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I've inherited a Surface 2 & it's UEFI would not let me boot to any other means other than the internal drive. I've tried even booting to a USB recovery drive created within the windows installation of the device, to no avail. I've tried (hold down vol+, press power button, let go off vol+ when on UEFI) or just leaving it as is. Nothing. No prompts or anything at all, just goes on to boot Windows.

I've gathered that it is part of the firmware upgrade, as it upgraded from Windows 8 RT to Windows 8.1 RT long ago. So I've thought of deleting the UEFI partition, merging it with the windows install (C:) & then moving the physical location of C: to beginning of where the UEFI partition used to be. This will keep windows bootable & get rid of the UEFI. Then I'll worry about getting a UEFI there. One that I can prompt with (hold down vol+, press power button, let go off vol+ when on UEFI).

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The problem is, Windows RT is a poorly ported for system, before Microsoft realized it can merge the kernels for Windows RT, Windows Phone & the old Windows Mobile under Windows Mobile 10. Pretty much nobody developed a program for it & any thing else are apps that one can fetch from Microsoft Store. So I'm hard pressed to find a partition manager that can do what I'm describing above. Diskpart, the good old command line bundled with Windows, work almost, but it doesn't allow for the physical move of C: to the beginning of the UEFI partition. How am I to go with this?

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    Note that UEFI is not stored on that partition – only the Windows' bootloader is. You'll get the complete opposite result of what you were describing. Sep 14, 2019 at 6:12
  • I've actually have done something very similar. I've deleted the UEFI partition in an x86 laptop & after a few merging & readjustments, installed a clean, modified version of Windows 10.
    – Dehbop
    Sep 14, 2019 at 7:07
  • If this is an x86 machine, the problem now is really in the BIOS, whether it's locked on that UEFI partition for booting & I can't reach it. Though, I know that ARM SoCs do not have BIOS, so I've just assumed that this Surface 2 has no BIOS as well.
    – Dehbop
    Sep 14, 2019 at 7:12
  • @Dehbop Deleting the EFI partition should never be done, unless re-installing Windows, because it houses the EFI boot files (this is all it houses). Depending on when Microsoft made the change restricting all access to the EFI partition (it was either in 8.1 or 10), if it's deleted after this change was made, re-installing is the only way I'm aware of to re-create its directories/files due to its new permission structure preventing user (incl. admin) access; however, if done before this change, bootrec /fixboot will recreate its directory and file structure without re-installing.
    – JW0914
    Sep 14, 2019 at 16:03

1 Answer 1

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The Surface firmware is baked into the BIOS and is not on the disk. The UEFI partition on the disk only contains the Windows bootloader and is required of course for booting.

The UEFI firmware itself is not replaceable or modifiable by anyone else than Microsoft, as any new version needs to be signed with the digital signature of Microsoft, as also needs to be the bootloader.

An alternative solution, if you are looking to jailbreak the RT, is the tool RT Jailbreak Tool. It works by automatically running at startup, jailbreaking your Windows RT device every time it boots. It allows non-Microsoft ARM-compiled .exes to run on the desktop.

Jailbreaking allows running apps specifically tweaked and compiled for Windows RT’s ARM architecture. This includes many open-source tools, including BitTorrent clients, text editors, VNC programs, older games, and other tools.

Consult the thread Desktop apps ported to Windows RT on the XDA developers forum for a maintained list of desktop programs you can run, including common tools like 7-Zip, Notepad++, PuTTY, TightVNC, Keepass, Miranda IM, Audacity, and game engines and emulators that can run old SNES and DOS games.

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  • When I get to the Advanced Options, there is no UEFI Firmware Settings, sadly.
    – Dehbop
    Sep 14, 2019 at 7:04
  • Also, AFAIK, ARM SoCs do not have BIOS.
    – Dehbop
    Sep 14, 2019 at 7:13
  • Right, have you followed exactly these instructions? I also have a Surface and they worked once for me, but need to be followed to the letter. Try more than once, because timing is everything.
    – harrymc
    Sep 14, 2019 at 8:16
  • I have tried both methods. (1) The vol+, power button. Even tried variations of it. Maybe I try pushing both at the same time? Some ludicrous source online says you have to hold both buttons for 15 seconds. None worked.(2) Tried the option UEFI Firmware Settings from Advanced Startup. It's not there, in this Surface 2. I know what that is as I've tried booting to UEFI in my other x86 laptop in the past.
    – Dehbop
    Sep 14, 2019 at 10:15
  • Let's just say the person this device was bought from had reasons to prevent me from jailbreaking this device.
    – Dehbop
    Sep 14, 2019 at 10:18

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