacement had to do to be compatible and how. Only that information was allowed to be shared with the next team so that they were working from a list of specifications with no access to the original code. Any resulting similarities were purely and demonstrably coincidental so they couldn't be sued by IBM. It opened the floodgates! See? Profit-driven corporations can be good for us!
Have your hands ready for both f1 and delete. That's it.
I usually alternate del f1 del f1 repeat until find out it is f12 reach for and smack that button, of course missing the window so I have to reboot....and F2
...and ESC
...and CTRL-ESC
...and F12
...and- you get the picture.
On a PC I'm unfamiliar with I typically cycle through CTRL-ESC, ESC, DEL, F1, F2 while keeping my eyes open for messages stating something else. Very rarely do I have to reboot and try something else.
You can press the Pause/Break key during initial boot up to give it time to see what the bios is doing. Then just press enter to continue.
While they're at it, how about all case manufacturers and motherboard makers come up with a good way to plug in front panel connections, a single universal plug like a USB motherboard connection. That's still my least favorite part of building a PC.
I have heard that with Win10 fast boot you can't get to bios unless it boots to windows to select that option.
Sarc/on
How could that be a problem? Is it really true?
Jim
Sarc/off
While they're at it, how about all case manufacturers and motherboard makers come up with a good way to plug in front panel connections, a single universal plug like a USB motherboard connection. That's still my least favorite part of building a PC.
On the other side of the spectrum, there's UEFI bioses, freaking slow as hell to post. My computer at home takes about a minute to post. 5 seconds to actually boot once it finally gets to that point.
There's something wrong with your computer if it's taking that long.
That has been my experience with all UEFI motherboards. It's something I always overlook when I do a build too. Next workstation I build is probably going to be Supermicro just so I can get a normal bios and faster overall startup time. I think the problem is that UEFI is basically designed for Windows so it will have optimizations that are proprietary, so if you have another OS it's slow as hell. That's just my guess at least.