[HOW-TO] Change hidden BIOS settings without unlock request and without flashing

[Falco.]

Before asking for any BIOS unlock in this Forum, you are maybe interested in a way to do your modifications without a modded BIOS.
Since unlocking requests could take some time because you are asking for free labor.
Or because the flash process is a bit too complicated
Or because you don't even know if the modded BIOS has the options you need

With an unlock request, you basically ask somebody to alter the BIOS setup layout conditions to be removed or altered. But when flashing the result, you don't just flash the setup ui, you flash any important binary of your firmware. That could be a security risk and that is why manufactures sometimes made it difficult to flash a new firmware

There is a way to avoid all of this:
It is possible to access and write variables used by the BIOS Setup manually outside the BIOS Setup UI without any modification to it.

Download your BIOS to extract the hidden options

better use a BIOS dump instead of BIOS images from the manufacture to be really sure that you are working with the correct one

Phoenix BIOS Dump - Windows manual:

1. Identify your BIOS Intel Me Version, for Example with HWiNFO: Motherboard ⇾ Intel ME
   
2. Download the matching Intel ME System Tools package to get FPTW64.exe (there are no official links, you need to search for somebody who did upload it somewhere)
   
3. Execute FPTW64.exe on CMD to read which arguments to use for dumping your BIOS
   

Find out if your BIOS contains hidden options you are looking for

Open your rom in UEFITool. Press CTRL + F and perform a Text search for any known BIOS setting name. Double-click the reference to the section at the bottom, right-click the section (usually under Setup) and press Extract as is....

Get IFRExtractor. Download IFR-Formatter.js from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Boring...rmatter.js via "Save as..." and get NodeJS.
Execute the extractor and formatter script

Code:

ifrextractor.exe mb_bios\Section_PE32_image_Setup_Setup.sct verbose
node.exe IFR-Formatter.js mb_bios\Section_PE32_image_Setup_Setup.sct.0.0.en-US.ifr.txt

In the formatted file you find every hidden setting available in your BIOS and where these values are stored in UEFI Variable Store.

Learn how to read and write UEFI BIOS Variables without an unlocked BIOS

Follow this lovely README how to find hidden settings, how to extract the current value and how to write new values into it without needing to modify your BIOS.