Can C++ be used for hardware-level programming?

[SnapCrakllPop]

I mean, can I...
-Make a program that can run BEFORE Windows loads?
-Make that program run checks on the hardware and return the results?

Or is that strictly ASM?

[firedraco]

I'm pretty sure that's ASM...although I could be wrong.

[exception]

You can write an OS kernel and any device driver in C++ (although you will require some assembler code as well, of course, but it can be encapsulated). Of course, for the former, you don't have the run-time environment...

-Make a program that can run BEFORE Windows loads?

GRUB is written in C [except the MBR and a tiny loader, and that requires assembler, since you must control the physical layout of the binary file], but you could re-write it to use C++ as well...