Patent ID: 7996570

Claim:
In a personal computing system that includes a basic input-output system (BIOS), a computer-implemented method for registering a hot key sequence at a firmware level, comprising: publishing a hot key protocol that provides a first function for registering at least one hot key sequence at the firmware level within the personal computing system and that provides at least a second function for unregistering the at least one hot key sequence at the firmware level, wherein the first and second functions are callable by an extensible firmware interface (EFI) application to register or unregister the hot key sequence in a hot key lookup table located in a keyboard driver, wherein the keyboard driver is separate from the BIOS; receiving from the EFI application at least one request to register a hot key sequence, the request to register the hot key sequence having a key number and a function pointer to a hot key function associated with the hot key sequence within the hot key lookup table; sending the request to register the hot key sequence to the keyboard driver; and responding to activation of the hot key sequence during a boot-up of the computing system by performing the function associated with the hot key sequence.