What is the correct BIOS "Boot Sequence" for smooth operation of a Dell laptop?

Whilst Clean-Installing W11 onto my Dell laptop recently I had to alter the "Boot Sequence" in the BIOS, as seen in the picture here:



i.e., the USB-device I was installing from had to be moved to the top of the "Boot Sequence" list. I'm pretty sure I ended up moving around some of the "Sequence" items that are listed in that picture also. My question is: what is the correct order of the "Sequence" items seen in the picture to ensure smooth running of my computer?

Also, I now have two "Windows Boot Manager" "Sequence" items, as the picture shows. Is this a problem? Perhaps the extra one was created during the re-installation process; I did actually Factory-Reset (twice, actually), rather than Clean-Installing, during this whole re-installation process--does this extra "Windows Boot Manager" "Sequence" item have something to do with that?

You did not have to alter your boot sequence. You could have hit f12 when you saw the Dell logo and it would have taken you to a boot menu where you could have chosen to boot from your Windows installation media usb device. It will be designated as a UEFI boot device in the boot menu....something like Lexar usb uefi, Sandisk Cruzer usb uefi... or something similar.

@glasskuter Oh. But do you know anything else that could answer my question in the OP though?

Hi,
Default would be boot manger
Not sure why you have two but optimize default after removing the installation media should sort out the menu list.

External USB devices are ephemeral and typically don't always hold their position in the boot order which is why it's simply a better idea to use the firmware key designated for 'boot menu' this will vary between hardware manufacturers and sometimes (less likely) between models.

UEFI can detect boot firmware across all your devices and is likely picking one up from the system disk as well as your USB (it has one to boot to the install, confusingly with the same name)

You can confirm after install that you only have a single boot entry with the bcdedit /enum command from an elevated terminal

@neemobeer To be clear, this image was taken when there was no USB-Drive connected to the laptop.

ThrashZone said:

Hi,
Default would be boot manger
Not sure why you have two but optimize default after removing the installation media should sort out the menu list.

Click to expand...

Sure, I presumed "Windows Boot Manager" should be at the top. It's the other two I'm not sure about. To be clear, this image was taken when there was no USB-Drive connected to the laptop.

Could you just explain what you meant by "optimize default" please?

Your BCD is corrupted and contains multiple Boot Devices.
To delete Boot Device(s) that is no longer existed,
Download a portable copy of Disk Genius, extract to desktop then run DiskGenius.exe.
From menu, click on Tools->Set UEFI Bios Boot entries
You should get a screen similar to this:

Select each Item that's no longer existed then delete it.

@Topgundcp Thank you so much! Just to be clear: should I erase "Boot0007" or "Boot0005" in the list outlined in orange in the attached image, or does it not matter which?

Also, could you tell me, does it matter which order the other two items in that same list are arranged in?

Finally, just to be clear, I've displayed the Partition drop-down list, outlined in purple; Partition "0" was selected by default, so I guess I just don't touch that.

Boot007 indicates on the purple box HD0 (Disk0) was used to boot Windows from so just delete the other.