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Comment by comex | Hacker News Reader

As the article (clearly) says, since USB is not set up fast enough to recognize a keyboard before the bootloader has handed control to the OS, there's no way to interrupt boot to do so; Windows will let you reboot to another OS, but only after you click through a license agreement.

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Surely a physically present user (mentioned by the requirement of point 18) can disconnect the boot device in order to prevent Windows from booting. The firmware then has ample time to set up USB and allow the user to enter firmware setup.

Alternatively, as a workaround, find someone who has already accepted said agreement elsewhere and have them accept it on your device, disable secure boot and wipe the boot device.

Not if the default is to boot from an SSD soldered onto the mainboard, or tucked away in a device that is not designed to be opened.

> a physically present user (mentioned by the requirement of point 18) can disconnect the boot device in order to prevent Windows from booting.

I believe that would void most warranties.

In the case of a general purpose computer, I'm willing to bet you'd be wrong. We're not talking about a Surface tablet here.

Have you looked at an Ultrabook? Getting at the hard drive involves disassembling the entire machine, something that's almost impossible to do without either specialised tools or a willingness to inflict some amount of cosmetic damage.

Honestly, no I didn't think about that, but I would say that you might be starting to leave the realm of general there.

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