Changing The Boot Order... Possible?

[newbieg]

I've got a laptop with a broken screen, but it is still useable when I plug it to a TV screen. My problem is that I now want to change my boot order in the system BIOS, but the TV screen doesn't show anything until Windows is loaded.
I have no idea what my current boot order is except that it appears to load from hard drive before anything else.
So I've got two similar questions; Is there any API command that could tell me information about the BIOS setup (I could at least fumble through if I knew what position the USB boot is at), and can I make a program in windows that is capable of making changes to BIOS?

My first guess would be "no since that could be a major security leak", but I figure that I've got to ask before I go buy a new computer.

[Stewbond]

The BIOS is firmware. Older types of BIOS used to be actually printed on the motherboard. Newer BIOS will use a specific chip to be stored in non-volatile memory and can be flashed or upgraded. The memory which stores the BIOS can generally not be accessed by the OS or anything that is running once the MOBO is up and going. So I'm afraid that the answer from me is no.

This being said... Have you tried turning on the laptop and closing the lid? When I do this with one of my laptops, the DVI output is used instead of the on-board monitor by default by the BIOS.

[andywestken]

Edit: actually, if all you want to do is change the default operating system, you can get at it though the control panel.

If your computer is a multiboot configuration, you can still change which Windows operating system opens by default, and how long to display the list of operating systems, by using System in Control Panel.

- Open System by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.

- In the left pane, click Advanced system settings. Administrator permission required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

- Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.

- Under System startup, choose a default operating system and the amount of time to display the list of operating systems, and then click OK.

What happened to the boot.ini file?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/what-happened-to-the-boot-ini-file

(This was written for Windows Vista, but the same dialog is still there on my Windows 8 PC; to find it, I searched Settings for "System" and then selected "View Advanced System Settings")

Andy

PS My earlier attempt...

andywestken wrote:

If you're using Windows Vista or newer you can use the console app bcdedit.exe to examine the configuration, change the boot order, etc. (you need to run it as an administrator, of course.)

BCDEdit Command-Line Options
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc709667%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

To alter the boot order programmatically you'd need to use the BCD WMI Provider:

Boot Configuration Data WMI Provider
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb986746%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Andy

PS In the olden days (Windows XP and earlier, the boot order was controlled by boot.ini)