Firmware Windows Engineering Guide (WEG)

2023-03-23

The Firmware Windows Engineering Guide (WEG) provides a roadmap to follow through in implementing system firmware-related best practices.

In this section

Firmware update

Wi-Fi support in firmware

Switch from legacy MBR disk to GPT disk with Windows 10

Firmware WEG FAQ

Configure system firmware for Windows 7 and later update for Windows 10

Sample PowerShell script to query SMBIOS locally

Firmware WEG terminology

The following terms are used throughout the Firmware WEG:

ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
ACHI - Advanced Configuration Host Interface
BCD - Boot Configuration Data
BIOS - Basic Input/output System
CSM - Compatibility Support Module
EFI - Extensible Firmware Interface
eMMC - embedded Multi-Media Controller
ESRT – EFI System Resource Table
FFU - Full Flash Update
GPT - GUID Partition Table
GUID – Globally Unique Identification
HDD - Hard Disk Drive
HSTI / HSTS – Hardware Security Testability Interface / Specification
HVCI - HyperVisor Code Integrity
IOMMU - Input–output memory management unit
INT10 - BIOS interrupt call used for video basic display
MAT – Memory Attributes Table
MADT - Multiple APIC Description Table
MBR - Master Boot Record
MOR – Memory Overwrite Request
NVRAM - Non Volatile Random Access Memory
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer/Manufacturing
PCIe - Peripheral Component Interconnect express
RPMC – Replay Protected Monotonic Counter
SMBIOS – System Management Basic Input Output System
SoC - System on Chip
SPI - Serial Peripheral Interface
SSD - Solid State Drive
TCG - Trusted Computing Group
TPM – Trusted Platform Module
UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
WAET - Windows ACPI EmulatedDevices Table
WDDM - Windows Display Driver Model
WEG – Windows Engineering Guide
WHQL - Windows Hardware Quality Lab
WinPE- Windows Pre-installation Environment
WinRE - Windows Recovery Environment
WPBT - Windows Platform Binary Table
WSMT - Windows SMM Security Mitigations Table