Not only can you use the VBIOS with the mouse and keyboard, but if your system supports it, it's also touchscreen-enabled. I've broken down the differences into their major categories for a quick overview below. At this point in our demonstration from Intel, questions rapidly arose: “OK, so what's the big deal? Aren't those the same menu items that have been in BIOS for quite some time?” Switching between 'Classic mode' and 'Advanced mode' showed the dichotomy between VBIOS and old-skool BIOS. 'Advanced mode' changes your tab line-up from Processor, Graphics, and Memory Overclocking Assistants to a more robust line, spotlighting Main, Devices & Peripherals, Cooling, Performance, Security, Power, and Boot. 'Basic' is just that - make your changes, move the convenient slider bars to the desired clock speeds, save your settings, exit. There are three modes for the BIOS on Intel's latest line of Z77 boards: Basic, Advanced, and Classic.

A quick tour of Intel's Visual BIOS Features They're nothing new, so what you need to know is what Intel is offering that the other UEFI guys don't have or don't currently do. MSI has one, so does Gigabyte, ASRock was one of the first to launch one, and of course, ASUS has a full-featured version as well. Sure, you've seen a mouse-enabled BIOS before. Navigating the BIOS of an enthusiast-level motherboard, likely loaded with features, can feel akin to stumbling through a Halloween corn maze. The feature we're focused on here is the new Visual BIOS, though you can read about all of Intel's latest advancements in our Intel PAX East 2012 overview article. After looking at the new Z77-based motherboard line and its plethora of features, we found ourselves agreeing.

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