Alienware user manual Alienware Area-51 m5550 Technical Reference

Alienware Area-51 m5550 Technical Reference

The Setup Utility is a hardware configuration program built into your computer’s BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). It runs and maintains a variety of hardware functions. It is a menu-driven software, which allows you to easily configure and change the settings.

The BIOS contains the manufacturer’s default settings for the computer’s standard operations. However, there are occasions when you may be required to modify the default settings in the BIOS. For example, you may need to configure the BIOS power management (APM) settings if you are using DOS or a non-Windows operating system.

The BIOS allows you to set up passwords to limit access to users. This is an important feature because a great deal of vital information is carried within the computer nowadays. Unauthorized access can be prevented. Later in this chapter, you will learn how to use this security feature.

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